Sarah Sample & Kate Graves
Tickets:$13 advance, $15 door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Please note: Ryan Tanner was originally slated to accompany Sarah on this gig but had to cancel due to a family emergency.
Two albums, an EP, and lots of touring into her career, Sarah Sample is quickly shedding any traces of up-and-comer. With a potent mix of hard work, conviction, an uncanny and tireless ability to connect with audiences, relentless enthusiasm, a stunning voice and- most importantly- an enviable catalog of really, really great songs, it’s easy to see why.
With lyrics that “cut to the bone” (Salt Lake City Weekly) and “just a great, great voice” (Peter Mayer), Sarah’s songs are getting noticed. They won her a slot on 2010’s Cayamo Cruise and the mainstage at Folks Fest 2008. Telluride, Kerrville, Mountain New Song, Sisters: you name it, she’s been a finalist. She’s also shared stages with Darrell Scott, Melissa Ferrick, Willy Porter, Peter Himmelman, Mark Stuart/Stacey Earle, Edie Carey, and more, winning new and devoted listeners each time.
The buzz about Sarah’s albums:
BORN TO FLY EP (2009)
“Born to Fly (is) her best effort to date. Sample’s raw, graceful voice is stronger and more self-assured, enhancing lyrical content that cuts to the bone.”
–SLC Weekly
“There’s nothing quite like the dreamy beauty of good folk pop such as this. The songs here feature a fine, velvety mix of gauzy sonic textures (like pedal steel guitar), straightforward guitar strumming, and gentle percussion and bass. While some beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there’s no questioning the elegant and gorgeous songs and production at work here. Sarah Sample is a pure talent, as her albums continue to prove.”
-CD Baby Editor Peter
The buzz about Sarah’s live show:
“It’s the same feeling I got when I first heard Sarah Mclachlan or Natalie Merchant. I knew was listening to a singer filled with confident clarity. I knew I was listening to a singer that can make big things happen with a whisper, and do it all to material that was clearly crafted, and smart. Thanks, Sarah. It’s great when friends become heroes.”
- Vance Gilbert, songwriter
Kate Graves writes little songs….little songs that are raw. She tries to spread them around like wildflower seeds. She
likes wildflowers. If she could be a plant, she would be a thistle branch. She sometimes worries that by saying she would be a thistle branch, she is saying that she symbolically pricks things, but she still picks the thistle branch as her flower totem.
Kate Graves is neurotic. She’s okay with this term and generally uses it as a term of endearment…or when somebody is really bugging her.
Kate Graves likes kissing. And singing. And trying to explain to the world that her chihuahua is just scared and not
really cold-hearted.
Appearing with Kate is Empty Sea’s own Michael Connolly, a versatile southern-born multi-instrumentalist whose fiddle, mandolin, and accordion have shared the stage with Coyote Grace, Captain Gravel, Korby Lenker, the Barbed Wire Cutters, and the Indigo Girls.
Kate and Michael share tight harmonies, beautifully understated phrasing, and the love of a good novelty song.
