Darryl Purpose with fiddle Daryl S.
Tickets: $15 advance, $18 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
When Darryl Purpose was 16 years old, his mother put a book called Beat the Dealer in his Christmas stocking. He went to Las Vegas as a teenager and began a career as professional card player – and still calls this the “only real job I’ve ever had.” Years later he took time off to walk across the country for peace, and fell in with a bad crowd – musicians & peaceniks. In 1996, inspired by his work with a traveling band of musical activists, Darryl began to tour nationally as a solo singer-songwriter. Eight years, six CD’s and a thousand-plus shows later, he was headlining venues like the Freight and Salvage, Club Passim, McCabes, The Bluebird Cafe, The Kennedy Center, and the Kerrville Folk Festival MainStage.
In 2005, he inexplicably set down his guitar and took a 7 year sabbatical in the rocky mountains. During this time he shepherded the release of Singer-Songwriter Heaven, the songs of Kevin Faherty and continued to co-captain the Second Strings Project, which is responsible for delivering over twenty thousand sets of guitar strings to those who need them all around the world. In 2009, he was inducted into the Blackjack
Hall of Fame, one of 17 members, including Ed Thorp, the man who wrote that book that his mother put in his Christmas stocking at 16. He says that he also “got healthy, in multiple ways.”
After seven years away from the singer- songwriter scene, Darryl Purpose is back to making music, with a new energy and a new flair for connecting with audiences. 2012 saw Darryl record his first CD of original material in 10 years - Next Time Around, produced by Billy Crockett for the Blue Rock Artists label. Called “a masterpiece” and “Purpose’s best effort yet” by DJ’s. Live performance is his strength as he connects his audience to his songs with a storyteller’s heart.
Casey Neill: Concert & Live Webcast
Tickets: $18 advance, $22 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Casey Neill’s career has always walked the line between lyrical song craft and ferocious live shows. He is a songwriter and bandleader from Portland, Oregon with a sound that explores haunting ballads, high octane folk punk, and Scots/Irish melody. Neill’s latest record, Goodbye to the Rank and File is the first to feature his band, the Norway Rats, which includes an all star cast of Portland musicians. For over a decade he has performed throughout the US, Europe, and Japan averaging over a hundred shows a year. A new record titled All You Pretty Vandals produced by Chris Funk of the Decemberists is slated for release in the Fall of 2013.
“These are songs with stories well told. This is what it’s all about” – Steve Earle
“Casey Neill’s latest record, Goodbye to the Rank and File, is just as much audio book as it is album, teeming with rich lyrics that paint the glory and gutter of a wanderer’s struggle. Backed by talented Rats like Jenny Conlee (the Decemberists, Black Prairie) and Chet Lyster (Lucinda Williams Band), Neill bellows pack the punch of white-capped seas, soaking the band’s big sky, prairie wind sound with a haunting graveness. It just may be Portland’s strongest brand of unfettered, contemporary roots rock.” – Mark Stock, Willamette Week
Neill’s original weather beaten stories eschew irony in favor of romance, celebrate society’s miscreants, and explore the hidden corners of the American landscape. The songs travel from place to place, with scenes from the rural Northwest to New York City street life. While the writing owes much to narrative tradition, the sound has far more in common with the early years of the college rock and post hardcore indie scene. Casey’s recent recordings show the influence of the Replacements, Husker Du, and R.E.M. A lifelong Clash fan, Joe Strummer covers are often part of the set.
“Be it through raucous rockers, fragile acoustic ballads, ragged country, passionate bursts of punk fury or soulful touches of Irish folk, Neill’s narrative talent and concern for real people’s struggles stand out. (Neill) evokes an epic feel that fits perfectly with the implicit grandiosity of this emotional material, delivered with a raspy, affectionate voice that recalls Life’s Rich Pageant-era Michael Stipe. The results are so evocative, you’ll be tempted to steep further in these memories, the better to share Casey Neill’s particular blend of personal and historical experience.” – Splendid eZine
“Soul-searing songs “- Utne Reader “remarkably good songwriting” – No Depression
Casey Neill’s acoustic roots run deep. He is a sought after side player & has recorded with master traditional fiddlers such as Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, and Johnny Cunningham. Irish supergroup Solas recorded Casey’s original song “Lowground” on their CD’s Waiting for an Echo and Reunion. In 1997, he inked a three record deal with the folk label Appleseed and was featured on their tribute to Pete Seeger along with Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, and Bonnie Raitt. A compilation of his material entitled Memory Against Forgetting was released by Amy Ray’s label Daemon in 2005. Following a few years of residence in New York City, Casey moved back to Portland and it’s thriving music community. In 2007, his CD Brooklyn Bridge was released by the NW imprint In Music We Trust and the Norway Rats were formed to tour the material. Goodbye to the Rank and File followed in 2010 and garnered rave reviews from online blogs, radio, and press. In 2013, a handful of solo performances are booked for the Spring with the band hitting the road in the Fall.
