Shane Smith and the Saints
A native of Terrell, Texas, Shane Smith made music a full-time pursuit after moving to Austin. A passionate musician and songwriter, Shane soon connected with Bennett Brown, along with other musicians many of whom now make up The Saints. That group includes Bennett on fiddle, Dustin Schaefer on lead guitar, Chase Satterwhite on bass, and Zach Stover on drums.With a reputation as a high-energy live act with stunning four-part harmonies, Smith follows in the footsteps of such Lone Star songsmiths as Chris Stapleton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hayes Carll, and Ryan Bingham. Their first album, Coast, was released in 2013, and two years later came Geronimo, followed by Hail Mary in 2019. “I don’t like just throwing stuff out there. If I’m going to be singing about something every night, I try to make it personal, make it something I can really relate to,” says Smith, the band’s lyricist and primary songwriter. “I like to sing with conviction, an honest conviction.”It’s with this passion, timing and intention that Shane offers up his newest studio recording, “Hummingbird.” You may have heard about Shane Smith & The Saints from a friend who saw their amazing live show, or from a playlist on your favorite streaming service. Perhaps you heard the cast of Yellowstone shout them out in Season Four or maybe you’re just hearing of them now. Whatever the case may be, we hope you enjoy this latest single!Keep checking back, there’s lots more music on the horizon. Shane Smith & The Saints are currently on tour all summer with Whiskey Myers.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Nightblooms, Charity Lane, Rodes Baby
NIGHTBLOOMS (Greensboro, NC) One of the hardest parts about having a band is describing what you sound like. It’s often easier just to reference other bands people might actually know (Elliott Smith, Weyes Blood, George Harrison, Grizzly Bear, Wilco…) than to come up with overused adjectives and round-about metaphors. I guess I could tell you that Nightblooms sounds a little like my old band Lilac Shadows but filtered through acoustic guitars, pianos, and a lot less volume. That might help, but you also might be like, “I don’t know what Lilac Shadows is.” I could say we use lots of synthesizers or that lyrically our songs are anxious as hell but pretty fun musically. But like Saul Bellow (maybe?) once said, “I’m the bird — you’re the ornithologist.” So whatever comes to mind will probably be more evocative than I can write here anyway. No matter what it sounds like to you, I just hope you enjoy it.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Soundcloud RODES BABY (Durham, NC) Rodes Baby (MK Rodenbough) has been anxiously awaiting this day for a long time. They grew up writing songs on a cheap Yamaha keyboard in their family’s basement in North Carolina, and testing them out at local coffee shops before they were old enough to drive. After several years of playing shows around the vibrant and collaborative music scene of the NC Triangle, they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019 that allowed them to record their first album. Then the pandemic hit.Suddenly needing to settle into a job that kept them on the frontline, music took a back seat. Now, nearly a year and a half later, they’re looking forward instead of sitting still. Restless and ready, they will release their debut record, All Of My Friends, on November 19th, 2021.All Of My Friends chronicles the fits and starts of early adulthood in all its bare-skinned intensity. Produced by Alex Bingham (Hiss Golden Messenger, The Dead Tongues), the album balances folk influence with 90s-esque indie rock. Rodenbough’s voice, however, transfigures the familiar into something newly poignant. All Of My Friends strikes a chord deep in the heart, creating reverberations that resonate long after the first listen. Their vision is tear-blurred, but absolute, and as colorful as the tenacious kind of imagination that makes it out of childhood alive.Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube
Phillip Phillips
It’s been 10 years since releasing his five-times-platinum debut single “Home” in spring 2012 on his debut album, The World From The Other Side of the Moon. Phillip Phillips has released two chart-topping albums and taken his expansive brand of earthy, guitar-fueled rock to stages across the globe. With his soulful vocals and ruggedly warm sensibilities, the Georgia-bred 26-year-old saw his freshman full-length effort, go platinum after debuting at #4 on the Billboard Top 200. In 2014 his second album, Behind the Light, offered up the lead anthemic folk-rock radio hit “Raging Fire.” Phillips released “Miles” in the summer of 2017 as he toured North America with the Goo Goo Dolls, as a precursor to his recent and highly anticipated third full-length, Collateral. Collateral was released January 19, 2018 and also includes the recent single, “Into The Wild” and fan favorite, “Magnetic.” The Where We Came From Tour is a look back on the 10 years of Phillip Phillips debut record as well as a look forward into new music and a new chapter leading to a special night of music for all.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Billy Prine & the Prine Time Band Present: Songs of John Prine
