Join us on May 23rd at 3 PM PST for a an exclusive live stream featuring Pete Muller Music and Todd Carey to support Seven Steps Up! As one of their favorite places to play while on the road, they are looking for how to support our venue.
ALL proceeds donated during the show will go directly to Seven Steps and their amazing team. As an added bonus, every donation given will be matched - dollar for dollar - so please donate what you can - it's like donating twice! Plus, Pete is donating $10 for every share of the livestream.
You can donate to Seven Steps Up now or any time during the event. Donate here: paypal.me/concert116
We're really looking forward to a great show as they raise money for our venue. . Please join us!
A Seven Steps Upstream performance feature favorite artists who have performed on our stage. The stream is free and we hope it brings you joy. If you would like to show your love visit paypal.me/elizabethlongley or venmo @lizlongley. Seven Steps Up & Liz will share in the proceeds with a portion of the proceeds also going to the Innocence Project. For more information about Liz, please visit www.lizlongley.com.
To watch this or past SSUpstreams, please visit our Upstreams page.
We
are excited to present the 2017 International Folk Music Awards' Artist
of the Year, Ordinary Elephant on June 25th. We may not be able to gather in
person yet, but we can keep our community connected through song. We hope
you'll join us as they livestream from their home in south Louisiana, bringing
their intimate, single-microphone performance to you.
Ordinary is not a term we would use to describet this duo. International Folk Music Awards 2017 Artist of the Year Ordinary
Elephant captivates audiences with their emotionally powerful and vulnerable
songs, letting the listener know that they are not alone in this world. The
collaboration of husband and wife Pete and Crystal Damore, their connection,
and their influences (such as Gillian Welch, Guy Clark, Anais Mitchell) all
meet on stage. "Two become one, in song...hand-in-glove harmonies surprise the
listener with focused intensity and musical mastery," says Mary Gauthier. The
Associated Press is calling their latest album, Honest, "one of the best
Americana albums of the year."
Join us!
tonylucca.com | facebook | spotify | 2020 By Request Retrospective
A cheese plate add-on option is
available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal
cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your
table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the
option when choosing your table seat! Cheese plates are only available by
pre-order.
Tony Lucca is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter whose catalog of music runs the gamut from soul-infused pop to tear-jerker folk balladry. His music has been featured in shows like "Parenthood," "Friday Night Lights," "Felicity," and "Brothers and Sisters." He was a frequent member of the house band on "Last Call with Carson Daly," where he performed alongside then fellow up-and-comers like Kamasi Washington, Zane Carney, Brian Wright, and stalwarts like Marc Ford and Cordovas front man, Joe Firstman. In 2012, Lucca took third place on NBC's "The Voice," earning himself a record deal with coach Adam Levine's 222 Records. He has toured alongside such artists as Sara Bareilles, Jonny Lang, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, Rachael Yamagata, Emerson Hart, and Gabe Dixon.
Taking full advantage of the inherent clarity of the year "2020", Tony Lucca is embarking on a nationwide tour, performing songs from his extensive catalog, strictly by request. Through the Tony Lucca 2020 By Request Retrospective Facebook Page, fans will be able to make requests for the shows that they plan on attending, making each and every show a unique set of music.
To be rescheduled on a date to be announced.
This is the new date for the show that was originally scheduled for April 10.
www.theyoungfables.com |
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SpotifyTHIS CONCERT IS 7 PACK ELIGIBLE
A cheese plate add-on option is available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by pre-order.
The Young Fables (TYF) are the promising modern traditional country duo comprised of three-time American Idol vet Laurel Wright and accomplished guitarist and vocalist Wesley Lunsford. The act hails from Maryville, TN.
They've appeared with such notable acts as Lauren Alaina, Josh Turner, Sara Evans, Chris Janson, Randy Houser, The Band Perry and Chris Lane. Quickly becoming a breakthrough face on the country scene, outlets like the world-renown "The Boot," "NASH Country Daily," the UK's "Think Country" and TN Vacation all spotlighted this emerging act. Capturing the attention of 3 of the industry's most revered names, Keith Urban said they "had me immediately", Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta praised "a flawless vocal" and Sheryl Crow boasted "as good as any country singer out there."