“When the day is young, everything seems possible; the next waking hours can become anything you want them to be. Casey Neill’s newest album, Goodbye to the Rank and File, is very much like that thought. It’s just bloody good, the storytelling, the diverse influences, the delivery, it all comes together to box your ears, but oh, you’ll like the bruises. Lyrically, this is the best album I’ve heard in a very long time, musically it is almost as good, Casey Neill has hit a grand slam with this album.” Aaron Binder, Wordbird
“… introspective, sometimes autobiographical tales of misery and redemption, cracked ceilings and brilliant mornings, despair and love, tales from the other side of the tracks given quite real depth and emotive power. We haven’t all quite been there but when we do arrive at the destinations described by the twelve songs on Rank And File we’ll know where we are, thanks to Neill’s eye for detail combined with his unflinching humanity. If I’d wanted to hear an album that encapsulated the barroom romanticism, neon lit glamour of a downtown Saturday night anywhere, an imaginatively vivid evocation of life lived not quite on the margins but lived to the full nonetheless, … then I couldn’t have asked to hear a more completely realized work than Rank And File.“ – Jon Gordon, Adequacy.net
Rachel Harrington & Rebecca Pronsky
Sorry, this show is completely sold out. No tickets will be released at the door.
RACHEL HARRINGTON
Seattle siren Rachel Harrington has toured tirelessly since the release of her 2007 debut, The Bootlegger’s Daughter (“Four Stars,” Mojo). To date, she’s released four full-length studio albums, has played major festivals throughout Europe and the US, made three live appearances on the BBC’s legendary Bob Harris Show, and reached millions of listeners through airplay at Starbucks. Her 2011 CD, Celilo Falls, went to #1 on the Euro-Americana chart, received sweeping 4-star reviews, and led Harrington to be a winner in the songwriting contest at Merlefest, among others.
FOUR STARS: “A sharply rendered sound portrait”
~Songlines Magazine
FOUR STARS: “Ancient-sounding country noir … gothic Americana … inspiringly original”
~Q magazine
FOUR STARS: “Songs that conjure the ghosts of old America … like early Gillian Welch. Beguiling.”
~Mojo
“Compelling and soulful … like the young Emmylou”
~Utne Reader
REBECCA PRONSKY
Rebecca Pronsky is a born and raised Brooklynite who plays twangy folk that is “as urban as it is rural, not afraid to be sophisticated” (Maverick). She’s an “allusive, poetic lyricist” (All Music Guide) with live performances that are “passionate and wry” (Time Out NY). Only Daughter, Rebecca’s newest album, will be released in March 2013 on Austin’s Nine Mile Records. It was recorded by Scott Solter (Superchunk, Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice) and produced by Rebecca’s husband and lead guitarist Rich Bennett who “puts the trimmings on the music with a battery of echo drenched, twangy leads” (Blurt). Her most adventurous work yet, the album is gritty and noir-ish, layered and dreamy, bravely disobeying the usual conventions of the Americana genre.
“Personal, anecdotal and emotional, Pronsky’s voice conveys the wisdom of experience.”
~ NPR Song of the Day
“This Brooklyn native should be a household name as far as we’re concerned… on track to become one of America’s foremost modern folk songstresses.”
~ BBC 6 Picks
“Pronsky’s performance stands head and shoulders above most of her contemporaries… an outstanding lyricist with the ability to stop you in your tracks.”
~ R2 Magazine
TAARKA: Concert & Live Webcast
Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Described by SF Weekly as a “collision of Django Reinhardt and David Grisman,” Taarka is the new acoustic “supergroup” (Flagstaff Live) led by the husband-and-wife team of David Pelta-Tiller (mandolin, tenor guitar, vocals) and Enion Pelta-Tiller (five-string violin, vocals) joined by bassist Troy Robey, with a malleable crew of cellists, fiddlers and other string mavens rounding out the sound.
David, a versatile picker raised in Virginia on a steady diet of bluegrass, Celtic, classical and gypsy jazz, and Enion, a classically-trained violinist who can switch seamlessly between Bartók and bebop (not to mention gypsy jazz, punk, rock, bluegrass) began their journey together in 2001. After meeting at a Brooklyn Browngrass gig, the two began a Gypsy jazz busker act in the New York City subway before hitting the road as Taarka.
