The band that launched the career of Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company – along with bands like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Quicksilver Messenger Service – is considered one of the original, first wave of great psychedelic bands that came out of San Francisco in the summer of 1965.

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The Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of 1967 was the first great international rock festival and it was the moment when Big Brother and its lead singer Janis Joplin blew open the collective mind of the audience and rose to the top of the Rock music hierarchy. It was also the moment in which that same audience discovered Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding and several other artists that were destined to take rock music to the next level.

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In 1968 Big Brother signed with Columbia Records and Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, etc) became their manager. They went into the recording studio and produced the album that many consider their masterpiece and one of the greatest albums of all time: ‘Cheap Thrills”.

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The album quickly rose to #1 on the charts and stayed there for eight weeks. With recognition as one of the greatest albums of all time by the Library of Congress, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Rolling Stone magazine, Big Brother and the Holding Company's album "Cheap Thrills" is an important piece of American music history.

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Featuring original members Peter Albin on bass guitar and Dave Getz on drums, Big Brother and the Holding Company will also feature Tommy Odetto, Tom Finch and singer Sophia Ramos on lead vocals.

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Born in the Bronx, New York, Sophia cut her teeth as a member of the NYC hard rock band Sophia’s Toy with a commanding, snarling stage presence. Named “Best Undiscovered Artist” by VH1, she has collaborated with the likes of Metallica’s Jason Newstead, Psychotica, and Joey Ramone, and performed as vocalist with an incredible variety of artists, including Screaming Headless Torsos, Gov’t Mule, Rod Stewart, Jennifer Hudson and Jefferson Starship.