Securing a win at the Nashville finals of the NASH FM nationwide NASH NEXT competition, the radio giant embraced the duo as an America's Morning Show Ty, Kelly and Chuck favorite, regularly highlighting The Young Fables' songwriting strength in the Ten Minute Tune segment. This year, TYF have wrapped recording on their sophomore album titled Old Songs with the Grammy Award winning producer Mitch Dane. These ten songs establish The Young Fables' sonic home in the Country/Americana community as a modern proclaimer and preservationist of classic country's storytelling roots. "Half As Good" serves as the premiere single release from the album and is available on all major online retailers.
www.lynnmilesmusic.com | Facebook | Spotify
This is the new date for the show that was originally scheduled for March 22.
A cheese plate add-on option is
available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal
cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your
table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the
option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by
pre-order.
There's something to be said for experience, for taking the time to grow into your own skin. All sturdy things need time to root firmly into the ground to find their strength.
Lynn Miles is one of Canada's most accomplished singer/songwriters. With twelve albums to her credit, the winner of multiple Canadian Folk Music awards (2011 English Songwriter of the Year), and a 2003 Juno award for Roots and Traditional Solo Album of the Year, she has certainly found her strength over time.
Through a career that has seen her move from Ottawa to Los Angeles and back again, with stops in Nashville and Austin TX., and a healthy touring schedule that regularly takes her through the US, Europe and across Canada, she has always created and performed music with unbridled feeling and vulnerability.
Lynn song "Three Chords and the Truth" was recently chosen as the closing song on the popular BBC TV series "Case Histories".
Lynn's new release "Downpour" has been receiving glowing reviews.
Five out of FIve stars in Maverick Magazine:
"Lynn Miles excels at exquisite melancholy and delivers another aurally addictive course of intensive treatment".
- Arthur Wood
Five out of Five Stars in "Country Music People Magazine"
"The wonderful new album has the singer in top form, as she creates 11 incredible soundscapes...has she ever sounded better...with her new album she has aimed for the sky, and scored a direct hit."
- Paul Riley
Folk Roots/Folk Roots Branches:
"I've a deep appreciation for almost all of Lynn's past work and several of her albums are favourites from my music collection. Downpour, though has quickly become my favourite Lynn Miles album (at least until her next one)- and that says a lot"
- Mike Regenstreif
This is the new date for the show that was originally scheduled for March 15.
www.jonmcl.com |
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Spotify A LIMITED # OF VIP MEET & GREED ADD-ONS ARE AVAILABLE FOR $30. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE INFO. LOOK FOR THE OPTION WHEN PURCHASING YOUR TICKET.
A cheese plate add-on option is available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by pre-order.
Everything in Jon McLaughlin's life makes its way into his music, whether he's conscious of it or not. The artist, raised in Indiana and based in Nashville, brings all of his experiences and beliefs into each song he creates, something that is especially true now that he's the father of two young girls.
Jon released his debut album, Indiana, in 2007 on Island Def Jam, attracting fans with his heartfelt, hook-laden songwriting and impassioned delivery. He's released six full-lengths in the years since and revealed a true evolution in both his piano playing and singing. He's played shows with Billy Joel, Kelly Clarkson and Adele, collaborated with longtime friend Sara Bareilles, co-written with Demi Lovato and even performed at the Academy Awards in 2008.
Jon's album, Like Us, dropped in October of 2015 via Razor & Tie, and he spent the past few years touring extensively before heading back into his Nashville studio to work on new music. Jon released a Christmas EP in 2017 titled Red & Green with two originals and his take on a few holiday classics. In November of 2018 Jon released his album Angst & Grace which features "Still My Girl" written for his youngest daughter.
Another project started in 2018 is his Dueling Pianos video series. Every episode features a new guest artist and they perform mashups of never been heard arrangements.
In Fall of 2019 Jon released an instrumental piano album titled Mood. This record demonstrates Jon's artistry and captivates his talent as a pianist.
As with everything he does, Jon's goal is to create connections. He wants to translate his experiences and ideas into music that reaches fans everywhere. His passion for music and playing is evident in each note he plays.