Though Taarka presently balances between singer songwriting and instrumentals, from its beginnings as a purely instrumental string band putting a modern spin on Gypsy and Eastern European folk music, Taarka has drawn from wide-ranging influences over the past 10 years. Sophisticated listeners would be able to distill flavors of Western and Eastern folk traditions, jazz, rock, bluegrass, old-time, gypsy, Indian, and Celtic music all in a string band setting. Taarka has lately been gaining notice for their songwriting, which is informed by traditional bluegrass, old-time and folk from America and Europe, 19th century poetry, and rock inspired by performances with some of the greatest names in songwriting today, including Darrell Scott, Greg Brown, James McMurtry and Nathan Moore, but which incorporates sweeping pop and popping gypsy elements.
Since 2006, when David and Enion landed in Lyons, CO—known for its bluegrass and new acoustic scene—their compositional output has taken on a decidedly American aura, with vocals added to enhance the stories told in their songs. Their fifth studio album, Adventures in Vagabondia, was released in January 2013.
Taarka’s joyous recordings benefit from starry guest performances and David’s masterful production work—each a carefully crafted travelogue tracing a phase of the group’s evolution. Yet unsurprisingly, Taarka’s calling card is its colorful live show. Of Taarka’s performance at the Oregon Country Fair, Synthesis Magazine wrote, “Taarka began driving the painted and costumed crowd into a dancing frenzy…they combined Roma, Klezmer and jazz, infusing their rousing and exciting tunes with breakneck Zappa-esque breakdowns and insurmountable gusto. Regardless of your particular musical tastes, Taarka is a band that simply must be witnessed.”
The band is equally potent whether as a down-and-dirty duo act or a stellar extended line- up featuring a top-notch array of fellow travelers. David and Enion have performed with members of the Grateful Dead, Phish, and String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band as well as Darol Anger, Joe Craven, ALO, Keller Williams, Danny Barnes, Steve Kimock, Taj Mahal, Widespread Panic, The Samples, and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Kaki King, Rob Wasserman, Tony Furtado, The Motet, Dan Bern and The Everyone Orchestra.
Taarka has performed at major festivals across the country including High Sierra, Joshua Tree Music Festival, Oregon Country Fair, Sisters Folk Festival, Telluride Bluegrass, Mendocino Music Festival, Bumbershoot, Seattle Folklife, Nedfest, Lightening in a Bottle, Berkeley World Music Festival, Aspen Bluegrass Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and The Millpond Folk Festival and many more…
Danny Schmidt: Concert & Live Webcast
Sorry, this show is completely sold out. No tickets will be released at the door.
However, you can still tune in live to watch our webcast — click here to learn more.
Named to the Chicago Tribune’s 50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years, Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt has been rapidly ascending from underground cult hero to being widely recognized as an artist of generational significance. With lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, and Dave Carter, Danny is considered a preeminent writer, an artist whose earthy poetry manages to somehow conjure magic from the mundane, leading Sing Out Magazine to tag him “Perhaps the best new songwriter we’ve heard in the last 15 years.”
Performing solo almost exclusively, armed with just his voice, his words, and his acoustic guitar, Danny’s an authentic timeless troubadour, one man sharing his truth in the form of songs, unadorned and intimate. The understated effect can be startlingly powerful. As songwriter Jeffrey Foucault put it: “Everything about the man is gentle, except for his capacity for insight, which is crushing.”
After garnering unanimous critical praise for his self-released Parables & Primes album in 2005, Danny’s follow up release, Little Grey Sheep in 2007 began an unbroken streak of albums that have charted at #1 on the Folk Radio Charts, internationally. After also winning the prestigeous Kerrville New Folk award in 2007, Danny won the notice of venerable Americana roots label, Red House Records, who began releasing his albums in 2009, starting with the critically acclaimed album, Instead The Forest Rose To Sing, thus exposing a much broader audience to Danny’s music, alongside such notable artists as Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson, Jorma Kaukonen, and John Gorka.
“New songs are the fuel for my rockets.” Q&A with Danny Schmidt
This Thursday, Danny Schmidt takes the Empty Sea stage for a concert with a live webcast. Click here to learn more and to purchase advance tickets.
Named to the Chicago Tribune’s 50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years, Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt has been rapidly ascending from underground cult hero to being widely recognized as an artist of generational significance. With lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, and Dave Carter, Danny is considered a preeminent writer, an artist whose earthy poetry manages to somehow conjure magic from the mundane.
How did you first start playing music?
I first started playing music (electric guitar) (loud!) in my room as a teenager as a way to get away from my family, and express a little bit of my teenage angst. That started my obsession with the guitar. Eventually as I matured, that obsession found more refined focal points, like the country blues pickers . . . which eventually led to a convergence with my interest in writing. I discovered the songwriters who hung out with (or idolized) the country blues guys.
