Pearl Charles books a 100-seat Monday at the Crepe Place

The Joshua Tree singer-songwriter behind "Desert Queen" plays Santa Cruz's Soquel Avenue fixture on Monday, Nov. 23.

A Monday night in Santa Cruz, a room that holds about a hundred people, and a songwriter who has spent the past year playing much bigger stages. That's the setup for Pearl Charles at the Crepe Place later this month — the kind of booking that, if you know it's coming, becomes the best thing on your week.

Pearl Charles plays the Crepe Place on Monday, Nov. 23, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20.54 through TicketWeb, where the show is billed as a folkYEAH presentation. The date was announced Oct. 23, and with a capacity of about 100, it won't take many people to sell it out.

Charles is a Joshua Tree-based singer-songwriter whose most recent album is *Desert Queen*, which a podcast interview listed for release in April 2025. The desert is more than a backdrop for her: she has talked about why she prefers life out there in a conversation with Kiley Larsen, and she has given fans a tour of her Joshua Tree home. In the UK, ASBO Magazine framed *Desert Queen* as Joshua Tree magic headed across the Atlantic.

Her 2026 has been busy on the road. Per setlist.fm, she played Webster Hall in New York in February and ran UK and European dates from late April into May, including Glasgow's Cottiers Theatre on May 9. That's the context that makes a Monday at the Crepe Place a treat: an artist who's been playing proper theaters, up close in a room the size of a living room.

It won't take many people to sell out a room this size.

The Crepe Place has been doing this for a long time. Visit Santa Cruz County's listing credits it with more than 43 years of continuous business in town, and local coverage collected by the Santa Cruz Public Libraries has called it a landmark that keeps rolling along. The library's archive also holds photos of the Crepe Place in the Cooper House after the Loma Prieta earthquake — a reminder of how far back its history in this town goes. Today it sits at 1134 Soquel Ave., a restaurant by day that turns into one of Santa Cruz's go-to stages for touring songwriters at night, with folkYEAH among the promoters who have brought shows there.

Practicalities: 7 p.m. on a Monday means you can be home at a reasonable hour, and a hundred tickets go fast once word gets around, so don't wait for the weekend before.

Santa Cruz is good at nights like this — a small room, a good songwriter, and a crowd that actually listens. Get a ticket, get there early, and get a seat.

Sources: Pearl Charles at the Crepe Place — TicketWeb (ticketmaster.evyy.net); Pearl Charles podcast episode (Desert Queen release) — Player FM (uk.player.fm); Pearl Charles on her new song, finding a songwriting soulmate, and why the desert life is best — Kiley Larsen (kileylarsen.substack.com); Pearl Charles: Take a tour of my Joshua Tree home — The Forty-Five (thefortyfive.com); Desert Queen claims the throne — ASBO Magazine (asbomagazine.com); Pearl Charles setlists & tour dates — setlist.fm (setlist.fm); The Crepe Place — Visit Santa Cruz County (santacruz.org); Crepe Place: SC landmark rolling along — Santa Cruz Public Libraries (history.santacruzpl.org); Crepe Place in the Cooper House after the Loma Prieta earthquake — Santa Cruz Public Libraries (history.santacruzpl.org); folkYEAH presents Jessica Lea Mayfield at the Crepe Place (koobit.com); Pearl Charles at Crepe Place — JamBase (jambase.com)