A limited number of VIP Meet & Greet Packages are available for $30 each and includes:
VIP early entry into the venue
Pre-show meet & greet with Jon McLaughlin
Personal photograph with Jon McLaughlin
Private and intimate pre-show performance by Jon McLaughlin
Exclusive pre-show Q&A session with Jon McLaughlin
Signed copy of Jon's album, "Mood"
Striking Matches
"We met in guitar class" is not a thing many people can say...but Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davis performed together for the first time on the very same day they met...in guitar class.
Striking Matches went on to release their debut album produced by T-Bone Burnett, and have since released 3 more EPs, many singles, and have had their songs featured on Grey's Anatomy, American Idol, Nashville, and Monday Night Football, to name a few.
Both lead guitarists, singers and songwriters, Sarah and Justin's music spans a wide array of sounds and genres, combining pop choruses with blues guitar riffs. Their musical prowess creates an electrifying and unique experience with each live performance.
They are currently in the middle of releasing a new 3 EP project titled "Morning, Noon and Night" each with a different sound and sonic space. While morning, noon and night are three parts of a day, Morning, Noon and Night are meant to be three parts of what makes up Striking Matches
"Morning" and "Noon" were released in 2019 with Night to release March 27th 2020.
This is the new date for the show originally scheduled on 3/20/20.
www.rainbowgirlsmusic.com |
Facebook |
SpotifyTHIS SHOW IS ELIGIBLE FOR THE 7 PACK TICKET PACKAGEA cheese plate add-on option is
available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal
cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your
table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the
option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by
pre-order.
Rainbow Girls are an eclectic folk trio hailing from the golden countryside just north of California's Bay Area. Vanessa May, Erin Chapin, and Caitlin Gowdey seamlessly combine soul-touching harmonies, varitextured instrumentals, and poignant lyrical content into a beautiful sonic tapestry. Throughout their performance, voices are paired with an ever-changing amalgamation of acoustic and slide guitar, keys, upright bass, harmonica, and an array of vocal techniques creating an engaging and often emotionally moving live show.
Their music delves deeply into themes of the human experience: hopeful love, honest self-reflection, and pursuits of social justice. Their latest album, "American Dream," crystallizes these ideas in acoustic amber, encapsulating a beautiful new direction for their ever evolving sound. Originally formed in Santa Barbara, CA in 2010, the Rainbow Girls have spread their musical wings both internationally and domestically, from busking on the streets of Europe to playing pubs and theaters in the UK, to house concerts, festivals, and shows in the US.
This is the new date for the show that was originally scheduled for March 13.
A cheese plate add-on option is
available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal
cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your
table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the
option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by
pre-order.
An evening with London, Ontario born singer/songwriter Ken Yates. We are in! Ken is out on tour in support of Quiet Talkers – his third release.
Reuniting with Jim Bryson, who produced Yates's 2016 release Huntsville, (which won two Canadian Folk Music Awards for Songwriter of the Year and New Artist of the Year), Quiet Talkers is a dark, introspective step away from acoustic, guitar-driven, folk songs, yet still maintains Yates' signature guitar style and lyrics that never waste time getting to the point.
Says Yates, "This by far my most personal album to date. I've always been better at observing than being a part of the action, so I like to think of this collection of songs as "thoughts from the quietest person in the room". If Huntsville was about his experiences on the road, Quiet Talkers is about coming home, facing the monsters hiding under the bed – or in some cases, the monsters hiding in plain sight.
In songs like Grey County Blues, Surviving Is Easy, and Safe From Yourself, Yates tackles the challenges of mental illness and how it can lead to complacency, singing "I couldn't tell you why the seasons roll on by but I am frozen still. If I don't know by now I don't think I ever will", while When We Came Home and Disillusion Day search for the light at the end of the tunnel only to find there is no end.
Yet among all this darkness there is plenty of light. In Two Wrongs, Yates sings about two imperfect people finding a balance in one another, and Evangeline speaks words of encouragement, saying "Life can be a gold mine, if you've got a good mind. Stay inside the right lines, but don't keep it too clean, Evangeline".
On working again with Jim Bryson, Yates says "I didn't really want to make another folk record, so I wanted to let Jim take the reigns and work his indie-wizard magic on these songs. I love the arrangements he came up with".
After almost a decade of extensive touring, supporting artists like Passenger, Stu Larsen, Rose Cousins and Jenn Grant, Yates is starting to find peace in his role as an independent artist. "Lately I've been able to take a step back and look at all the things I've been able to achieve almost purely on my own, and I'm starting to appreciate the small victories now".