Would you describe yourself as a “folk musician?” How do you define that term?
It depends who’s asking. If it’s a regular person, then yes, I say I’m a folk singer. Cause all they really want to know is if I play acoustic guitar and sing by myself. If I’m talking to a music aficionado, I’ll usually tell them I’m a “singer/songwriter” . . . just cause it’s a broader term, and more accurate. I write my own songs, and I sing them. Beyond that, the songs are really without genre. I think of songs as pretty loose frameworks, musically, and depending on what sort of instrumental fabric you hang on them, what instruments you choose to add to them, can wind up in almost any genre.
What do you think is the hardest part of this job? What is an unexpected perk?
The traveling is both the best and worst parts of this job. I love seeing the world, I love catching up with my far-flung friends, I love meeting new people . . . but I hate not having a steady rhythmic home life. It’s become more and more obvious to me how much I need a home routine to feel connected to my community and to feel rooted, personally. And in turn, it’s become clearer and clearer to me how much I need that rootedness to be a productive writer. So I’ve been actively trying to scale back the touring, and keep a healthier balance in my life. God, I sound like frickin’ Oprah.
How have the places you have lived influenced your music?
Very much so. I grew up in Austin which taught me that music is (and should be) ubiquitous and eclectic and collaborative and common. I lived communally for five years where music was a part of our daily life. It wasn’t a stage or performance affair, it was daily on the porch. Then I lived in Charlottesville, VA just as I started getting serious about songwriting, and immediately fell in with a brilliant community of upstart songwriters that to this day remain huge influences on me . . . they’re the voices in my head that help me edit my songs, and judge them when it’s judgement time.
You’ve received high praise from many, many music publications – Sing Out calls you a “force of nature, a blue moon, a hundred-year flood, an avalanche of a singer-songwriter.” Is that a lot to live up to? Does it feel strange to be described as a person by reviewers you may never have met?
Yeah, it takes awhile to get used to the idea of being “reviewed”. . . it’s kind of a polite way of saying “being judged” really . . . and that’s not a super comfortable position to find yourself in! Eventually, though, you just kinda stop paying much attention to any of the reviews, good or bad, cause you have your own internal barometer for whether what you’re doing is any good. I could argue with any glowing review and tell them all the things that are wrong with the album that they missed. And I could argue with any bad review and tell them all the brilliant themes they missed!
What are your current musical and non-musical sources of inspiration?
I love podcasts. I listen to a lot of great talks online while I drive . . . they’re really what gets my brain cranking these days.
What are you most excited about now with your music?
It’s always the writing that makes me excited. New songs are the fuel for my rockets, for sure. I’m kind of excited to be shifting back towards complexity rather than simplicity, too. For awhile there I was trying to simplify the songs, to distill the ideas and make them more accessible. And I think that was a good process to go through. I think it helped my writing. But I’m excited to be shifting back the other way now some . . . embracing the complexity and the the mystery and the code of complicated ideas . . . to allow the listener more process and unfolding. I don’t know if that’s my intent, per se . . . but that’s the result. The intent is just simply that I’m enjoying the process of writing songs that are multilayered, and heavily folded and twisted . . . and I’m indulging myself in that. Hopefully folks will enjoy the new tunes.
AP Dugas, Gregory Paul and Annie Ford
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
AP Dugas is an active singer songwriter who hails from Texas and is a recent transplant to Seattle. He is influenced by Towns Van Zandt, Willie Nelson and Elliot Smith and has a background in punk and rock. His voice and songs ring true with a heartfelt authenticity. He is the lead singer in the Ganges River Band and also performs solo around Seattle, Bellingham and Texas.
www.reverbnation.com/apdugasandthegangesriverband
Gregory Paul spent most of his life in Upstate, NY before moving to Seattle in 2009. He has been touring and recording sporadically for many years, making mesmerizing music with folk, traditional / old-time, rock, and experimental influences. He currently can be found performing old-time & traditional music throughout the week at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. GP has provided accompaniment for Lindsay Fuller, S…era Cahoone, Shannon Stephens and many others.
Annie Ford from Virginia is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and studio musician, performing in numerous groups around in Seattle. She was a regular fixture at the Pike Place Market for several years street performing with the group Slimpickins. She has contributed most recently to the records of local artists Shannon Stephens and Ali Marcus and is an active member of Nu Klezmer Army, Cast Iron Maidens and Annie Ford Band. Memories of the mountains back home, travels across the country and ghosts of love permeate the emotional landscape of her songs. There is a timeless and dynamic quality to her playing and singing that seems at once to come from the ether and a deep connection to the inner workings of the heart.
