ANN ARBOR, MICH. – “An Acoustic Café Evening” tour begins January 20 with the dynamic combination of talent and instrumentation: Austin songstress and multi-instrumentalist Carrie Rodriguez, Kentucky indie/folk cellist Ben Sollee and joining the February dates, Northampton lit/pop darling and multi-instrumentalist Erin McKeown.
“We’re thrilled to start off this tour concept with these three exceptional artists,” said Rob Reinhart, producer and host of the syndicated radio program Acoustic Café, which is helping to present the tour. “With Acoustic Café, I look for artists who are pushing the boundaries and have unique talents and vision. Carrie, Ben and Erin are three textbook examples!”
After three critically acclaimed duo albums with Chip Taylor, Carrie Rodriguez rode onto the scene as a solo artist in 2006 with Seven Angels On A Bicycle. Her sophomore release She Ain’t Me was lauded by critics including New York Times pop critic Jon Pareles who noted: her fiddler’s vocabulary of old modal melodies centers her songs about faraway loves and spiritual prospects, bringing concision and gravity to every one of them.”
On November 24, Carrie will release Live In Louisville recorded during her 2007 with Lucinda Williams and is currently recording on her third album due in April 2010.
Collaborations with Otis Taylor and Bela Fleck earned Ben Sollee a spot on NPR’s Top 10 Great Unknown Artists of 2007 before the release of his debut Learning To Bend in 2008. The album topped lists on No Depression (top 5 album of 2008), Paste (“The Best of What’s Next”) and earned him a spot at Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo and performances at World Café Live and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Next up, a collaboration with Daniel Martin Moore on Sub Pop due out in February 2010 called Dear Companion.
An independent artist and spirit, Erin McKeown serves up a unique amalgam of folk, swing, rock and carnival-noir pop on her latest release Hundreds of Lions, her of original songs since 2005’s We Will Become Like Birds. Available October 2009 on Righteous Babe Records, it is not her first collaboration with Ani DiFranco who invited Erin to tour back in 1999. A constant on the road, she regularly holds down a rigorous tour schedule of 200 shows a year.
ABOUT ACOUSTIC CAFÉ: Acoustic Café is a two hour weekly radio show, and an independent media production of RDR Radio, LLC. The program is produced and hosted by Rob Reinhart who started the show in 1995. Each week, listeners around the globe tune in to Acoustic Café to hear the latest from today’s great songwriting talents. It’s hard to put a definitive label on Acoustic Café’s music selections. After all, a good song is a good song… any individual set of music could contain a bit of country, rock, blues, folk, pop… and more!
“An Acoustic Café Evening” tour will come to the following cities:
January 20 NORTHAMPTON, MA Iron Horse Music Hall^
January 21 NORFOLK, CT Infinity Hall^
January 22 FAIRFIELD, CT Stage One^
January 24 HOBOKEN, NJ Maxwell’s^
January 26 PORTLAND, ME One Longfellow Square^
January 27 BOSTON, MA Club Passim^
January 28 EASTON, MD Avalon Theater^
January 29 ARLINGTON, VA IOTA Club & Café^
January 30 ARDEN, DE Arden Guild House^
January 31 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA Southern^
February 2 PITTSBURGH, PA Rex Theater*
February 3 GRAND RAPIDS, MI Wealthy Theater*
February 4 AUBURN HILLS, MI Callahans*
February 5 BENTON HARBOR, MI The Livery*
February 6 KENT, OH Kent Stage*