THIS IS THE NEW DATE FOR THE SHOW ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED ON MAY 8.
While best known for her stop-you-in-your-tracks voice, Liz has steadily developed a reputation as an accomplished songwriter, crafting intimately personal portraits through her music. Liz's songs have won some of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the country, including the BMI John Lennon Songwriting Competition. With five albums to her name, Liz's music has been featured on TV shows such as ABC's "Beauty & The Beast", Lifetime's "Army Wives", and MTV's "Scream". The latest release, 'Weightless', is the highly anticipated follow- up to Longley's eponymous 2015 Sugar Hill Records debut, which earned accolades from critics, who proclaimed the album "a thing of beauty," (Popdose), and praised her "captivating stories set to tunes that will be running through your head after a single spin." (American Songwriter). Later this year, Liz is set to release her sixth album, produced by 5-time GRAMMY nominated producer, Paul Moak.
shawnmullins.com | Facebook | Spotify
THIS SHOW IS A RESCHEDULE FROM APRIL 9.
A limited number of VIP Meet & Greet add-ons are available for $50 that include early access to the venue, an unplugged song and photo and autograph opportunity. You should see an add-on option for each individual ticket selected.
A cheese plate add-on option is available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by pre-order.
Shawn. Freakin. Mullins. Shawn has been one of our favorite artists since we first heard him. Long before the venue. But, once we opened our doors, we just knew that he would be magical here. We didn't actually think we would ever get him here, tho and now this is Shawn's 4th time to perform here. Oh, my, that baratone!
After a series of indie record releases, Shawn Mullins' critical breakthrough came when 1998 Soul's Core album shot him to fame on the strength of its Grammy-nominated No. 1 hit, "Lullaby" followed by AAA/Americana No. 1 "Beautiful Wreck" from 2006's 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor. His song, "Shimmer" was used in promotion of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and was included on the Dawson's Creek soundtrack. He co-wrote "All in My Head" which was featured in episode one of the hit TV sitcom "Scrubs." Mullins also co-wrote the Zac Brown Band's No. 1 country tune "Toes." In early 2002, he formed super group The Thorns with Matthew Sweet and Pete Droge. For the 20th anniversary, Shawn revisited the music on Soul's Core and recorded two new versions of the album. He calls this Soul's Core Revival. This is not a remix or a remaster of the original, but rather brand new recordings with new arrangements of the songs – one album is new stripped down solo performances, some on guitar, some on piano and maybe one a cappella and the second is a new studio recording with his full band, Soul Carnival.
A cheese plate add-on option is available for table seats and includes a?delightful selection of artisanal cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your table seats when the doors open. Serves 2.??$25 + tax. Look for the option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by pre-order.
"Rising Star" is not a phrase one would normally use to describe an artist like Griffin House, who has been touring for over 15 years and has recorded 12 studio albums.
The title of Griffin House's upcoming release,"Rising Star," references the first track on the album, which tells the story of a character who moves to Music City, like so many do, with a guitar and a dream. Although not intended to be auto-biographical, the listener gets the sense that this comical and fictitious tale could hardly have been woven by someone without a similar life experience to the protagonist in "Rising Star."
Indeed, House's story began in much the same way. He moved to Nashville in 2003, as a young man, with not much more than a guitar, and a handful of songs. He took a part-time job downtown on Broadway at Legend's Gifts, biding his time before he caught his big break. That big break came, after just a few months, in the form of a phone call from Island Def Jam records that jumpstarted his career and led to him signing with CAA and Nettwerk Records.
After that, things happened quickly for House. His 2004 debut album "Lost and Found" was lauded by music critics such as Bill Flanagan (Executive VP MTV/VH1 Networks) who featured House on the CBS Sunday Morning show as one of the "best emerging songwriters." House began touring, opening for acts like John Mellencamp and the Cranberries, and found himself meeting people like Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson. House seemed poised to be more of an "overnight success" rather than a "rising star," but that's not exactly how things turned out. "I've been a "rising star" for the past 15 years" House jokes, "it's a slow rise."