All three of these songwriters have collaborated separately within Seattle’s broader eclectic scene and regularly perform solo.
Antje Duvekot
Tickets: $20 advance, $24 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Antje Duvekot is one of the brightest singer-songwriters to rise out of Boston’s competitive acoustic music scene. She released her third studio album, New Siberia on Sept 18th, 2012.
Singer songwriter Ellis Paul says “Antje is the rare artist that can write about the social and the personal in the same breath. She is as understated as she is wise and her songs go down mentally as well as soulfully. Her voice has a sound of innocence and naivety which makes razor sharp insights into the human condition. As far as I can tell, Antje is the whole package… I’ve had this reaction once in the past 10 years, and that was the first time I heard Patty Griffin.”
Antje Duvekot solidified her reputation as one of Boston’s top singer songwriters with Big Dream Boulevard her debut studio release and the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer her follow-up CD. The debut CD was produced by Seamus Egan, founder of the Irish super group, SOLAS. The project was released on acclaimed songwriter Ellis Paul’s label, Black Wolf Records and quickly attracted international attention for Antje. It was voted “#1 Folk Release of 2006″ by the Boston Globe and was named to the “Top10 Releases of the Year” by National Public Radio’s, Folk Alley. Her follow up album the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer was produced by Richard Shindell and along side with Richard features other “folk royalty” such as John Gorka, Lucy Kaplancky and Mark Erelli. It was voted #1 album of the year 2009 by WUMB 91.9 fm in Boston.
Antje has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the prestigious, Kerrville (TX) “Best New Folk Award” and in one of the nation’s top music markets, she won the Boston Music Award for “Outstanding Folk Act”, three of the top prizes in the singer songwriter world.
Antje has extensive touring experience, criss-crossing the US and Europe several times. She is a compelling live performer and has been invited to play some of the top festivals including The Newport Folk Festival as well as the Mountain Stage, Philadelphia and Kerrville Festivals. Internationally, she’s headlined the The Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and the Tonder Festival in Denmark.
In December of 2007, The Bank of America featured Antje’s song “Merry Go Round” in a national TV advertising campaign seen by millions, including a Super Bowl audience. Antje’s fast growing fan base, the viral spreading of her music and a track record of sold-out shows are a testament to her growing popularity. Neil Dorfsman, the producer of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Sting says, “When I first heard Antje I knew I was witnessing something very special. She creates an entire, detailed world in verse, and takes you there with beautiful and understated melody. Her songs are stunning paintings of color and shade and always generate the heat and light that real art should. In an unpoetic and ‘in your face’ world, she is lyrical and subtle”
“This debut album is the most refreshing, lyrically impacting record I’ve heard in ages. A stunning debut.” – Maverick Magazine (UK)
“What a blessing to have worked with someone as talented as Antje. With a voice like hers, and songs as good as these, a producer (especially a first-time producer!) just tries to get out of the way, to do no harm, and to let the artist speak for herself.” - Richard Shindell
“Duvekot has gotten hotter, faster than any local songwriter in recent memory. Her songs feel at once fresh faced and firmly rooted, driven by the whispery sensuality of her voice. She believes in the redemptive power of the shared secret; and is utterly unafraid to mine the darkest corners of her life for songs that turn fear into resilience and isolation into community”. - The Boston Globe
Antje Duvekot
Tickets: $20 advance, $24 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Antje Duvekot is one of the brightest singer-songwriters to rise out of Boston’s competitive acoustic music scene. She released her third studio album, New Siberia on Sept 18th, 2012.
Singer songwriter Ellis Paul says “Antje is the rare artist that can write about the social and the personal in the same breath. She is as understated as she is wise and her songs go down mentally as well as soulfully. Her voice has a sound of innocence and naivety which makes razor sharp insights into the human condition. As far as I can tell, Antje is the whole package… I’ve had this reaction once in the past 10 years, and that was the first time I heard Patty Griffin.”
Antje Duvekot solidified her reputation as one of Boston’s top singer songwriters with Big Dream Boulevard her debut studio release and the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer her follow-up CD. The debut CD was produced by Seamus Egan, founder of the Irish super group, SOLAS. The project was released on acclaimed songwriter Ellis Paul’s label, Black Wolf Records and quickly attracted international attention for Antje. It was voted “#1 Folk Release of 2006″ by the Boston Globe and was named to the “Top10 Releases of the Year” by National Public Radio’s, Folk Alley. Her follow up album the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer was produced by Richard Shindell and along side with Richard features other “folk royalty” such as John Gorka, Lucy Kaplancky and Mark Erelli. It was voted #1 album of the year 2009 by WUMB 91.9 fm in Boston.
