Chris Knight
This is a 18+ event with standing room only After 23 years as a recording artist, singer-songwriter Chris Knight remains boldly empowered to make music that always delivers the unflinching truth. In fact, the man raised in Slaughters, Kentucky uses a simple, direct barometer to regularly check his muse: “If I can’t believe myself, I won’t sing the song.” That brutally honest, no-frills philosophy fits his Americana-fueled, backwoods-grown merger of folk, country, and rock. It’s been at the backbone of nine studio albums, beginning with 1998’s acclaimed self-titled debut and traveling through scorchers such as the one-two punch of 2001’s A Pretty Good Guy and 2003’s The Jealous Kind, two demo-styled discs (2007’s The Trailer Tapes and 2009’s Trailer II), and the recent, electric guitar-fortified opus, 2019’s Almost Daylight. Because Knight’s music has always sat outside of the mainstream, onstage is where he makes his fans one show at a time. It is exactly where his searing tales of rural characters, fringe survivors, and tumultuous small-town existence find a captivated audience. A few edgy, raw gems that immediately come to mind are “It Ain’t Easy Being Me,” “Carla Came Home,” “I’m William Callahan,” and “Everybody’s Lonely Now,” the latter two from Almost Daylight. What Knight writes about is what he knows. He was raised in mining country, so it’s no surprise that he would earn a degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University and then work as a mine reclamation inspector and then miner’s consultant. But eventually his passion for writing songs and playing guitar, both inspired by his musical hero, the late John Prine, led him to chronicle his surroundings in words and music.
Dale Hollow w/ Jessi Phillips
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only “Stupid is as stupid does / does that make me the dumbest one of all time?” — Dale Hollow, “Hack of the Year” A bit Andy Kaufman, a little Orville Peck, a hint of Father John Misty, Dale Hollow possesses “a fascinating combination of performance and purveyed authenticity,” as the lifestyle magazine Mundane once posited, while also noting that “no other country music artist has ever claimed to be the best, except for Dale Hollow.” Legend has it that Dale actually tried to trademark the phrase “The Country Music Superstar,” so every time someone like Luke Bryan, Loretta Lynn, Jessica Simpson or Darius Rucker attached that phrase to their names, Dale gets some cash. And while Hollow can be purposely self-elevating, that seemingly tall tale is true. “I sent $150 to the copyright office…and I got denied instantly,” he says. “That’s why I use that parenthetical justification (trademark pending).” A mysterious figure in the country music world, here’s what we do know: Hollow, who hails from Nashville and is named after the Kentucky reservoir, had an inauspicious start to his music career. The future country legend was just trying to pay off $35,000 in back taxes. “I was trying to get cash fast,” he admits. “One day, sitting in an internet cafe, I read this article that detailed how Luke Bryan was the most profitable artist in streaming. So I just thought, ‘I’ll do what he does.’” Thankfully, that odd inspiration has led to some not-so-seriously good music. Dale’s new record, Hack of the Year, is a hoot, full of crooning, shuffling beats, yelps and plenty of self-effacing singalongs. While there’s a bit of an arched eyebrow that comes along with some of Hollow’s work, the record itself and the live show are musically savvy. Credit there goes to Hollow’s partners in crime and backing band, The Long Con. “My best talent is finding more talented and capable musicians,” says Dale. Which doesn’t mean Hollow isn’t the focal point when it comes to the live setting. “There’s a lot of energy from me on stage — it’s a very kinetic show,” says Hollow. “There are a lot of jumps and kicks and unnecessary and unorthodox things. But it’s not frenetic that you can’t pay attention! Also, I’m 6’5” — throw on a cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, I’m pretty good at making myself look goofy. A tall guy with a hat on stage, that’s amusing.”
Katy Kirby w/ Mei Semones and Jes Kramer
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only Let’s face it: There’s no such thing as “real life”. There is only experience and the negotiations we undertake in orderto share it with other people. On her second album Blue Raspberry, the New York-based songwriter Katy Kirby divesheadlong into the artifice of intimacy: the glitter smeared across eyelid creases, the smiles switched on with an electricbuzz, the synthetic rose scent all over someone who’s made herself smell nice just for you. An exegesis of Kirby’s firstqueer relationship, Blue Raspberry traces the crescendo and collapse of new love, savoring each gleaming shard ofrock candy and broken glass along the way.
Over the Rhine
This is a 18+ event with standing room only When you listen to Over the Rhine, the supremely talented musical couple comprised of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, you quickly fall under the spell of Karin’s timeless voice “which has the power to stop the world in its tracks” (Performing Songwriter). But then the songs start hitting you. Paste Magazine writes, “Over the Rhine creates true confessional masterpieces that know neither border nor boundary” and included Bergquist and Detweiler in their list of 100 Best Living Songwriters. Rolling Stone recently wrote, Over the Rhine is a band “with no sign of fatigue, whose moment has finally arrived.” That’s quite a sentiment for a band celebrating 30 years of writing, recording, and life on the road. But as Karin Bergquist states, “There is still so much music left to be made.” Love & Revelation, the brand new album from Over the Rhine, is a record for right now. The songs have been rigorously road tested and burst at the seams with loss, lament, and resilient hope. The LA Times writes, “The Ohio based husband and wife duo has long been making soul-nourishing music, and the richness only deepens.”
Max Lockwood w/ Hannah Laine of Earth Radio
21 and over This is a partially seated performance “[Lockwood has] proven himself to be far more than just an engaging sideman. He’s an emerging Michigan star in his own right.” -John Sinkevics, Local Spins Songwriter, vocalist, and poet Max Lockwood channels the flair of Tom Petty and the eloquence of the Beat Generation’s finest to create a sound rooted in songcraft and heartfelt lyricism and bound with elements of rock and roll, folk and pop. With full arrangements and rich poetic focus, the listener is led into a deep sonic landscape by songs that seek to uncover truths of love, adversity, and growth. The first note Max Lockwood sings has the undeniable ability to capture the attention of any crowd. His powerful voice, akin to the likes of Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen, grips listeners with its raw emotion and sheer possibility. With each song, a story is told with rich, vulnerable tones and unbridled emotions.