Although House has enjoyed plenty of success as national headliner for over a decade and has earned a great deal of respect as a well-known performer and singer-songwriter, he seems to not take himself or his career in the music industry too seriously. Now married, sober, and a father, House has learned to balance his career by making his family and his sobriety his first priority. He pays tribute to his wife and children (with) "When the Kids are Gone," a song about watching his daughters grow up and imagining he and his wife as empty-nesters.
There's a lightness in his new record that comes across especially in the first fews songs, such as "Mighty Good Friend," where you can hear his kids on the recording, as well as the sense of humor in "15 Minutes of Fame."
House acknowledges that his new album is a collaborative effort. "I teamed up with my old buddies Paul Moak and Ian Fitchuk who helped me make my very first record Lost and Found. It was so good to reunite with them and work together again. It's amazing that these guys I started out with in the very beginning are now world class musicians and producers being nominated and winning Grammys. This album seemed to come together with a little more grace and ease than records I've made in the past, and I think so much of that is attributed to how good the people I got worth with on this record are, they all just happen to be really good friends too."
Several songs on House's album are also co-writes with friends and fellow Nashville musicians, including Brian Elmquist (The Lone Bellow) and Joy Williams (The Civil Wars).
"I usually lock myself in a room for 8 hours at a time until I have enough songs done," House says, "But with touring part time and being a dad part time, that adds up to full time job, so I decided to call in a little help from my friends to write some of these songs. Some songs come easier than others," says House. "I wrote Mighty Good Friend with Brian (Elmquist) and it's a song about how I'd been fighting through writer's block, and then there are songs like Change that I wrote with Joy (Williams). We sat on her couch one morning and I remember showing her the idea for the verse. We worked on the words for an hour or two, and then out of nowhere she sang this beautiful chorus. We broke for lunch and came back and finished it that afternoon. It was one of those songs that took years to live and only one short day to write."
"I love making music with friends," says House. "Hindsight was another one with my friend Brian (Elmquist). We share some similarities including our journey into sobriety together. There's a line in the song "I've been thinking lately, of a boy young and on the run" that always makes me imagine Brian as a little boy with a dream, both running away from a hard past and on toward a brighter future. We've formed a bond and friendship through music and sobriety, and I think you can feel that in the songs we wrote together."
Just when you think you have House's album pegged, there seems to be a surprise around every corner. Each song is distinct in its own own way. The heavy guitar on "Hung Up On You," a song that House says is a break up letter addressed to alcohol, gives way to the intro of "Cup of Fulfillment" which starts with a bag pipe solo and leads the listener on an epic journey that crescendos into one of the record's most moving moments.
We catch a glimpse of a much more rock n' roll side of House than we've heard before from the Pink Floyd-esque "Crash and Burn" to the rowdy punk influenced "Natural Man."
House's new album "Rising Star" is set for release on June 28th 2019. Also set for release in 2019, is a full length film called "Rising Star," in which House stars and co-produces with music video director and film-maker Shane Drake. The film features music from House's new album as well as his previous catalog and chronicles his life as a musician.
Dar.Freakin.Williams. We were at the Folk Alliance and tried to get in to see her. We couldn't even get close. Dar was on our personal playlist long before there was even a thought of a venue. This one is really special to us.
Dar Williams has always followed her muse. When she was up in Somerville, Massachusetts in the early nineties, knowing that she wanted to pursue music or theater, she worked backstage at the Opera Company of Boston and wrote plays on the side. But she was in Boston, and the muse led her into the myriad open mics and tip jar gigs of booming folk revival. She opened a trunk of old songs and started writing new ones.
She went to three or four open mics or song circles a week and recorded two cassettes. Yes, cassettes. When she felt like the noise of Boston was getting to be too much, the muse led her to the cornfields and college towns of Western Massachusetts where she sat on her futon and wrote the songs that would become The Honesty Room, her first CD, which she recorded in the basements and back woods studios of Amherst. She hoped the songs she was writing, with titles like When I Was a Boy, You're Aging Well, and The Great Unknown, would lead her into an idiosyncratic part-time music career.
Little did she know that the coffeehouse scene and the beginnings of internet communities were building to a crescendo and eager to receive her warm, witty songs. By the end of 1994, when The Honesty Room came out, she had rock-solid management, the best booking agency in the country for singer-songwriters, and a career-making slot at the Newport Folk Festival. She also signed with Razor & Tie records and penned the material for her next album, Mortal City.
