Bonnie Prince Billy w/ Footings, & Modern Fools (solo)

2 Government Street,Kittery ME 03904

18 August, 2022

Description

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has been Will Oldham's singing dummy since 1998. Oldham lives in Louisville, KY with wife and daughter. As our collective subconscious understanding of what songs are has shifted, so has their work. In late '19/early '20 I Made a Place came out, a new record of original songs. Over the course of the horrific 2020 Bill Callahan and Bonny Billy released, 'virtually', Blind Date Party, ultimately 20 songs with accompanying visualizations, in an effort to bridge newly revealed distances in space, time and emotion. Matt Sweeney & Bonny Billy's SUPERWOLVES came out in 2021; this was a group of rock poems. In 2022 there's been the live singalong cycle Old Hard and Marvelous and the cassette-only hard-dreamcycle release High and High and MIghty, on Ha Ha Institute. "Footings is the long-running/rocking outgrowth of Peterborough NH's great ruralist duo, Redwing Blackbird. Initially formed as a trio in 2012 by Eric Gagne on guitar and vocals, Footings' sound embraces a sort of inner light derived from folk music, but surrounds it with a variety of rockist tropes. This rock action can take many forms, especially on this new album, which features their most expanded/expansive line-up yet.Original trio member Elisabeth Fuchsia (frequent Pile collaborator) is on viola and long-time collusionist Candace Clement provides guitar, synth and vocals. Jordan Holtz (from Rick Rude) supplies vocals. Ben Rogers (Eric's bandmate from Death to Tyrants) adds drums where needed. Will Killingsworth (Ampere/Bucket Full of Teeth) adds pedals and tambourine as required. The latter pair were also responsible for engineering the album, but their musical additions are sonically notable.Gagne's songs and deep vocals, often the core of the band's operation, combine the literary qualities of a heavy reader with the observational data of a poet. In this, Footings might occasionally be mistaken for one of Will Oldham's multifarious projects. But the band has a distinct way of scrambling their eggs, and that was never clearer than it is here. Full songs are interspersed with fragmentary shards in a way that reminds me of how Michael Hurley faded out “Rat Face” after its intro, on Hi Fi Snock Uptown. I mean, “Sleeping” sounds tantalizingly close to a Neil Young penned out-take from Deja Vu for the 35 seconds it runs. But that's all there is!This outré editing process works quite well. By allowing themselves to create slivers of textural similarity to Sonic Youth (“Ordinary Night”), Crazy Horse (“Sleeping”), and even Heldon (“Wouldn't It Be Something”), Footings display wide possibilities while maintaining their primary focus on creating a kind of avant garde American roots music with the brash complexity of Yo La Tengo and the stately depth of Wilco.Annihilation is the best Footings record to hit the planet yet. And that is saying something."- Byron Coley "The raw and tender songs of Genevieve Beaudoin seem eerily elevated played as a four-piece, such as Lucinda Williams fronting Fleet Foxes. Anyone treated to the band’s live set knows that she’s the real deal.” - Bangor Daily News, 100 Essential Maine albums of the decade. Dead Gowns is the songwriting project of Geneviève Beaudoin. The project began touring the northeast in support of their first release, the New Spine EP, in late 2018. Since then, Dead Gowns has released a handful of singles including, "Lyon Alt. Version" and “See People," which was featured in Wilco's summer 2021 playlist, Wilco Recommends. Modern Fools (solo) will open. There are a limited number of tickets being offered as the rain contingency is the Kittery Dance Hall, which has a limited capacity. Parking is also not abundant in downtown Kittery, so please consider walking across the bridge from Portsmouth, carpooling, or other such creative methods. The Black Birch is hosting this show in their parking lot and will have drinks available outside as well. Doors are at 7pm and music will begin promptly at 730.