Hudson RiverStage brings today’s brightest emerging artists, as well as established favorites to the Hudson River waterfront. These free outdoor summer concerts are staged in a festival setting at the expansive Pier 97 and will feature some of New York City’s favorite comfort food!
These “Americana” artists merge the classic American sounds of acoustic, roots and folk traditions into a contemporary rock sound.
John McCauley and Deer Tick have long walked a tightwire between total despair and fractured resilience. Following the 2013 release of its fifth album, Negativity, the Providence, Rhode Island-based band, comprised of McCauley, guitarist Ian O’Neil, bassist Chris Ryan, drummer Dennis Ryan and keyboard player Rob Crowell, returned to its alt-folk roots. The summer of 2016 finds Deer Tick bringing its “acoustic” talents to Hudson RiverStage in the band’s only New York area performance.
First impressions matter, especially on a debut album. Fortunately, it only takes Margo Price about 28 seconds to convince you that you’re hearing the arrival of a singular new talent. “Hands of Time,” the opener on Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (Third Man Records), is an invitation, a mission statement and a starkly poetic summary of the 32-year old singer’s life, all in one knockout, self-penned punch. Easing in over a groove of sidestick, bass and atmospheric guitar, Price sings, “When I rolled out of town on the unpaved road, I was fifty-seven dollars from bein’ broke . . .” It has the feel of the first line of a great novel or opening scene in a classic film. Her voice has that alluring mix of vulnerability and resilience that was once the province of Loretta and Dolly. It is a tour-de-force performance that is vivid, deeply moving and all true.
Anaïs Mitchell is a Vermont and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter who comes from the world of narrative folksong, poetry and balladry. She recorded for Ani Difranco’s Righteous Babe Records for several years before starting her own Wilderland label in 2012. Among her recorded works are six full-length albums, including 2010’s sensationally-reviewed Hadestown, a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth; 2012’s Young Man in America, which was described by the UK’s Independent as ‘an epic tale of American becoming’; and 2013’s Child Ballads, a collaboration with Jefferson Hamer, which won a BBC Radio Two Folk Award for Best Album. Mitchell has headlined worldwide as well as supporting tours for Bon Iver, Ani Difranco, The Low Anthem (all of whom appear as guest singers on Hadestown), Richard Thompson, Josh Ritter, Patty Griffin and Punch Brothers. The stage production of Hadestown opens Off-Broadway in May.
A southern occultist juxtaposed in the middle of New York City, Breanna Barbara writes songs that make your soul dance, songs that make you question how many lives you’ve led, and if you ever lived at all. Mirage Dreams, the debut LP by Barbara is set to release June 25, 2016 via No Roads Records.
Tyler and Kyle Davis are brothers born on the same date two years apart. This magic thread, strung between them, allows them to unleash overwhelming volleys of sonic power and control with spine-tingling precision. Embracing the hip-shake and the head-bang, picking and choosing from punk, psych, garage, world music and rock n’ roll, Tyler and Kyle have used the intervening years to add dimensions and secrets to their tunes. With the addition of JOTA ESE and Ric Alessio, they continue to take their songs to new depths of arrangement and dynamic, without a shred of pretense or hesitation. With four records, (Illegal Smiles, Lazy Bones, You are the Pisces) under their belt, and hundreds of shows behind them, Chrome Pony is set to release their newest addition to their catalog, ‘Past Lives’ this year.