BESS ROGERS w / Lelia Broussard, JM Airis, Lucrezio

BESS ROGERS w / Lelia Broussard, JM Airis, Lucrezio
April 18, 8:00 PM
Ages: 21+

LUCREZIO

Having been formed in the summer of 2007, Lucrezio's rich alternative, yet soulful sound has been capturing audiences in their hometown of Chicago and beyond. "If when we play the heart of the individual is touched, if we can speak words that resound with familiarity, if we can make people feel alive and drive them to search for more than what they know, then the music has spoken and we have done what we were born to do."

JM AIRIS

Often cited for the raw-edge timbre of his numerous rock and roll producer credits, or as drummer of New York City recording artists, Dead Sparrows, J.M. Airis’s collection of solo recordings unearth a journeyman songwriter every bit as much an artist as engineer.

Originally from northern Wisconsin, the sound of Airis’s solo recordings has remained rooted in a “four-track forever” ethos, both in composition and production. Beginning as a teen, he dedicated himself to experimenting with what was available and as success availed itself, he focused on mastering analog tape machines where others have gone digital, giving his catalogue a distinct ancestral flavor. Frequently working for hours alone in handcrafted studios, Airis’s recordings are largely anti-virtuoso, tastefully exploring song layers in a variety of sound rooms that give an unusual honesty to his work and make each location more a player than a muse.

Certain periods of Airis’s career have produced larger collections of loosely circulated songs than others, perhaps most notably the limited ‘Witch Killer’ collection that preceded the Spare Arrow/Dead Sparrow album written with fellow Dead Sparrows front man, Joey Hamm. But the release of Indian Summer recorded in his Brooklyn studio marks Airis’s first official targeted solo release. This premier album best proves the songwriter’s expressed intention of crafting songs that work equally when stripped to their guitar and drums as when heard in the their full form. - M. Huggins Chicago 2010

☆ Opening act(s): Lelia Broussard, JM Airis, Lucrezio

In addition to recording and releasing two independent records of her own (including her latest ep, Travel Back, which is provided below), Bess records and tours with Ingrid Michaelson (and will appear with Ingrid on the Ellen show on 1/22 and the CBS Early Show on 2/20) and Jenny Owen Youngs, fronts the country/bluegrass 80’s cover band, The Flux Capacitors, and plays guitar and keys in the orchestral/electronic indie rock group, The Age Of Rockets.

And yet, she still finds time to continue to write and record a new set a songs scheduled for release this spring which will be included in a national campaign through Target on behalf of Mead Five Star Notebooks. Bess was one of only 20 artists selected for the campaign!