This ticket will cover your Sunday: chill and experimental sounds from around the country with some extraordinary singer/songwriters to boot! You’ll be floating home…
With 25 years of Califone in his catalog (not to mention a variety of other projects, including alt rock heroes Red Red Meat), the Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based Tim Rutili knows well how to find that moment of awe and bliss even as things are falling apart. Part poet, part abstract painter, and always surrounded by a variety of hyper-talented collaborators (here including longtime cohorts Ben Massarella, Michael Krassner, Rachel Blumberg, and Brian Deck, as well as the likes of Nora O'Connor and Finom's Macie Stewart), Rutili has always excelled at luring listeners through elusive lyrics, flashes of shadows and images coming together in disarming unity.
Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones continues to conjure bold improvisations, pushing the boundaries of jazz and electronic forms. Percussion, soprano sax, synths, harmonium, bass, cello, and Kidambi’s astonishing vocals center these compositions on topics of anti-colonialism, the rise of global fascism, violence against Asian Americans, of continuing inequalities in the growing shadow of late stage capitalism. Not just a lament, but an explosive call to action, and ode to those struggling for racial and labor justice. Building on the incendiary spiritual and political free jazz compositions on their acclaimed albums Holy Science (2016) and From Untruth (2019) released on Northern Spy, the band’s third album will be released in Spring 2024 on We Jazz (EU).
Elder Ones features a wealth of talented NYC musicians with Jason Nazary on the drums, Alfredo Colon on tenor saxophone, Matt Nelson on soprano saxophone and Lester St. Louis on the bass, shared among some of the most innovative bands in creative music including Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, William Parker’s Sutras Ensemble, Battle Trance, GRID, Metropolis Ensemble, Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, Anteloper, and more.
Joan Shelley is a songwriter and singer who lives near Louisville, Ky., not far from where she grew up. She draws inspiration from traditional and traditionally-minded performers from her native Kentucky, as well as those from Ireland, Scotland, and England, but she’s not a folksinger. Her disposition aligns more closely with that of, say, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton, or her fellow Kentuckian Tom T. Hall, who once explained—simply, succinctly, in a song—“I Witness Life.”
She’s not so much a confessional songwriter, and she sings less of her life and more of her place: of landscapes and watercourses; of flora and fauna; of seasons changing and years departing and the ineluctable attempt of humans to make some small sense of all—or, at best, some—of it. Her perspective and performances both have been described, apparently positively, as “pure,” but there’s no trace of the Pollyanna and there’s little of the pastoral, either: her work instead wrestles with the possibility of reconciling, if only for a moment, the perceived “natural” world with its reflection—sometimes, relatively speaking, clear; other times hopelessly distorted—in the human heart, mind, and footprint.
Since the 2015 release of her album Over and Even, Shelley has crossed the country and toured Europe several times as a headlining artist, typically with guitarist Nathan Salsburg, and sharing shows with the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Other Years, and Michael Hurley. She has opened for Wilco, Chris Smither, Patty Griffin, Andrew Bird and Richard Thompson and has appeared as a guest on WTF with Marc Maron, Fresh Air and Later… with Jools Holland.
Sam Moss is a songwriter and instrumentalist based in Virginia. His next LP, Swimming, will be released on February 7th, 2025. Past albums have been acclaimed by publications like The Boston Globe, NPR, The Wire, and Paste. He has played hundreds of shows around the country and shared bills with Jake Xerxes Fussell, Joan Shelley, Diane Cluck, Doug Paisley, and others. He is also a woodworker.
Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, violinist and singer-songwriter Aisha Burns began playing violin when she was 10 years old. Soon after moving to Austin in 2005, she gained her start with a Texas folk-rock band, began touring and recording, and later joined the instrumental ensemble Balmorhea on violin in 2007. After years of secret singing, she released her solo debut Life in the Midwater in 2013. Called "twisting, ethereal...arresting" by Dazed Magazine, and praised for its "delicate intimacy" by NPR, Life in the Midwater explored mortality and relationships with candor and wisdom.
Her newest album Argonauta, is a collection of songs about her struggle with the grief of losing her mother, while also navigating a new relationship, and ultimately trying to discern the new normal for her life. "Argonauta takes her vocal prowess to a new level—more confident and operatic,” Bandcamp wrote. “She evokes Thom Yorke’s plaintive cry...and occasionally, she delivers the album’s most poignant messages with an air of almost stately detachment, bringing to mind the German cult singer Nico, acting as a foil for the rich string arrangements, equally cinematic and mournful..." Called “A poignant album” by Pitchfork, Aisha wrote Argonauta to quiet a weary mind. Taking its name from a book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh called Gift From the Sea, the record picks up where Life in the Midwater left us, this time with even more strength and light. Aisha has performed at the SXSW festival in Austin, NXNE festival in Toronto, as well as the Reeperbahn festival in Hamburg, Germany, among many others. She currently resides in Western Massachusetts.
Maryse Smith is a songwriter who spent many years in Vermont and now resides on Marthas Vineyard. She writes songs about her sensitive heart in hopes of connecting to your sensitive heart. Her fifth album, Transience, is due out in May on Ghost Mountain Records.
Derek Sensale gives an intimate stage performance of original folk songs, rooted in tradition and generously dusted with Vermont soil. Leaning into the wonders of the natural world, each song is like a journal entry seamlessly stitched together with melodies ranging from joyful to melancholic.