Haw River Ballroom
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Apr12 FriCat's Cradle Presents
Madison Cunningham & Juana Molina
Saxapahaw, NCUnited StatesDoors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PMMore InformationTICKET PRICES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
ADVANCED: $27.00
DAY OF: $30.00
TICKET SALE DATES
ADVANCED Public Onsale: February 2, 2024 10:00 AM to April 12, 2024 12:00 AM
DAY OF Public Onsale: April 12, 2024 12:00 AM to April 12, 2024 8:00 PM
PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION
As its title suggests, Revealer—the new album by Madison Cunningham—is full of confessions, intimations, and hard truths the Los Angeles singer-songwriter-guitarist might rather have kept to herself. It’s a warts-and-all self-portrait of a young artist who is full of doubt and uncertainty, yet bursting with exciting ideas about music and life, who has numerous Grammy nominations but still feels like she has far to go, who turns those misgivings into songs that are confident in their idiosyncrasies. It’s also a rumination on music as a vehicle for such revelations, what’s gained and what’s lost when you put words to your innermost feelings. “There’s a sense of conflict about revealing anything about yourself—not just what to reveal, but whether you should reveal anything at all,” she says. “When you have to vouch for yourself and present a true picture of who you are, that can get confusing very quickly. This record is a product of me trying to find myself and my interests again. I felt like somewhere along the way I had lost the big picture of my own life.”
Reassembling that picture resulted in songs full of odd turns of phrase, skewed imagery, and witty asides; Cunningham writes to figure things out, and she doesn’t settle for easy answers or pat platitudes. Instead, more often than not she pulls the rug out from under herself, playing both straight man and comic relief. “I’m not immune to a piece of bad news, I just do what I must to move on,” she sings on the percolating opener “All I’ve Ever Known.” If it sounds like a cry of determination and fortitude, Cunningham immediately undercuts herself: “Give me truth but put me under so I don’t feel a thing.”
These are dark, funny songs for dark, not-so-funny times. “I wanted this work to reflect how I was taking in the world at that moment, and I promised myself I wouldn’t withhold the good or the bad from this self-portrait. I couldn't have planned for the startling range of emotions a pandemic would bring on — sorrow, depression, anger, anxiety, fear, apathy. Much less writing during one. While I could take some comfort in knowing other people were experiencing those very things, I had yet to understand how many conflicting emotions a person could carry at once.” The confusion she shared with the rest of the world, however, was compounded and complicated when her grandmother died unexpectedly. Suddenly, the pain became unbearably personal. Revealer became a way for her to work through all of those overwhelming emotions. With rich strings eddying around her measured guitar strums, “Life According to Raechel” is a catalog of missed opportunities and lost time, all the visits she never made to her beloved grandmother, all the important details that make up a life. “There’s always something left unsaid,” Cunningham sings. “Were your eyes green? Were they blue? What was it that I forgot to ask you?”
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Get Tickets$27.00 -
Apr14 SunCat's Cradle Presents
Mighty Poplar
Saxapahaw, NCUnited StatesDoors at 7:30 PM, Show at 8:00 PMMore InformationTICKET PRICES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
ADVANCED: $30.00
DAY OF: $33.00
TICKET SALE DATES
ADVANCED Public Onsale: February 16, 2024 10:00 AM to April 14, 2024 12:00 AM
DAY OF Public Onsale: April 14, 2024 12:00 AM to April 14, 2024 8:00 PM
PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION
At its heart, bluegrass music is about what happens when you commit to the moment. The joy of improvisation keeps the music fresh, and the fun of crafting ideas on the fly keeps the musicians on their toes. This true spirit of bluegrass infuses the self-titled record from Mighty Poplar, a new all-star roots project featuring Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse, Noam Pikelny and Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers, bassist Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon) and fiddler Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings) coming March 31, 2023 on Free Dirt Records. Regarded as some of the finest players of their generation, the playing is never showy and always in service of the song. Though Pikelny, Eldridge, Garrison all knew each other from their early work with Punch Brothers, impromptu backstage jams with Marlin at festivals across the country were the key that unlocked the project. A lifelong song collector, Marlin selected and sang lead on most of the songs here, bringing classics as well as deep cuts from greats like Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, John Hartford, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Norman Blake. Throughout, the songs and tunes are as immediate and emotionally impactful as the playing is tasteful. Gathered knee-to-knee in a rural studio outside Nashville, the collaborative 10-track album emerged organically over a few days. “It felt so special and effortless; it didn’t take work,” says Eldridge, “other than the work and effort we’ve put in the rest of our lives.” With their debut album, Mighty Poplar has captured the fierce and playful energy of an all-night jam between old friends who just happen to be grandmasters of the music.
