A very warm thanks to Mark, Rose, and Tom of Vandaveer and to Troy and Kevin of Dead Western for putting on an unforgettable show Friday. DLMC is proud to bring such unique and talented artists to town.
Thanks as always to our DLMC volunteers who make it all possible – Danny, David, Michaela, Jason, Stefanie, Amy, Dennis, James, Sara, and Kyle – and to our partners at Armadillo Music and KDRT 95.7FM… and to our friends and fans who came out to the show. We hope to see you next time!
Friday, April 11th 2014
Davis Musical Theatre Company, 607 Pena Drive Davis
Vandaveer is the globetrotting Americana project of folk-pop tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger. Vandaveer offers up a sound that is both haunting and easy, forlorn and welcoming, with stories as universal as the songs they inhabit. Heidinger’s instantly unforgettable melodies are matched only by harmonies provided by Rose Guerin.
Death, murder and ghosts have long been underlying threads coursing through Vandaveer’s original music, but instead of weaving their own shadowy tales into their latest studio effort, Oh, Willie, Please…, finds the DC-by-way-of-Kentucky alt-folk ensemble tapping into the wellspring of traditional folk’s darker side. The core duo of Heidinger and Guerin is joined by multi-instrumentalist J. Tom Hnatow (These United States, The Mynabirds), adding steel string, resonator and pedal steel guitars, banjos and pianos, and a common belief in the quality and relevance of the word ‘folk.’
Inspired by their recent participation in The 78 Project, the group gathered in a majestic old home on a picturesque horse farm in Lexington, Kentucky in the spring of 2012 and set to work re-imagining a collection of age-old murder ballads and songs of self ruin plucked almost entirely from the public domain. The result is a spacious, honest album that balances reverence and respect for the source material with a healthy coat of contemporary color.
Show opener Dead Western is the musical project of Sacramento artist Troy Mighty. Engaging as he is eccentric, Troy reaches to the heart of audiences with the familiarity of dark, guitar-based Folk, then surprises with feverish momentum. Dead Western crafts songs that sound like they have been here for a hundred years while giving listeners an experience that is fully and only of that moment.