In a performance space that felt more like an extended living room than a club, Keith Richards surveyed the crowd and flashed a sly smile. “So I have to follow Mavis Staples ,” he said of his unenviable position. Then, like Staples, Norah Jones , and Warren Hayes, he proceeded to rock the latest edition of New York’s Soho Sessions shows anyway.

A private live music event in that part of Manhattan, the Soho Sessions has become one of New York’s must-see events for the 150 or so fortunate to snag a ticket to each of its roughly 10-times-a-year shows. The fifth-floor loft space itself has an illustrious history: Once upon a rhyme, it was home to Chung King Studios, where classic old-school hip-hop albums by Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Run-DMC were recorded.

But sinc

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