Saturday Jul 25, 2015
Saturday, July 25, 7:30PM
Weesner Family Amphitheater – Minnesota Zoo
13000 Zoo Blvd
Apple Valley, MN 55124
MASON JENNINGS
Before setting to work on his latest album, at the advice of a friend, the Minnesota-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist holed up in the back room of his wood-nestled cabin studio with just a guitar, electric piano, bookshelf, notebook, tape recorder, and one 90-minute cassette—then wrote all winter long. Emerging with the notebook and tape full of about 30 new songs, Jennings decided to skip his standard approach of self-recording and called on producer Bo Ramsey, as well as a wish-list-plucked lineup of guest musicians, and recorded at Minneapolis studio The Terrarium. Always Been builds on the rugged, acoustic-guitar-driven indie-folk of Jennings’s earlier work (from his 1998 self-titled debut to 2011’s highly acclaimed Minnesota) with sunnier melodies and more hi-fi sonics. At its heart is an undeniable sense of the wonder he rediscovered during his winter-long writing session. “Staying open to the feeling of awe, the feeling of being moved by things—that’s the most important part of songwriting for me,” says Jennings. “Music’s always been very transformative for me.” Jennings adds that he ultimately aims to create music with its own healing effect. “I started making music because music saved my life when I was little—it was something I could go to and always have a feeling of connection, even when times were hard,” he says. “Above all else, I want to make sure I always remember that trying to give other people that sort of feeling is the major purpose behind what I’m doing.”
S. CAREY
S. Carey’s chosen musical expression is a hugely beatific, restorative panorama of beauty – perfect given how landscape and the wonder of nature inspire much of Carey’s imagery. His new album ‘Range of Light’ – the follow-up to his 2010 debut ‘All We Grow’ – takes its title from the name that 19th century naturalist John Muir – Carey’s hero – gave to California’s Sierra Nevada, and follows suit with a dazzling array of musical light and shade, drawn from Carey’s love of jazz, modern classical and Americana. Like a weathered mountain range changing shadow form and color, or the ebb and flow of a river’s current, his music is simultaneously restful and rhythmic, complex and simple, and always evolving.
While on tour with Bon Iver, Carey developed his own song writing ambitions, and after many less than frequent recording sessions between tours, released ‘All We Grow’ in 2010. Those nine songs sat between a folk/modern classical hybrid and rarefied jazz climes. Carey’s warm melodic nuances, reflected in the lush folds of his singing, added to the mutable percussive syncopations of his instrumentation.
From the flurry of violins over a circular rhythm in “Crown The Pines” and the beautiful cries of “Alpenglow”, to the pensive depths of songs like “Fire-scene” and “The Dome”, ‘Range of Light’ is a still life of an artist in this particular stage of his life; a stage that has been met with the highest of peaks and the lowest of depths all within the range each of us treads through.