This is a seated show.Billy Prine is a natural-born storyteller just like his late, great brother John Prine was a natural-born songwriter. John was a great communicator of the human experience whittled down to the best words. His big, little brother, owner of a rich, booming voice yet full of subtleness, is one of the finest orators you’ll ever hear – also choosing just the right turn of phrase. During these concerts celebrating John’s life in song, Billy will tell stories about or surrounding some of John’s most beloved songs before leading his band through his version of John’s timeless masterpieces. As an example, fans will get to hear the first time John played his classic song “Paradise” for their father as the family sat around the kitchen table. Songs are stories, novellas, if you will, and stories often become songs. It is only fitting that in the course of each show during this tour, that Billy relates – as only he can – the stories that surround the songs of his dear brother John.Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook
The Brevet
Nestled in between Los Angeles and San Diego lies Orange County, CA: a culturally, economically, and environmentally diverse community with an identity all of its own. The Brevet, hailing from the heart of Orange County, continues to create an ever-evolving sound that pushes stylistic boundaries. Just as Orange County is home to snow capped mountains, pristine beaches, and bustling city centers, The Brevet’s alternative rock sound draws authentically from folk, surf, and R&B influence, but doesn’t shy away from thundering rhythms, blistering guitars and progressive synths.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Eric Sommer, Ken Stewart, Red Haired Girl
Eric Sommer does just about everything that can be done on a guitar to generate a blues groove, or any groove, for that matter. Which makes it a bit of a challenge to describe his sound, style & approach because no amount of words can communicate the explosive quality of his show. Does he use Open Tunings? Check. Slide Guitar? Check. Lap Slap? Check. Open tunings on the fly? Check. Neck bends? Check. About the only thing this guy and his guitars can’t do is make a drink, and serve it while he’s closing in on some wild hound dog lick from the night before. Not to be missed.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Mightmare
Mightmare is the solo project of River Shook, a queer non-binary writer, composer, producer, and performer, most known for fronting punk country band Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. Mightmare’s debut album Cruel Liars showcases River’s versatility as an artist, writer, and singer, leaning hard into early influences such as Elliott Smith, Interpol, Belle & Sebastian, and Blonde Redhead.Cruel Liars is a riff-centric wading in the indie rock dark pop shallows with sleek hooks and a sense of unstoppability in the face of imminent danger. Mightmare makes you feel seen, heard, and indomitable.Links: Instagram | Facebook | Spotify
Leo Kottke
This is a seated show.Acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke was born in Athens, Georgia, but left town after a year and a half. Raised in 12 different states, he absorbed a variety of musical influences as a child, flirting with both violin and trombone, before abandoning Stravinsky for the guitar at age 11.After adding a love for the country-blues of Mississippi John Hurt to the music of John Phillip Sousa and Preston Epps, Kottke joined the Navy underage, to be underwater, and eventually lost some hearing shooting at lightbulbs in the Atlantic while serving on the USS Halfbeak, a diesel submarine.Kottke had previously entered college at the U of Missouri, dropping out after a year to hitchhike across the country to South Carolina, then to New London and into the Navy, with his twelve string. “The trip was not something I enjoyed,” he has said, “I was broke and met too many interesting people.”Discharged in 1964, he settled in the Twin Cities area and became a fixture at Minneapolis’ Scholar Coffeehouse, which had been home to Bob Dylan and John Koerner. He issued his 1968 recording debut LP Twelve String Blues, recorded on a Viking quarter-inch tape recorder, for the Scholar’s tiny Oblivion label. (The label released one other LP by The Langston Hughes Memorial Eclectic Jazz Band.)After sending tapes to guitarist John Fahey, Kottke was signed to Fahey’s Takoma label, releasing what has come to be called the Armadillo record. Fahey and his manager Denny Bruce soon secured a production deal for Kottke with Capitol Records.Kottke’s 1971 major-label debut, “Mudlark,” positioned him somewhat uneasily in the singer/songwriter vein, despite his own wishes to remain an instrumental performer. Still, despite arguments with label heads as well as with Bruce, Kottke flourished during his tenure on Capitol, as records like 1972’s “Greenhouse” and 1973’s live “My Feet Are Smiling” and “Ice Water” found him branching out with guest musicians and honing his guitar technique.With 1975’s Chewing Pine, Kottke reached the U.S. Top 30 for the second time; he also gained an international following thanks to his continuing tours in Europe and Australia.His collaboration with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, “Clone,” caught audiences’ attention in 2002. Kottke and Gordon followed with a recording in the Bahamas called “Sixty Six Steps,” produced by Leo’s old friend and Prince producer David Z.Kottke has been awarded two Grammy nominations; a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the U of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College.
