Lindsay Fuller & Gregory Paul
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door.
Sorry, this show is completely sold out! No tickets will be released at the door.
Lindsay Fuller is an Alabama bred, Seattle-based songwriter who has been described as “Flannery O’Connor with a telecaster” (Twang Nation) on account of her gritty, haunting storytelling. Her most recen album The Last Light I See , a follow up to her debut Lindsay Fuller and The Cheap Dates, was released in June 2010.
Her unique voice has been described as a “burnished, soulful trill that sounds like the frame of a beautiful old church that’s about to collapse on itself” (The Examiner) and “a delicious combo platter of soulfulness and vibrato that grabs you by the shoulders and gives you a good shake” (Spectrum
Culture). She recently had the opportunity to open some shows for national acts including the Indigo Girls and The Civil Wars. She and her band (The Cheap dates) are currently working on a new record that they plan to release in the fall of 2011.
Gregory Paul spent most of his life as a musician in Upstate, NY before moving to Seattle in May, 2009. He has been touring and releasing solo albums sporadically since 1996 consisting of haunted, mesmerizing songs and compositions with folk, traditional, psych, experimental and minimalist influences. He currently earns a living as a street musician performing old time clawhammer banjo songs at the Pike Place Market.
Levi Fuller, Tomo Nakayama, Louis O’Callaghan
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Please join us for this triple bill as three Seattle songwriters take the Empty Sea stage!
Levi Fuller has released three solo albums since moving to Seattle from Boston in 2001. His 2009 album Colossal was praised as “one of the most elegant, quietly powerful albums you’ll hear this year” by The Stranger, and “a striking collection of minimalist acoustic songs” by the Seattle Weekly. In addition, he performs as a member of Seattle bands Pufferfish, The Luna Moth, and The Dexter Street Stompers, and curates the compilation series Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly.
Tomo Nakayama is the singer, multi-instrumentalist, and chief songwriter of the Seattle ensemble Grand Hallway. Nakayama’s folk-influenced chamber pop songs feature his high tenor voice and stark, poetic lyrics sung in both English and Japanese. Grand Hallway’s albums have earned acclaim from NPR, KEXP, and Amazon.com, and they have performed all over the United States and Japan, sharing the stage with such artists as Shearwater, Damien Jurado, Robin Pecknold, and Shugo Tokumaru. Nakayama will be performing songs from Grand Hallway’s upcoming full-length album, which they are currently recording in Portland and is due out sometime in 2011.
Louis O’Callaghan has released two solo rock/folk albums as The Graze, currently plays in neo/art grunge band An Invitation to Love, and is a veteran of several Seattle bands including Brent Amaker and the Rodeo, Rosyvelt, and Mississippi Painful.
Korby Lenker
Tickets: $14 advance, $16 at the door.
Sorry, this show is completely sold out! No tickets will be released at the door.
How does a quietly intense singer-songwriter reconcile the weathered box of snapshots from his past that includes a mortician father in Idaho, snake-handling religious revivals in West Virginia and live performances ranging from burnished bluegrass standards to arcane Cure covers? If you happen to be Korby Lenker, you make sense of it all by conjuring music every bit as eclectic and compelling as the improbable path that lead you to the stage.
Yes, Korby does indie pop. But at the same time, his voice and pen are both profound enough to appeal to fans of Americana poet laureates like Willie Nelson, Steve Earle and Ray Lamontagne, all of whom he’s shared the stage with. Like Lenker himself, this music is intricate, multifaceted, heartfelt, brilliant.
His electrifying live performances swing effortlessly between moments of rocked-out abandon and intimate, aching tension. It all adds up to one of today’s most important new voices, as a growing legion of followers in North America and the U.K. can eagerly attest. One listen to his eighth self-produced work, Lovers and Fools, will leave no doubt. Do yourself a favor and discover Korby Lenker.
Cancelled – Gabrielle Louise
Please note: This concert has been cancelled due to a family emergency. Advance ticketholders will receive a full refund. We apologize for the inconvenience!
Gabrielle Louise’s music is anchored deeply in folk, but undeniably drawn to rich harmonies and melodic adventurism. Her sound has the earthy feel of early Joni Mitchell while also veering into the spirited delivery of fellow genre-hopping artist Martin Sexton. Unafraid to take a random musical escapade in the name of inspiration, Gabrielle is at one moment folkie and ethereal, the next moment a smoky jazz chanteuse. She has 100% independently released four records, Journey (2006), Around in Circles, the E.P. (2007), Cigarettes for Sentiments (2008), and Live in Coal Creek Canyon (2009).
