Band Overview

• 4 piece band
• All-female lineup
• Eclectic mix of material
• Fresh takes on works by musical storytellers from Kurt Weill to Tom Waits as well as self-penned material
• Instruments include double Bass and Accordion

About the Band

This quirky Edinburgh-based group present fresh takes on works by musical storytellers from Kurt Weill to Tom Waits as well as self-penned material. The group’s musical chemistry draws in audiences to listen, contemplate, laugh and dance their socks off all in one evening. Double bass, accordion, an array of percussive objects, an alluring voice and songs of love, loss and mischief.

Raise Your Hem take you from the 1920s cabaret genre as represented in Weill and Brecht’s Threepenny Opera to more contemporary material with a similar sentiment. Their eclectic repertoire features classics by Jacques Brel and Tom Lehrer and picks up on Yiddish theater. Both familiar and less known songs e.g. by Tom Waits and OiVaVoi are re-invented with added harmony singing and instrumental interludes. From intimate and macabre to funny, Raise Your Hem shine by not taking themselves too seriously, thus creating an atmosphere of pure enjoyment and often sillyness. Original material ranges from atmospheric to circus style and polka, with elements of audience participation and plenty of opportunity to boogie!

Where are they based?

The band are based in Edinburgh but regularly play across Scotland and the rest of the UK

Sample Set List

Jockey full of Burbon - (Tom Waits)
Tango Till They’re sore - (Tom Waits)
Perfect kind of day – (Original)
Tango Ballad – (Kurt Weil & Burtolt Brecht)
St James Infirmary– (Traditional)
Bei Mir Bist du Schoen – (Jacob Jacobs, Sholom Secunda, Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin)
Telephone call - (Tom Waits)
Red Right Hand – (Nick Cave)
Yuri – (Oi Va Voi)
Chocolate Jesus - (Tom Waits)
Aint necessarily so – (George Gershwin)
What lights this fire – (Original)
I've seen that face before : Libertango (words by N. Delon, B. Reynolds, D. Wilkey ; music by Astor Piazzolla)
Amsterdam (Jacques Brel)
Innocent when you dream – (Tom Waits)
The Saga of Jenny (Gershwin & Weill)
Sympathique – (Pink Martini)
Temptation - (Tom Waits)
Cemetry Polka - (Tom Waits)
Hold your hand – (Tom Lehrer)
Way down in the hole - (Tom Waits)
Masochism tango – (Tom Lehrer)
Joseph – (Andrews Sisters)
I’ll be gone - (Tom Waits)
You won’t survive – (Gloria Gaynor and Jed Milroy)
Bled (Amestoy Trio)