Speaking to the band, it’s clear that each player joined out of pure excitement to play music with each other. “I’m convinced Alex Hargreaves only knows how to play the perfect notes at the perfect times,” muses Eldridge. Pikelny speaks highly about Marlin’s innate musicality: “We listen to a lot of Watchhouse at our house. Supporting a singer and songwriter of Andrew’s caliber is about the most rewarding thing I get to do, so I leapt at the opportunity to collaborate when Greg first pitched the idea for this project.” Marlin talks up the other players' instrumental virtuosity. “When I think about it from a player’s perspective, I didn’t feel like I belonged in this group; I haven’t spent my life trying to improve my chops. I’ve been more of a song gatherer,” a humble Marlin admits. That last point is key here, as it focused the approach to the new album on an appreciation for the roots of bluegrass and for the songs especially. Inspired by the 1980s albums of The Bluegrass Album Band, which united some of that era’s best bluegrass players, Mighty Poplar sought to emulate the fun and spontaneity of those inspirational recordings. “My love for the sound and feel of those Bluegrass Album Band records–the energy, the undeniable chemistry, the subtle virtuosity–led me to imagine what that might look like in our collective gumbo of today’s bluegrass,” says Garrison. “We grew up on those records,” Eldridge continues. “We loved the idea of musicians banding together for a special project where you explore your common influences.” But don’t mistake Mighty Poplar for a tribute record; the band aimed to find their own arrangements and deliver fresh takes on the songs. In Eldridge’s words: “It’s an homage to where we came from, without it being a recreation of an earlier era.”
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | TikTok
Get Tickets$30.00 -
Apr21 SunCat's Cradle Presents
An Evening with Cowboy Junkies
Saxapahaw, NCUnited StatesDoors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PMMore Information
PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION
This is a seated show.
Sometimes revolutions begin quietly.
In 1988, Cowboy Junkies proved that there was an audience waiting for something quiet, beautiful and reflective. The Trinity Session was like a whisper that cut through the noise -- and it was compelling. It stood out in the midst of the flash and bombast that came to define the late 80's. The now classic recording combined folk, blues and rock in a way that had never been heard before and went on to sell more than a million copies.
Formed in Toronto in 1985 with siblings Michael Timmins on guitar, Margo Timmins on vocals, Peter Timmins on drums, and Michael’s lifelong friend Alan Anton on bass, the band has sparkled over the course of 26 albums. “I’ve known Alan longer than I’ve known Pete,” says Michael. “We were friends before Pete was born.”
Unlike most long-lasting groups, Cowboy Junkies have never had a break up or taken a sanity-saving hiatus. There’s an appreciation of each other that keeps them constantly working. “It’s that intimacy and understanding of what each one of us brings to the table,” says Michael. Cowboy Junkies’ will be performing a career-spanning show, including their new album, ‘Such Ferocious Beauty’, which was released worldwide on June 2, 2023 to universal critical acclaim.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Sweet Jane (Live on Tour) | Blue Moon (Live on Tour)
Public Onsale:12:00 AMApr 21, 2024 -
Apr25 ThuCat's Cradle Presents
Teenage Fanclub
Saxapahaw, NCUnited StatesDoors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PMMore InformationTICKET PRICES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
ADVANCED: $25.00
DAY OF: $30.00
TICKET SALE DATES
ADVANCED Public Onsale: February 23, 2024 10:00 AM to April 25, 2024 12:00 AM
DAY OF Public Onsale: April 25, 2024 12:00 AM to April 25, 2024 8:00 PM
PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION
The first Teenage Fanclub single, 1990’s “Everything Flows,” was all about getting older and finding your way: Right from the beginning, the Scottish band somehow inherently understood the joy and confusion of forging a creative path. Even with that knowledge, the band’s three equally proficient and prodigious songwriters—Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley, and Gerard Love—probably wouldn’t have predicted that this path would still be unfolding nearly 30 years later.
Steadily—and, if we’re being honest, sort of slowly—Teenage Fanclub have built an incredible catalog of gleaming pop songs. It’s been a relatively straight line in pursuit of pop perfection, from the snarlier early days to the highly vaunted Bandwagonesque to the grand Songs from Northern Britain to their more measured, contemplative latest, 2016’s Here. Consistency has been a virtue, never a handicap.
They spent a decent chunk of 2018 looking back, something they’re not inclined to do, but duty called: Five classic albums originally released between 1991 through 2000 were remastered at Abbey Road and lovingly reissued, and Teenage Fanclub took that as a challenge to relearn nearly every song from that era and plan a special series of three-night stands in the UK during which to play them.
“We don’t spend a lot of time listening to the things we’ve done. Actually, we don’t spend any time,” says McGinley. “Sometimes you live with your own imagined version of a song in your head, and what you play is different than the records. Memories can be unreliable. It’s an interesting process to be forced to listen to the reality.”
“As a musician you never listen to your own music—it’s masochistic!” laughs Blake. “Back at the start I wasn’t too clever on the guitar. And you can hear the change in the tone of your voice through aging. We sound like young men on the early records, full of optimism! Lots of these songs we have never, ever played live before. It’s exciting.”
