Honey Island Swamp Band w/ Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones – $12/15

8pm $12/15

Honey Island Swamp Band Take a late-night stroll through downtown New Orleans and you’ll hear a thousand flavours of music spill from the clubs. Spin the new album by the Crescent City’s new favourite sons, meanwhile, and you’ll hear a band who embody that eclectic spirit. “There are songs here for every mood, occasion or playlist,” explains Honey Island Swamp Band’s Aaron Wilkinson of Demolition Day, “so hopefully it will appeal to a lot of musical tastes. Just make sure you turn it up loud…” Released in 2016 on Ruf Records, Demolition Day is the band’s fourth full-length studio release and marks a milestone in their career. The album title cuts deep. It’s just over a decade since Hurricane Katrina tore along the Gulf Coast, plunging New Orleans into devastation, but throwing together four Big Easy evacuees who found themselves marooned in San Francisco. Aaron Wilkinson (acoustic guitar/mandolin/vocals), Chris Mulé (electric guitar/vocals), Sam Price (bass/vocals) and Garland Paul (drums/vocals) were already on nodding terms from their hometown circuit, but when the four men joined forces for a weekly residency at San Francisco’s Boom Boom Room, the chemistry was undeniable. By 2009, the lineup had released award-winning debut Wishing Well, enlisted Hammond B-3 wizard Trevor Brooks and placed one foot onto the podium of New Orleans greats. Ten years and a thousand gigs down the line, that same battle-hardened lineup took just four days to track Demolition Day at The Parlor Recording Studio in New Orleans with famed producer Luther Dickinson (also leader of the North Mississippi Allstars and ex-Black Crowes guitarist). “We had a very tight window to record,” Wilkinson recalls, “so we had to minimalise in places and really pack a lot of emotion into each take. Luther calls it ‘the freedom of limitation’ and it really served us well on this album. As did the no-frills production ethos. “We’ve always wanted to record to two-inch tape, to get that old analogue sound,” say the band, “and this was our first opportunity to make it happen. Luther was the perfect producer to help us nail that old-school, authentic sound. He was great at keeping us focused on the spirit of each performance, not getting bogged down in details and perfectionism. That’s what we were looking for and what we needed. After all, polish isn’t necessary when you’re working with songs this strong. Across its eleven cuts, Demolition Day tips a hat to most of the great American genres, while adding the Honey Island Swamp Band’s inimitable thumbprint. There’s the spring-heeled slide-blues of “Ain’t No Fun”, the upbeat funk of “Head High Water Blues”, the cat-house piano and country-fried guitars of “How Do You Feel”. But then, on the emotional flipside, there’s also the reflective wah-guitar lilt of “Say It Isn’t True”, the mournful funeral-jazz slow-burn of “No Easy Way” and the heart-in-mouth acoustic confessional of “Katie”. “We’re diverse and complex people,” Wilkinson says, “and our audiences are as well. So we try to let our music reflect that. Just as eclectic are the lyrical themes. “They really are all over the map,” Wilkinson says of the topics explored on Demolition Day. “Some are rooted in reality and personal experience. ‘Head High Water Blues’ is a look back at the Hurricane Katrina experience now that ten years has passed. Much has been rebuilt, but much has not and never will be – and the song is more about the emotional scars that can never be fully erased. Others are just fiction and storytelling. We had the music for ‘Through Another Day’, and it sounded sort of old and epic and Southern, and that inspired this Civil War-era storyline that became the lyrics. Others are just sort of playful nonsense about life and relationships, like ‘Watch And Chain’. Demolition Day is just the start. You might experience these eleven tracks for the first time on your stereo or smartphone, but as Honey Island Swamp Band tour across the States and beyond in 2016, you can expect them to take on a life of their own. “These songs will continue to progress, develop and blossom,” Wilkinson says. “A record is a snapshot in time, a picture of where a song is at a particular moment. But we’ve never been the type of band to stick to one way of playing a song, so we’ll continue to let the music evolve. That’s what keeps it fresh and exciting for us – and we want to share that with our audiences.” https://www.facebook.com/honeyislandswampband

w/ Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones Winner of the 2017 Ameripolitan Music Award for Best Female Rockabilly Artist, and named the “Best Up-And-Coming Band” by Hudson Valley Magazine, Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones are New York’s premier roots rock n’ roll, rockabilly, rhythm & blues outfit. The Ark-Tones recently released their 2nd full length album, “Love You to Life”, on August 11th, and they will be hitting the road, spreading the gospel of American music wherever they go for the majority of 2018. Describing their sound, Hope explained to Rockabilly Online “I would say we are a new take on an old sound. It’s been described as ‘pan-americana’ which means we use many areas of early rock and roots music as a creative launchpad. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess, because while we appreciate old music, we don’t want to write songs that have already been written.” They’ve built a great network of venues in the US by touring heavily, and like many American bands, they have gained supportive fans and excellent press overseas as well. They will be touring Europe for the first time in the coming year, spending the month of April 2018 in Belgium and Holland. Hope was featured on the cover of UK Rock n’ Roll magazine in March 2015, and New York’s Ulster Magazine in March 2016. The band has shared the stage with many larger acts including Tiger Army, Gary US Bonds, Dale Watson, Big Sandy, Wayne Hancock, and America, and has performed at at a variety of festivals including Viva Las Vegas, Ink n Iron, and The Nashville Boogie. Born from a hybrid of Lara’s former rockabilly band The Champtones, and upright bassist Matt’s international psychobilly act, The Arkhams, The Ark-Tones hit the ground running in 2012 and haven’t slowed down since. Lara and Matt also perform as a duo (The Gold Hope Duo), and can even be found as the country/western entertainers at the one of longest running family resorts in New York, the Rocking Horse Ranch, performing under the name Lara and the Hope’Alongs. In 2017, Lara Hope won the Ameripolitan Music Award for Best Female Rockabilly Artist, accepting the award at The Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas, surrounded by musical heroes. The band is also known for their visually arresting videos – “Whiskey Pick” (from their debut album) and “I’m the One” (re-recorded for the new album) were official selections in the 2014 and 2016 Woodstock Film Festival. https://www.larahopeandtheark-tones.com