Gabrielle’s music has been best appreciated in listening atmospheres with introspective, attentive crowds. She strives to communicate more through soul than special effect and gently entices her listener to release their grip on the status quo. In a music industry that tends to view its artists as either super-stars or failures, Gabrielle aims to break the trend by offering her creative personality as-is, a professional presentation of her private journaling.
As a performer and songwriter, Gabrielle has made a commitment towards the environment. In 2007, she released a single, “Save the Arkansas” that seeks to bring awareness to a dire environmental situation that is threatening the health and safety of the Arkansas River Watershed. Having both grown up and worked as a raft guide on the Arkansas, maintaining the purity of its waters is very important to her.
Recently, Gabrielle has been getting deeply involved in the world of alternative fueling. She tours in a Veggie Van, affectionately dubbed “Vita,” using what would be thrown out restaurant grease to fuel the tour vehicle! Gabrielle Louise and her tour manager, Chris Garre give workshops along the way, explaining to interested environmentalists how the technology works to convert and run a vehicle on used grease.
Myk Gordon
Tickets: $13 advance, $15 door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
For singer-songwriter Myk Gordon and Grammy-award winning producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Jackie Greene), the magic in their recent musical collaboration, SET FREE, is the result of a winning combination of stellar songwriting, unbeatable supporting talent, and irrepressible vision.
“The whole project has been amazing,” says Berlin. “It has certainly been one of the best I can remember, in terms of everyone coming together, capturing the moment, getting great performances quickly.”
In an abandoned Masonic temple in North Portland, Gordon, Berlin, engineer/bassist Jim Brunberg (Box Set), guitarist Paul Rigby and pedal steel player Jon Rauhouse (Jakob Dylan, Neko Case, Calexico, New Pornographers), and drummer Drew Shoals (Pat Monahan of Train) put their considerable creative prowess to work on 10 tracks for SET FREE.
“…[SET FREE] is nothing short of a classic country-soul tour de force.”
Francois Marchand, Vancouver Sun (click to see full article)
“Gordon’s finest songs ever. The new country/soul sound is perfect for his smart, hurtin’ songs. A career peak.”
-Stuart Derdyn, The Province
Gordon, who hails from Vancouver, B.C., has built a respected following over a span of six independent releases for having “a steady hand when mixing pop, folk, emotion and intelligence,” (Toronto Star). He is an “accomplished performer” (TimeOut, London) who has shared stages with artists including Emmylou Harris, Ron Sexsmith and Joan Osborne.
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.
Barton Carroll
Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
“Let’s Get On with The Illusion,” sings Barton Carroll on his fourth album, Together You and I on Skybucket Records, out January 19, 2010.
It’s a song about love – but a shoulder-shrug type of love that resigns itself to “I guess this is good enough.” A cynical narrative runs through the album for sure, but Carroll’s sardonic wit is coupled with lightly shuffling horns, making for happy sounding songs instead of a somber ones. His tone and sleight-of-hand songwriting skill gained him critical acclaim for his previous release, The Lost One from Pitchfork, Harp, American Songwriter and more. Is Carroll is singing about his own experiences or smiling with a beer and watching others screw it up (and then taking home the girl)?
“I tried to think like Cole Porter when I wrote that song. He was a master at metaphor,” says Carroll. “His songs were sweet and dark, hopeless and happy, fresh and unashamedly cliché. Sounds a lot like love.”
A North Carolina native who now lives in Seattle, Carroll’s songs are structured in folk traditions he grew up with, but he trades in standard instrumentation for the west Coast horn sound of Craig Flory, and the production of Jazz bassist, Matt Weiner. The three bonded over a love of the Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond records of the 1960′s, and the influence comes through. He also sings his first duets with Seattle singer Anna Lisa Notter.
Carroll’s love for a previous era comes alive on the first track, “The Poor Boy Can’t Dance.” “I love how the band sounds on this one. They sound like a WWII era English Swing band: the kind of guys who are classically trained, but they have just been bitten by the Swing bug. Love that clarinet!,” says Carroll.
