About This Event
Thursday, June 8th
Doors: 7pm / Show: 8pm
$15 in advance / $20 day of the show
21+
KASSI VALAZZA
There is a cult-like fascination growing around Kassi Valazza following the self-release of her 2019 debut album Dear Dead Days and her surprise 2022 EP Highway Sounds. She is seated squarely at the vanguard of new American songwriters strengthening and broadening the sound of country music as she tours with celebrated acts such as Melissa Carper and Riddy Arman. The Southwestern native resides in Portland, a hotbed of songwriters producing albums that both bear the torch and bend the arc of American roots music, where she recently signed with Fluff & Gravy Records -- a label known for launching Anna Tivel and Margo Cilker.
Valazza's forthcoming new album Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is a spellbinding collection of songs that dangle like protective magic talismans, catching dreams and glinting light. She hypnotizes listeners with a sturdy, yet gentle, voice and painterly songwriting imbued with an independent spirit. Though her music plays country cousin to British folk, calling to mind greats like Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) and Karen Dalton, a Southwestern American streak carves its way through these solemn, sweetly sung melodies like a canyon.
On the upcoming 10-song set, multi-instrumentalists from Portland's TK & the Holy Know-Nothings appear in varying roles as Valazza's backing band: Taylor Kingman (guitars, bass, vocals), Jay Cobb Anderson (harmonica, guitars, pedal steel, bass), Lewi Longmire (pedal steel, piano, bass, trumpet), Sydney Nash (organ, Farfisa, cornet, Wurlitzer), and Tyler Thompson (drums). The group's swirling psychedelia combines with Valazza's gutsy and graceful vocal poetry for a singular sound that washes over the listener like a flash flood, heavy and without warning.
Julianna RiolinoJulianna Riolino knows how to capture and highlight beauty before it fades. On her debut LP, ‘All Blue,’ Riolino reflects on her own past, the memories of pain, healing, and love strewn through it. The songs focus morality and the stretch of time, seeping naturally into Riolino’s Americana-indebted songwriting, resulting in a golden and fluid debut.
Blending past and present musically represents Riolino’s own experience as well, the songs written over a period of years, their meanings picking beyond that stretch and pulling lessons forward. And in that process, her philosophical lyrics bring that complexity forward to the listener in surreally sweet melodies, pouring growth and healing directly through the ear and into the heart.
‘All Blue’ is out now on You’ve Changed Records.