The mid-nineties were a heady time, and Dar did her best to keep up with an exciting mix of concerts in forty plus states, Canadian festivals, and her first British dates. With the release of Mortal City came an invitation to play throughout Europe and the United States with new friend and folk legend, Joan Baez, a tour that changed everything, as Dar was quick to discover by 1997 when she released End of the Summer. She wrote the title track in hotel rooms down the west coast on her tour with Joan. She continued to write about all the eclectic things that inspired her, never questioning the muse. Psychotherapy, veterans with PTSD, and late night radio DJs among other themes.
Booked in large theaters, she went out with her first band on her first tour bus with The End of Summer, playing more colleges and festivals, including Lilith Fair, for which one of her songs became part of the festival's gold-selling CD.
Her good friend Richard Shindell joined the official End of the Summer album tour. Somewhere around Portland, Oregon, they decided to make an album that would showcase all the great writing that was happening in their tightknit musical community. They invited Lucy Kaplansky to join them and Cry Cry Cry was born in 1998, with a short tour that kept getting longer, stretching out for over a year and a half. For all three artists, dubbed a Folk Supergroup (not by them), it was both a musical education and huge life adventure.
Dar says, "We were trying to get this one line for the last chorus of Sweet Sir Galahad that we were going to sing with Joan [Baez]. The bus was careening down the highway from Denver to Aspen, and we spent hours trying to find the perfect notes. We were in heaven. The bus driver was in hell."
All of this time steeped in the music of her fellow musicians inspired many of the songs for The Green World, Dar's fourth studio album, recorded with seasoned musicians and future bandmates in Woodstock and New York City. On her return from the ten-week Green World Tour, Dar got a letter from Scholastic books, inviting her to an open-ended lunch discussion about a possible young adult or children's book. Dar said she couldn't imagine it, but the muse said, "Just have lunch." By the end of the meeting at a Mexican restaurant, where there may or may not have been sangria, Dar was already brainstorming Amalee, a young adult novel about a girl whose father's eccentric friends come forward in all their strange glory when he gets sick. Infused with magical realism and Dar's well-remembered youth, Amalee and the muse took a winding path of creation from 2002-2003. City living and time spent with the Green World musicians provided the a whole new palette of imagery, and an opportunity to collaborate with Rob Hyman of the Hooters, that became The Beauty of the Rain, released in 2003, her most successful album to date, named People magazine's album of the week when it came out, and she started her tour with a performance for PBS's Soundstage. Her song, Closer To Me, written with Hymen, doubled the number of commercial stations that played her music is it went up Billboard's Heatseeker's chart, while songs from the whole album were in heavy rotation on Americana stations throughout the United States and Canada.
The following years saw a return of the Green World crew with My Better Self in 2005. While out on tour, Dar edited a sequel, Lights, Camera, Amalee for Scholastic for a 2006 release, which led to a whirlwind two years of concerts, readings, and school visits. In 2008, Dar headed to Electric Lady studios to record Promised Land. Dar set out with a trio that included keyboardist and jazz composer Bryn Roberts, with whom she's been touring ever since. In 2010, after seven studio albums, Dar released a greatest hits retrospective called Many Great Companions, produced by Gary Louris, with touring companions of the previous fifteen years, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, her best friends Nerissa and Katryna Nields, and Sean and Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek.
It was now that the muse started pointing in some new and unexpected directions. As Dar was writing songs for In the Time of Gods, her eighth album, she was asked to create a college course to teach at her alma mater, Wesleyan University. She toured with In the Time of Gods in the spring of 2012, followed by teaching Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy in the fall. Teaching a university course was one of the happiest moments of Dar's career. A friend advised her to lead a songwriting retreat. Dar said "I would only lead a retreat if it were called, 'Writing a Song That Matters', focused on the process of writing a song, not the industry that brings it to the public." In 2013, Dar led her first Writing a Song That Matters retreat at The Garrison Institute in the Hudson Valley of New York. It was another highlight of Dar's life and career. The next year, she added another retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. All the while, as Dar wrote songs for the album Emerald and prepared 20th anniversary tours for both The Honesty Room and Mortal City, the mists were swirling for a project that was both a departure and arrival point in her career.