Antje has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the prestigious, Kerrville (TX) “Best New Folk Award” and in one of the nation’s top music markets, she won the Boston Music Award for “Outstanding Folk Act”, three of the top prizes in the singer songwriter world.
Antje has extensive touring experience, criss-crossing the US and Europe several times. She is a compelling live performer and has been invited to play some of the top festivals including The Newport Folk Festival as well as the Mountain Stage, Philadelphia and Kerrville Festivals. Internationally, she’s headlined the The Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and the Tonder Festival in Denmark.
In December of 2007, The Bank of America featured Antje’s song “Merry Go Round” in a national TV advertising campaign seen by millions, including a Super Bowl audience. Antje’s fast growing fan base, the viral spreading of her music and a track record of sold-out shows are a testament to her growing popularity. Neil Dorfsman, the producer of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Sting says, “When I first heard Antje I knew I was witnessing something very special. She creates an entire, detailed world in verse, and takes you there with beautiful and understated melody. Her songs are stunning paintings of color and shade and always generate the heat and light that real art should. In an unpoetic and ‘in your face’ world, she is lyrical and subtle”
“This debut album is the most refreshing, lyrically impacting record I’ve heard in ages. A stunning debut.” – Maverick Magazine (UK)
“What a blessing to have worked with someone as talented as Antje. With a voice like hers, and songs as good as these, a producer (especially a first-time producer!) just tries to get out of the way, to do no harm, and to let the artist speak for herself.” - Richard Shindell
“Duvekot has gotten hotter, faster than any local songwriter in recent memory. Her songs feel at once fresh faced and firmly rooted, driven by the whispery sensuality of her voice. She believes in the redemptive power of the shared secret; and is utterly unafraid to mine the darkest corners of her life for songs that turn fear into resilience and isolation into community”. - The Boston Globe
Robert Gillies & Callie Moore with Richard Atkins: Concert & Live Webcast
Tickets: $15 advance, $18 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Robert Gillies is one part award-winning songwriter, one part folk-popper, and every bit an infectiously energetic performer. Ask him what he writes and the answer may take you by surprise: “Soap rock. I write folky, poppy, soft rock. Too many words for a genre. So I put it all together and got soap rock. It says it all, though; soap is bubbly and refreshing, and that’s what I love to play. Music that gets you high on life 
and deeper in.”
This Emeryville-based Scot is making moves, and fast. After snatching up a degree at Berklee College of Music in just over two years, he hit the earth sprinting with a performance on Ellen, appearances with Andy Grammer, Charlie Worsham, and Charlie Puth, and a slew of songwriting awards. Armed with his latest release, Astronaut, Robert Gillies is rocketing into the stratosphere, and he wants to take you along for the ride!
Callie Moore grew up in a tiny farming town in Idaho in a house that was constantly filled with music. As a child she would fall asleep to the sound of her father’s many different bluegrass and western swing bands practicing well into the night. When she was 12 years old she picked up a guitar for the first time, and within just hours she had written her first song.
Heavily influenced by the music of her upbringing, Callie released her folky debut album Zen Garden in June of 2010. Shortly thereafter she won the hearts of a global audience with her indie pop song and music video “October” inspired by the loss of her mother to cancer as a child. Callie’s lyrics are anything from bright and witty to intimately heart-wrenching as she crafts her lyrics to relate to the many complexities of the human condition.
Richard Atkins is an incredible songwriter with an equally incredible past. After recording the now cult classic, self-titled record Richard Twice in 1970 through Mercury Records, and suffering from debilitating stage fright that quickly ended his brief recording career, Richard has returned with a renewed resolve, and an arsenal of soul-stirring songs that will leave you wanting more every time.
Namoli Brennet: Concert & Live Webcast
Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Please join us to celebrate the release of Namoli’s newest album, Namoli Brennet Live, featuring four tracks recorded here at Empty Sea.
A portion of webcast proceeds will go to Lambert House, a nonprofit drop-in center for GLBTQ youth in Seattle.
Tucson-based songwriter Namoli Brennet has been touring the country with her own brand of moody and inspiring folk since releasing her first CD in 2002. Since then she’s played over 900 shows and logged over 250,000 miles on her still-running 87 Volvo station wagon. (“I have a great mechanic”, she says.) Touching on often poignant themes, her music and lyrics ultimately paint a vivid and redemptive portrait. She’s a breathtaking and moving performer, and her sweet, road-weary voice is as quick to deliver her wit and humor as it is a turn of phrase. She’s been described as a cross between Lucinda Williams, Patty Griffin and Sheryl Crow, and Zocalo magazine called her music, “Gorgeous and introspective.”