A big plus to relearning the oldies: They’d have a bigger pool of songs to choose from live, something they still cherish. A trip around the world was planned, starting with Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It turned out, though, that Love’s enthusiasm for touring far-off places had waned, while the rest of the band consider touring to be crucial fuel for creativity. That impasse led to Love’s amicable departure from the band: He’ll play the back-catalog shows in the UK in October and November, and then turn in his Fanclub membership.
McGinley and Blake have nothing but praise for their bandmate; they’ll miss his contributions, but they’re more excited than ever to make songs together—including, sooner than later, brand-new ones. “The good part of any change is that it forces you to not be complacent about things,” says McGinley. “There’s always something exciting about any kind of change.”
“The three of us have spread the burden of songwriting over the years, so there will be a bit more work involved creatively,” says Blake. “We don’t feel pressure to get somebody in as a songwriter to replace Gerry. We could collaborate with other people, we could write together… I’m not worrying about it too much. Whatever happens, I know that we’ll create something that we’ll be happy to put our name behind.”
Get Tickets$25.00 -
Jun8 SatCat's Cradle and andmoreagain Present
Mdou Moctar
Saxapahaw, NCUnited StatesDoors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PMMore InformationTICKET PRICES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
ADVANCED: $25.00
DAY OF: $28.00
TICKET SALE DATES
ADVANCED Public Onsale: March 1, 2024 10:00 AM to June 8, 2024 12:00 AM
DAY OF Public Onsale: June 8, 2024 12:00 AM to June 8, 2024 8:00 PM
PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION
There is a beauty in listening to music made in the spirit of energetic transformation. When the sounds transform the air and the listener. This record transports the listener into the heart of the music of Mdou Moctar. The blending of intention and motivation creates a burst of sound that embraces and shakes and invites one to dance! It invites one to breathe. It invites one to be in solidarity with the music. It invites one to be in touch with the human condition. What does it mean to be free in these times? Can the world be liberated from the colonial mindstate that has caused such harm and mistrust? Can we mourn our losses yet build anew to form something more astounding, more fantastic? Funeral For Justice says we can.A sound that carries weight makes an impact. A sound that carries time transcends time. We are not only listening to music but we are living through it. We are living with it. We are living in it. The artist sees history and makes poetry from it for the present. Mdou Moctar’s Funeral For Justice requests your presence. Show up open to the celebration of life, loved as it should be loved. Experience the exaltation and exuberance. The words speak of ascension, awareness, sorrow, apathy, knowing, and growth. The guitars speak of power, energy, jubilation, transcendency, immediacy, and tradition. The drums and percussion mark the pulse of now as well as a timeless dance that involves us all, as it did those that came before us. The wires that carry the message feel alive with fire and purpose, explosive with possibility. This “funeral” is an acknowledgment. This “funeral” is abundant. This “funeral” overflows into the street filled with dance. This “funeral” stretches late into the night, kicking up the dirt, with the hum of a generator, an ever present member of the rhythm section. This “funeral” is a clarion call for reason and a belief that change is possible.So join Mdou Moctar in this funeral for justice, knowing rebirth is possible. A new justice is possible. With your voice, your heart, your dance, your stomp, a new justice is born. Mdou Moctar welcomes you with joy and open arms. Be here. Feel here and do, alongside this music. Don’t stand alone, join with others and do. Fight for liberation. Stand against oppression, alongside this music and do!– Damon Locks
Funeral For Justice is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019 breakout Afrique Victime, it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down.
The songs on Funeral For Justice speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people. "This album is really different for me," explains Moctar, the band’s singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. "Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they're going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution."
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Get Tickets$25.00 -
Jun15 SatCat's Cradle Presents
Nation of Language
Saxapahaw, NCUnited StatesDoors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PMMore InformationTICKET PRICES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
ADVANCED: $25.00
DAY OF: $28.00
TICKET SALE DATES
ADVANCED Public Onsale: March 22, 2024 10:00 AM to June 15, 2024 12:00 AM
DAY OF Public Onsale: June 15, 2024 12:00 AM to June 15, 2024 8:00 PM
PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION
Four years on from the release of their unexpectedly self-assured debut album, NYC based Nation of Language have attracted a rapidly growing international audience via their danceable and impassioned take on new wave, post-punk & shoegaze genres. Following the critical acclaim of their their first LP Introduction, Presence, its 2021 follow-up A Way Forward pushed them to a wider audience—landing them their late-night TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a string of sold out tours—and their 2023 record Strange Disciple has continued this momentum, landing Rough Trade’s coveted #1 album of the year spot. Now a mainstay atop lists of the best live acts of recent years, the band continue to charge synth-first into their latest chapter as a major festival draw at recent iterations of Austin City Limits Festival, Desert Daze, Pitchfork Festival, Primavera Sound, Corona Capital, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo and many others.
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Get Tickets$25.00
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