Crenshaw will be performing as part of The Sanctuary Concerts in Chatham, New Jersey on November 12th and at Joe's Pub in New York City on November 27th. You never know what you're going to get at a Crenshaw show these days as he not only rolls out material from throughout his catalog but isn't afraid to completely change course while on stage.
"I never make a setlist when I play solo," Crenshaw explained. "I always just think about what the first three or four songs are going to be. I played a show in Chicago last weekend where I did a set where it was an old one and then a more recent one and then an old one and a recent one. And then I started getting into some cover tunes. I wound up doing a little two or three song tribute to Doc Pomus, who is a friend of mine. Then I heard somebody say something about Eddie Cochran so I did about five Eddie Cochran songs. There's some margin of unpredictability in the whole thing, but I play stuff from most of my records."
His catalog is filled with hits everyone in the world knows and misses that could and probably should have been just as big. Songs like "Someday, Someway" and "Whenever You're On My Mind" not only established Crenshaw as an excellent songwriter but remain staples of radio stations over twenty years later. The mystery is why later songs like "This Is Easy", "Valerie", "Some Place Where Love Can't Find Me", and "Better Back Off" never reached that same level.
"I really can't say," said Crenshaw. "I have about 150 possible answers to that question and on any given day I might give one of those answers. They're all some part of the truth. Other days I just go I don't know, it just happened the way it happened."
Marshall's last record, "What's In The Bag", was released in 2003. He said he's got the bug again to start writing and recording so we might be able to see a new release next year or the year after.
"The thing is that for a couple of years we were living in a rented house because we didn't know where we wanted to live," he explained. "So I had all of my gear set up in a spare bedroom. I wasn't writing much during that time. I really need to have my little sanctuary - my space. For about ten years I had a studio space set up behind our house in Woodstock. I wrote a lot of songs in that room and did the bulk of three albums there."
"We just moved in August and I just got back from looking at the back part of a barn that's on our property that these guys just finished renovating for me. They're going to have everything cleaned out tomorrow or the next day and I'm all jazzed up about that. I kind of looked around and was trying to picture where I'd put my drums and this and that. I'm eager to use that room and to make music, so I think I should be starting up pretty soon. I've got the bug to do it. I'm brainstorming it now."
Even when he's not out supporting a new album Crenshaw still does about fifty shows a year. He no longer plays the punk rock clubs like he did in the early 80s, but prefers to play nicer places like performance arts centers. He lovingly calls it the "NPR circuit".
"I remember when I started out with my band we used to play a lot of places that were kind of punk rock type venues," recalled Crenshaw. "At some point about 12 years ago I kind of made a transition where I reached the point where I couldn't stand to be in a dressing room with busted up furniture and stupid crap written all over the walls. I mean, I never liked it but I came up with a never for those places. I called them /c,C Aurock toilets' and said I don't want to play rock toilets anymore. So, the NPR circuit is like the opposite of a rock toilet. A guy my age likes to keep his dignity! I try to be where I'm supposed to be."
One place Crenshaw never expected to be is in the middle of a 19th Century recording studio. It happened one day when he went to see They Might Be Giants record at the Edison Historic Site in West Orange, New Jersey. While he was there somebody asked him if he wanted to do a session as well.
"I was taken aback a little bit, but I couldn't say no," he said. "I really loved it. I particularly liked meeting the guys who ran the recording sessions because they were just so into it. I remember talking with the guy who was the wax cylinder recording engineer. We talked about a recording artist named Billy Murray who was a huge star back in the teens and twenties. I just loved the quaintness of it and the humor in the lyrics. It was really entertaining stuff that sounded like it came from another world. And the guy who ran the wax cyclinder recording told me he had actually bought Billy Murray's old house on Long Island. I just dug it. I have a real fascination with popular music."
And you now you can hear what music makes Marshall tick every Wednesday nights at 9pm on http://www.wkze.com. Just as with his live sets, you never know what Marshall will be spinning next, but you're bound to dig it as well.
Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.
With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.
A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.
Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].