Brennet was given her first guitar at age 8, and after picking it up quickly the ADD songstress started playing drums, piano and saxophone. By the time she graduated from college with a degree in music composition she was waiting tables while writing songs on the side and playing in bar bands. She didn’t start singing until her 20s, because, as she says, “I was surrounded by golden-throated sisters and wasn’t really considered the singer in my family. My voice was always…different.”
Although she’s a little shy and reluctant to talk about it, Brennet also carries another secret: she was not born female. “I transitioned in my late 20s because I had just reached this state of unhappiness that was pretty unbearable.” And athough the themes of identity and freedom weave their way subtly through her songs, being transgender is not the focus of her music: “I know it’s kind of a quirky and interesting part of my story, but as a human being I’m interested in life, spirituality, meaning, social issues, justice, compassion…and these are the things I write about.”
Namoli is currently working on her 9th self-released CD, Rise, which is scheduled for an October release on Flaming Dame records. You’ll often find this prodigious musician in the studio dividing her time between engineering, producing and playing most if not all of the instruments on her recordings. She’s also recorded and produced CDs for other artists, most notably Eric Himan’s 2011 release, Supposed Unknown, which is currently being featured on Sirius XM radio.
A 4-time Outmusic award nominee, Namoli has also won the Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Award and was a finalist in the ISC songwriting competition. Her recent release Black Crow garnered critical acclaim and was named one of KXCI FM’s top albums of 2010. Her music has been featured on NPR, PBS and in films including the Emmy-award winning documentary Out in the Silence, which details the struggle of a gay teen growing up in rural Pennsylvania.
Cancelled – Huck Notari with Jenn Rawling and Basho Parks
Please note – due to unforeseen circumstances this show has been cancelled.
Advance ticketholders: You will receive a full refund through Brown Paper Tickets. We apologize for any inconvenience!
Nick Jaina, Esme Patterson, & Robert Sarazin Blake
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Nick Jaina is from Portland, Oregon. He has released several albums on Hush Records while touring North America with his band. He has written several ballets for a group featuring dancers from the New York City Ballet, in addition to writing music for plays and film. His new album Primary Perception will be released on Fluff & Gravy Records this spring.
With appearances singing with various groups on “All Things Considered,” “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show,” folk & roll songstress Esmé Patterson has been playing music with different groups since she dropped out of college to be in a band, six years ago. Patterson is a founding member of the band Paper Bird, and has performed with them in 
venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Patterson has played, recorded, written and toured with a wide array of artists including Neko Case, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Tennis, Anaïs Mitchell, Flobots, Joe Sampson, and many others. She lives in Denver and loves it very much.
In 1997, Robert Sarazin Blake dropped out of college and hit the road. The folk music of his father’s house had combined with the DIY punk ethos of the day and produced his first batch of songs, Another Irrelevant Year. On the heels of Richard Manning, Billy Bragg, and Ani Difranco, Blake’s 18-year-old release is an early document of the folk-punk movement. On his first US tour, Blake played 30 shows around the US planting seeds as he developed touring, not as an economic model, but as a lifestyle. He hasn’t stopped. Ten full length albums into his career, he’s continued to write pulling from folk roots, his travels, his contemporaries, and the quiet spot in the back of his mind. The writing has 
evolved, mellowing with experience and expanding with reference, but the essence of the work has remained the same-strong narratives solidly built on the folk foundation and fully in the immediacy of the now.
The touring and performing has become an art in itself. Performing 200 shows a year, Blake is a world class performer in a neighborhood venue. The show is a combination of songs and rambles landing somewhere between a concert and a theatrical instillation. The neighborhoods have been all over Ireland and the US and occasionally in Canada, Scotland, England, Norway, Denmark, Germany and France. The shows are booked, managed, and driven to by Blake- a one man cottage industry existing underneath and outside the main-streams of the music business.
Bobby Jo Valentine with Amanda Markley: Concert & Live Webcast
Sorry, this show is completely sold out. No tickets will be released at the door.
However, you can still tune in live to watch our webcast– click here to learn more.
San Francisco based singer-songwriter Bobby Jo Valentine received numerous accolades and TV and radio appearances for his 2011 debut, including designation of Songwriter of the year by the West Coast Songwriter’s Association, spots 
on KGO, KSVY and KRSH and ABC’s “The Morning Blend” and NBC’s “Outlook Video.” Dubbed “the nicest guy ever to pick up an acoustic guitar” by LA Weekly, the pop-rock powerhouse was also recently featured in a commercial for the 2013 Ford Fusion. Ultimately, though, his hard hitting emotional search for A Place To Belong was just a prelude to the hope and confidence the pop/rocker exudes now that, on his second full length album, he’s finally found a Home.