Blue Cup Riot
Forged in the chaos of pandemic lockdowns and virus variants, Blue Cup Riot brings classic and newer rock favorites to local venues throughout the Triangle. The band is an eclectic mix of seasoned east and west coast musicians, featuring vocalist Daryl Lubinsky, vocalist/keyboardist Peter Todd, guitarists Tim Rath and Joe Sanguedolce, drummer Adam Schoenfeld, and bassist Todd LoFrese. This arsenal of talented and passionate musicians incites a riotous combo of breathtaking harmonies and blistering guitar solos, as they deliver your favorite feel-good classics. Links: Website | Facebook
The Deer
The Deer have built a devoted audience for their uninhibited, cosmic indie folk the old fashioned way: playing their hearts out, night after night. The band formed in the college town of San Marcos, Texas; half an hour south of Austin, where the members attended Texas State University and where singer/co-songwriter Grace Rowland lived on a farm. They cultivated a fervent presence in Texas Hill Country, playing the likes of Kerrville Folk Festival and Old Settler’s Music Festival, and collaborating often with local staples like Bayonne’s Roger Sellers, players from Asleep at the Wheel, and fellow festival act Elephant Revival. The Deer expanded to the national stage with extensive headlining and support slots for Big Thief and The Head and The Heart. Their label debut Do No Harm, released in 2019, marked a set of career breakthroughs, topping the KUTX chart and earning a nomination for the Austin Music Awards’ Album of the Year. When live music took global pause, The Deer had momentum to sort. The five musicians took the energy historically reserved for tour into the studio, a pressure cooker not only for creativity, but newly, for existential contemplation. The result is two full albums, the first of which, The Beautiful Undead, will be released September 9, 2022 on tastemaking indie label Keeled Scales. It’s a rollicking collection reflecting upon what it means to lose your sense of purpose. The Deer, amidst turbulent assessment, transformed a paralyzing void into an empowering surrender of ego—an exuberant submission to the immense unpredictability of existing.Throughout the album, The Deer maintain the modern folk flutter and Mazzy Star melodiousness they’re known for, but infuse those delicate bones with emotional tension, and indulge a new sonic edge. Enlivened by multi-dimensional instrumentation—synths, fiddle, mandolin, electric and acoustic guitars, slide guitar, piano, upright bass, and even mellotron populate the record—The Deer’s full arrangements shift their sound to an impressive pocket between Fleetwood Mac and Big Thief. The Beautiful Undead is luminous, boisterous, and invigorating; a free-spirited album fueled by hard-earned revelation. On lead single “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me,” lyricist and frontwoman Grace Rowland writes to a younger self. She shares, “If I could go back and give my younger self some advice, she may not even realize it’s her. But I would tell her to care for herself like she does for the world, to take a stand for what she believes in, and to be ready for it all to change.” The song’s vibrantmelody and commanding lyrics (All in all is falling upon us) accept the endlessness of change and evoke an energized readiness for it. Says Rowland, “The self is a collective of different versions of the same person, and it will always be up to that little girl – and every person she decides to be at every time in her life – to set her future self up for success, and to be kind to and forgive her past self.”Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
