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Seryn, Brave Baby
Fri., May 24Country/Folk
Seryn
Using mainly acoustic instruments including ukelele, accordion and banjo, Texas based six-piece Seryn craft shifting, swelling, almost liturgical compositions that bear a passing resemblance to folk, while sharing common touchstones with indie-pop. Seryn's multi-instrumental live presentation has been described as “a music shop (that) threw up onstage,” and they occasionally need to nod to audiences to let folks know when their lengthy, ebbing and flowing compositions have come to an end. Frequently compared to the ubiquitous Mumford & Sons, and to the sprawling, folk-inflected song cycles of Sufjan Stevens, Seryn are both freakier than the Mumfords and more grounded than Stevens. Closer comparisons are the orchestrated Americana of Van Dyke Parks and the meditative cyclical classicism of guitarist James Blackshaw. Seryn's achingly beautiful five part harmonies easily outstrip anything the Fleet Foxes ever attempted, hitting the sweet spot occupied by Brian Eno at his most meditative. True to their name which draws from the first two syllables of “serenade” and “serenity,” Seryn make joyful noise that seems to be searching for the eye of a psychic storm. Call it “third eye music.”
$8/$10
The Steel Wheels, Anna Egge
Fri., May 24Country/Folk
ANA EGGE
Given her unusual upbringing, Brooklyn-based folk troubadour Ana Egge was bound to be a free spirit. Raised on a hot springs hippie commune in rural New Mexico, Egge learned to build her own guitar from her alternative school’s astrology teacher. Egge still plays that guitar today, singing about self-sufficiency, restlessness and the road in a clear, warm alto which suggests a harder edged Gillian Welch. Even when she’s being playful, as with her 2007 covers collection, Lazy Days, which focuses on songs about idleness, Egge’s catchy Americana harbors a haunted nourish streak. It’s this combination of easy-going panache and underlying edge that led peer Lucinda Williams to call Egge, “the Nina Simone of folk.” Egge’s road took an even harder turn in 2011 when she teamed with producer Steve Earle to create the LP Bad Blood, a clear-eyed examination of the mental illness that runs in her family. Even tainted with the ravages of madness, Egge’s songs retain graceful composure, effortless melodicism and a sense of hope. Consciously avoiding shock and melodrama, Egge’s unflinching examination of the heartland’s dark underbelly is tempered with acceptance and understanding.
$17.50
8933 J.M. Keynes Drive, Suite. 2
North Charlotte/University
704-503-7427