Produced by Calvin Turnbull (Sheryl Crow, Five For Fighting), Home—an ambitious 13 track set Valentine calls “my first big boy album”—is driven by a mix of stripped down, heartfelt acoustic songs and dynamic full band tracks featuring several talented musicians, including bassist David Hayes (Blondie, Van Morrison) and veteran drummer Dave Tweedie. From the hard driving, sexy “commitment is cool’ rocker “Come Back To Bed” to 
the universal yearning of the pop-blues influenced title track and the thoughtful, whimsical “Chase Away My Dark,” the songs are filled with optimistic, honest messages about hope and day to day struggles. They roll together like a wave of heartfelt confessionals and anthemic philosophies about life. Valentine explores the tense high wire between light and dark, but doesn’t always wrap things up with a tidy answer.
The singer’s sense of realism, charm and infectious melodies and vocals earned the praises of industry vets like Brian Lucey, mastering engineer for The Shin and The Black Keys, who said, “Bobby Jo writes with a sweetness and honesty seldom heard in acoustic pop music.” Just as importantly, those same attributes have earned Valentine a large and ever- expanding West Coast fan base in the year and a half he has been performing.
Amanda Markley:
Amanda Markley is a young singer/songwriter from the Seattle area. With a classical guitarist dad, and a mom with a background in singing, she grew up surrounded by music. Exposed to an eclectic mix of genres, including folk, pop, gospel, classic rock, and country, her tastes and style grew from a young age.
At sixteen, she was diagnosed with stress fractures in her 
spine. This curtailed her horseback riding passion and ended a dream to one day be considered for the U.S. Olympic Team in show jumping. She turned to writing to help ease her frustration, pain and depression and recorded her first EP, LOVE AND WAR at the age of seventeen.
Her second album BREATHE, was produced by the talented and award winning singer/songwriter Scott Krippayne, who has written songs recorded by Demi Lovato, Joe Jonas, Kutless, Point of Grace, Avalon and Jaci Velasquez as well as others.
BREATHE is a collection of songs of hope and inspiration, written from the heart. It is a mellow and introspective set, evoking feelings of a warm cup of tea and crackling fireplace. Her melodies and sound have caught the attention of radio stations both here and overseas. Her fans in the U.K. are numerous, and building since she gained airplay from a UK station. James Crowther, DJ for Reading Radio Station said “once in a while someone appears who truly takes my breath away. It was an honour to play you yesterday and we had great feedback.”
Amanda’s inspirational lyrics have recently crossed over, and her song HOME has been played on the west coast station Racman Christian Radio. She is just beginning her performance career, and is a favorite of both young and old. Personable and sincere at her concerts, she is winning new fans everywhere she goes. She has shared the stage with bands including The Union Street Orchestra, Chasing Vegas, Step One, and Hatters For Hire at venues varying from The Kirkland Teen Union Building to El Corazón in Seattle.
One listener wrote, “The whole album is very touching and evokes all sorts of emotions. Each song could and does easily stand on its own. The unique sound of this music tears at one’s heart strings and pulls emotions ranging from happiness and excitement to very sad…”
She hopes her music will inspire both young and old to follow their dreams, appreciate what they have, and “just breathe.” It all gets better from here.
Sweet William’s Ghost with Kirk Reese
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Sweet William’s Ghost is a musical project based out of Portland, Oregon. At its core are the roots-based songwriting of Dean Gorman (The Tumblers) and the haunting harmonies/musical arrangements of Ali Ippolito (When the Broken Bow). Since then, several other musicians have joined the fold to help fill out the once sparse soundscape.
What started as a one-off recording project for some unrecorded demos eventually spawned three albums of original material: Sweet William’s Ghost (2008), Hills Turning Green (2010), and Short Way Home (2012). The later, being released this December on limited-edition vinyl, features members of The Tumblers, Wayward Vessel, Melville, and Kinder Bison.
Kirk Reese was born on a farm in rural Iowa surrounded by five brothers and a house full of love and music. The son of a farmer and no stranger to hard work these early years became the foundation of many of Kirk’s songs. While in college Kirk began writing songs inspired by his childhood and life experience, influenced by the likes of Townes van Zandt and John Prine among others.
He also started playing his first open mics and playing guitar in his first bluegrass band. Kirk moved to Seattle in 2000 and continued writing songs and playing open mics around town, also playing mandolin and guitar in several bluegrass bands. Kirk is currently recording his first solo album due out in 2013. He is also the father of a new baby girl who continues to inspire him every day.