“Something Good” is the only song Carroll didn’t write, and it comes from an odd-sounding source for a Seattle based musician – The Sound of Music. “This has been a regular in my live set for the past few years. It was the first song that I decided to put on this album, and I think it sets the tone for the whole record. I think it lives beautifully between hope and sadness. And I thought the first line sounded a bit like a Barton Carroll song, ‘Perhaps I had a wicked childhood. Perhaps I had a miserable youth.’”
The title song is akin to a desultory short story – a follow up to “Burning Red And Blue,” a song of destructive love from the last record. But, with Notter’s vocal and traces of hope in the characters, maybe their ending will be okay after all. “The characters are a few years older. The man has been imprisoned, and the woman is trying to adjust to life alone in a foreign land. This is the conversation they have through the prison glass.” (MORE)
Barton Carroll grew up in Banner Elk, North Carolina. He has toured and recorded in Crooked Fingers, Azure Ray and Dolorean. “Together You And I” is his fourth solo album. He lives in Seattle.
Praise for The Lost One
“Putting his songwriting at the forefront, the straightforwardness of the arrangements make his character sketches sound believably plainspoken instead of clever. The Lost One is a fine way to spend 42 minutes, and probably best served with scotch.” Pitchfork
“While most folks are either struggling with something, creating tension in their music, and others are relying on more traditional methods and sounds to form their music, Carroll somehow makes it seem effortless… the beauty of his songs leaves a feeling of easiness…This is excellent Americana without a hint of twang, but so much soul and depth that it needs to be heard. Give your soul the dark light that it craves and give The Lost One a listen.” Hybrid Magazine
“One of the most stunning of these tracks, is “Burning Red and Blue”, built on a circling 12/8 blues riff that’ll put you in mind of “House of the Rising Sun”. There’s a menace in the verse, as the narrating character insinuates “I’ll be out back / In my blue jeans / And my gun” to a woman who is clearly not entirely free to make her own choices. It’s masterfully done, though, the whine of steel guitar, the deep baritone mutterings, the half-sketched portrait of destructive love.” Popmatters
Jeremy Facknitz & Teresa Storch
Tickets: $13 advance, $15 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
“Jeremy Facknitz is a one-man acoustic act with the panache needed to become a star, armed with a melodic voice and a truckload of charisma…” - Sydney Hamilton, Colorado Springs Independent
“As a solo artist, Facknitz clearly developed a driving rhythm style on the acoustic to propel his music. When his sound is backed by a band, the layers of rhythm and harmony are quite tasty.” - Bill Reed, Colorado Springs Gazette
Jeremy Facknitz didn’t even pick up a guitar and begin writing songs until he was 18 years old. His aunt, a songwriter herself, passed down her old Yamaha acoustic to Jeremy as Christmas gift. Within a few short months, the Michigan native found himself competing in local talent shows and jamming in various basement bands. In 1997 he made the trek upstairs and joined the Detroit-based band ‘The Ottomans’ (2001 Best New Alternative Band, Detroit Music Awards). Jeremy played bass guitar in the project, was the main music contributor to the groups compositions. After ‘The Ottomans’ parted ways in 2002, Jeremy and brother Jarod formed under the moniker ‘Standing Room Only’ and shared their not-so-subtle mix of deadly serious and comedic songs with intimate coffee shop gatherings throughout the mid-west. Since going solo in September 2003, Jeremy has lived and played all over the United States. Having completed U.S. mini-tours in 2006 and 2008, plans are underway for a 2010 tour to support his new album, “Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”. Jeremy is currently living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he performs and teaches lessons.
Singer/songwriter Teresa Storch is constantly moving, either on stage or in her Pontiac Vibe. She has been releasing albums and touring
nationally since 2003, spreading her funky-soulful folk throughout the country. She’s now known as a voice and presence not to be missed, with a passion you feel from the audience and a connection like she’s known you forever. She’ll draw you in with her rich, engaging voice, rhythmic, percussive guitar and writing that has roots in folk, jazz and blues–pulling stories from real-life and taking snapshots of what matters most.
“She inhabits her songs so fully you can’t help but be pulled into her world.” – Boston Herald writer Daniel Gewertz
“One of the most inventive writers and solid performers coming out of Boston today. Makes me proud to be one.” –Vance Gilbert
“Storch infuses contemporary singer/songwriter with traditional folk vibe…It’s no wonder she’s being recognized in her genre.” –Soundcheck Magazine
Rachel Harrington & Rita Hosking
Tickets:$20 advance / door (advance tickets strongly recommended.)