In the decades that Dar had been touring, she had been seeing how towns and cities, like people, had been coming into their own, becoming more resilient, unique, and prosperous. While so many people said that towns and cities were "dead", she had been seeing them come back to life. She realized that the key ingredient in the success of these places was what she called "Positive Proximity", where there was an understanding that living side by side with other people was a good, constructive thing. Positive proximity was a civic state of being that could be built and sustained, and Dar was collecting stories and notes to support her growing theory. She said, "Someone should write a book about this." And the muse said, "You've written fiction books, you interviewed people for your green blog at Huffington Post, you've written about towns and cities in your songs since day one. The person who should write this book is you."
In the spring of 2015, just before setting out on the tour for her ninth studio album, Emerald, Dar signed a contract with Basic Books, now Hachette Publishing Group. In September, 2017, she started touring new venues, speaking in bookstores and at city planning conferences in support of her book, What I Found in a Thousand Towns, a Touring Musicians Guide to Rebuilding American Communities One Dog Run, …. At A Time. 2018 was a time to deepen her connection to these themes of town and city building and planning as Dar gave keynote speeches at the Boise Downtown Association, the Vermont …, the Southern New England Planning Association conference, and the Congress of New Urbanism, among others. It was also the year for a very emotional and exciting reunion of Cry, Cry, Cry, where the trio returned to sing songs by newer songwriters. Dar still loves every minute of her job and always advises folks to "follow their muse." She still goes wherever the muse leads her, which, presently, is right back on her couch, coffee on the coffee table, guitar in hand, writing her next batch of songs.
A Red Wanting Blue VIP Experience add-on is available! The $50 VIP Experience includes:
- Sit in on Red Wanting Blue souncheck before show
- Signed tour poster
- Early entry to venue
THIS SHOW IS CANCELED. RESCHEDULE DATE TBA.
A cheese plate add-on option is available for table seats and includes a delightful selection of artisanal cheeses and accompaniments chosen by J-Dubs Wine & Market. Served at your table seats when the doors open. Serves 2. $25 + tax. Look for the option when choosing your seat! Cheese plates are only available by pre-order.
Trinkets, diesel mechanics, tire repair, Donkey Kong, Indian and riverboat casinos, cheap sunglasses, thrift stores, junky bumper stickers, 24hr diners, road side attractions. These are the interests noted on their Facebook page. And its just one of the reasons we love this band so much.
"In every odyssey, there comes a time when you must accept that what you are pursuing is no longer a rational decision," Scott Terry writes in the liner notes of Red Wanting Blue's new album, 'The Wanting.' "It's a choice that does not feel like a choice. It is a hunger."
It's been more than twenty years since Red Wanting Blue first began their long, strange odyssey, and while much has changed for Terry and the rest of the band over those two remarkable decades, the hunger remains. Like the North Star, it's fixed in the firmament, a guiding light perpetually out of reach. Hunger has been their fuel, their motivation, their essence. Hunger has steered every step of the group's extraordinary journey, and now, it's at the heart of their most powerful record yet.
"We're a touring band," Terry explains matter-of-factly. "We're on the road all the time, so much so that it's painful when we're not. When I was younger, I used to get heart palpitations if I was in the same place for more than four days."
It's that insatiable appetite for the road that helped Red Wanting Blue establish themselves as one of the indie world's most enduring and self-sufficient acts. Hailed as "Midwestern rock heroes" by American Songwriter, the band has spent most of their career operating outside of the confines of the traditional music industry, earning their legion of lifelong fans through decades of relentless touring. Over the course of ten studio albums, they brought their passionate, unforgettable live show to every city and town that would have them, blazing their own distinctive trail through the American heartland as they built up the kind of fanatically dedicated audiences normally reserved for arena acts. Along the way, they notched appearances everywhere from Letterman to NPR and climbed all the way up to #3 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. In 2016, they celebrated with a 20th anniversary retrospective album/concert film entitled 'RWB20 Live at Lincoln Theater,' which captured the band in all their glory at a sold-out hometown show in Columbus, OH.
When Red Wanting Blue does an acoustic tour, there's no place better than Seven Steps Up. Our acoustics and intimacy can't be matched. It may be a Monday night, but trust us. You want to be here.
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