Thursday, August 11

Marian McLaughlin live in the 9th Ward with Lesionread

Tickets: $10 advance / $13 day of show at Ticketweb, Babeville Box Office (M-F 11a-5p), Terrapin Station, Rust Belt Books or charge by phone 866-777-8932

7pm Doors 8pm Show

8pm – Lesionread

9pm – Marian McLaughlin

Marian McLaughlin is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist pushing the boundaries of folk music. Weaving together imaginative lyrics, intricate classical guitar work, and rhapsodic delivery, she creates songs of exquisite detail.  While she participated in Strathmore’s Artist in Residence program, she connected with a network of talented local musicians to in the making of her second album, Spirit House.

Experimental folk musician Marian McLaughlin recently self-released her second album Spirit House, which is a continuation of her musical partnership with double bassist and arranger Ethan Foote. The album’s daring combination of McLaughlin’s unabashedly idiosyncratic musical poetry and Foote’s soaring arrangements have garnered it widespread respect and acclaim, attested to by coverage from NPR’s All Songs Considered, Folk Radio UK, and Vinyl District, among other sources. Enabled by producer/engineer Michael Okusami’s brilliance in the studio, on Spirit House McLaughlin and Foote go beyond the basic chamber-folk orientation of their live performances and employ a huge stylistic range of acoustic and electric elements, incorporating everything from orchestral thunder to psychedelia to bits of Afro-pop and Motown. Their work together represents an adventurous and original endeavor in the meeting of unconventional folk-rock, chamber music, and lyrical vision.

While traveling in Thailand, McLaughlin found herself admiring an array of spirit houses,  which are small shrines placed on peoples’ property to appease the spirits of the land.   McLaughlin saw an analogy between erecting a spirit house and creating an album. She felt like her growing collection of freshly-written songs were like restless spirits living inside her imagination.  By making a record, she could honor those songs and provide them with a proper place to reside.  Though some of the songs from Spirit House may be abstract and exist beyond McLaughlin’s own personal narratives, they stem from somewhere within her psyche. With Spirit House, McLaughlin invites listeners on a journey through these intimate and ornate songs.

Lesionread started off as Buffalonian Shawn Lewis’ experimental electronic music and performance art project. In 2013, Lesionread began to bring the energy into live sets and quickly gained attention for her use of props, dance moves, and ability to up the show every time. Lesionread has already opened for high profile bands such as Wild Nothing, Melt Banana, Grimes, Dan Deacon, and Death Grips.