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Reared among the Pentecostal pines of Oregon, Rachel Harrington has been doing things in the wrong order for quite some time. She’d had extensive radio play before performing her live show, and she was opening for Grammy winners and nominees before releasing her first record.
Rachel’s critically acclaimed 2007 debut, The Bootlegger’s Daughter, (featuring guest musicians John Reischman and Danny Barnes) went to #1 on the Euro-Americana Chart and landed the Seattle siren smack in the center of the UK Americana scene when legendary BBC DJ Bob Harris proclaimed Bootlegger’s Daughter one of the best albums of the year. The following year of aggressive touring saw Harrington playing festivals in a dozen countries with some of the top names in bluegrass and country music.
Rachel’s 2008 follow-up record, City of Refuge, features several guests including Tim O’Brien and Pieta Brown. City of Refuge garnered further acclaim, reaching millions of listeners when Starbucks requested three of the cds 10 tracks for in-store play throughout the US, supported by national US distribution from Burnside.
After three straight months of touring internationally during the summer of 2009, which included headline spots the Glasgow Americana Festival (Scotland) and the Maverick Festival (England), Rachel is being touted as the hardest working woman in Americana. 2010 sees Rachel headlining the UK’s largest festival, Celtic Connections, and showcasing at the prestigious International Folk Alliance Conference.
Q Magazine: FOUR STARS! “Gothic tracks on an inspiringly original album”
Mojo: FOUR STARS! “Beguiling!”
Sound Northwest: FOUR STARS! “Harrington has a gift of making the old new again”
Utne Reader: “like the young Emmylou”
Kitchen tables, springs, loss, miners, mountains, culture clash, trailers, stray dogs, loggers, hope, forest fires—Rita Hosking‘s country-folk music is this and more, and always fierce and lovely. Her delivery is, to put it simply, intense. “From the first time I heard Rita sing, her voice gripped me and did not let go,” (Joe Craven.)
That voice, called a “soulful howl from the mountains” (California Bluegrass Association) is calling attention around the country—”What? California girls don’t sing like that!!?” But Rita, called “the real thing” by CA acoustic music fans, will tell you about her upbringing in rural Shasta County, and the old-time band of seasoned mountain characters that took her under their wings. “This California girl comes by her mountain-music sensibility with true authenticity, with original songs deeply rooted in her family’s frontier experience,” (Dan Ruby, FestivalPreview.com.) A descendant of Cornish miners who sang in the mines, Rita grew up with deep regard for folk music and the power of the voice.
Rita’s songs have been lauded for story and sense of place, and her performances praised for capturing the audience. Honors include winner of the ’08 Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at the Sisters Folk Festival, finalist for the ’09 Telluride Troubadour Contest, and others as well. She has played her songs for appreciative listeners at the Strawberry Music Festival, Kate Wolf Music Festival, and many more. Rita points out that she likes to “get to the heart of the matter.” As with a mystic, this means a loaded and stunning, yet gentle and compassionate delivery. As Craven adds, “Rita’s messages are immediate yet patient and her quiet conviction most strong.”
Shannon Stephens w/ The Marrying Type
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door.
Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Shannon Stephens was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the daughter of a hymn-singing mother who played the piano with high heels and a hootenanny-hosting father with red pants and a sonorous Roy Orbison voice. She learned to play the acoustic guitar during the particularly boring summer of 1992. She moved to Michigan shortly thereafter, and met Sufjan Stevens at a concert. She became the voice of the band Marzuki, a Celtic-inspired folk-rock ensemble comprised of Shannon, Sufjan, Matthew Haseltine and Jamie Kempkers. Marzuki played a lot of shows in Michigan, and a few ill-fated shows in New York City. They released two albums in the five years that they were together, all out of print.
Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were okay. It’s no wonder then, that blurring the line between light and dark is what he does best. After fronting a metal band (The Abodox) for over 10 years, his new acoustic project, The Marrying Type, balances the scales while making use of all that dexterity won through playing metal. ”Until Death,” The Marrying Type’s debut, marks Smurthwaite’s long-awaited re-emergence into the folk music scene.