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Event
The Highballers and The Hello Strangers
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30
Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm
$10 advance, $12 door
Bright Box is General Admission. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Arrive early to choose your favorite seat and grab a bite to eat. Doors open at 7pm
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THE HIGHBALLERS
Known for the marble facades, majestic domes and white mansions comprising its landmarks, Washington, DC is nonetheless a gritty, hardscrabble city built on a hot marshland and swamped in confrontational politics.
Like their home turf, the Highballers are as sharp dressed as any modern country act but go down more like Jim Beam than the Diet Pepsi flowing through today's tame, corporate country scene. In the tradition of outlaws like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, not to mention mystics like Gram Parsons and the Knitters, the Highballers spin a web of country gold rooted in the diverse backgrounds of their members and the free-spirited abandon of the fiercest gunslinger in the Wild West.
The Highballers were born on the rock of guitarist/vocalist Kendall Jackson and vocalist Hope Hudson in 2007, forging a hard-edged, rockin' country sound built on the duo's male-female vocal harmonies. After several personnel shifts, myriad gigs and more than a few empty whiskey bottles, the band arrived at its current lineup of Jackson, vocalist Belen Pifel, guitarist Sean Lally, bassist Charlie Henry and drummer Drake Sorey.
Hailing from New Orleans, where he discovered the outlaw country sounds and swamp funk that inspire him to this day, Jackson moved to Cleveland in the early 1990s and eventually formed his first band, the Dirty Bottom Boys raging garage rockers not unlike the background of Lally, who hails from the rival (if you're into football, anyway) city of Pittsburgh. With bands like the Frampton Brothers and the Breakup Society, Lally opened for the Ramones and cowrote a song recorded by REM's Scott McCaughey tuning up his sparkling Fender Telecaster just enough to blow the doors off any club he played.
Henry is no stranger to loud rock 'n' roll, either, what with his roots in Morgantown, West Virginia blues rockers Stone Crazy (with whom he recorded a cassette album, Shades of Blue) and more recently following a life odyssey that saw him finding a career and starting a family country rockers Stealin' the Deal, experience that made him a perfect fit when the Highballers' bass slot opened up. Sorey also took a hiatus from music before getting behind a kit again eight years ago, and now pounds proudly behind an array of fine '60s vintage Slingerland, Rogers and Ludwig kits.
Those drum sets are as polished as Pifel, another veteran whose pipes are as bright and vibrant as her stage presence. The Jackson-Pifel pairing produces harmonies reminiscent of Gram Parsons/ Emmylou Harris and Exene Cervenka/John Doe, pouring out their souls like bourbon and mixing it with harmonies as sweet as cola. Combine that with the pulsating rhythms of Henry and Sorey and the twanging twin Telecasters of Lally and Jackson and you have the reasons the band has expanded its bookings beyond DC and earned acclaim in national publications like The Huffington Post.
With two albums now under their belt, Soft Music and Hard Liquor and a brand new self-titled release, the Highballers are poised to climb to the next level. Spit out that modern country diet soda and pour yourself some Highballers. Bottoms up!
THE HELLO STRANGERS
What does Austin-influenced, rural-Pennsylvanian, indie sister-folk sound like? Verbosity aside, it sounds uniquely like The Hello Strangers, a sister duo, comprised of Larissa Chace Smith and Brechyn Chace, whose haunting harmonies and original, wittingly noir songwriting style are the backbone of their sound.
The Hello Strangers just released their first full-length, self-titled album with multi-award winning (Grammy, Emmy, Dove, Tele) IMI Records in Nashville, Tennessee. The album features 11 originals and 2 covers, including "What You Don't Know," written by, and featuring on vocals, Jim Lauderdale; and "Que Sera, Sera," an homage to their grandfather, Ronald Chace, who sang with Doris Day.
In 2012, Larissa and Brechyn won AirPlay Direct's "Win An Americana Record Deal" contest, giving them the opportunity to work with Steve Ivey of IMI, and a host of other talented industry professionals, on their 2014 album.
The Hello Strangers were born out of the Austin, Texas music scene in 2006 when the sisters wrote their first song together, entitled "Pregnant in Jail." Based on true events, it was a preamble to a string of original tunes the pair crafted in a little cottage off South Congress Avenue. Soon, however, the mountains of Pennsylvania beckoned the girls back north, and so they packed up their lives, dogs, and Larissa's husband and returned to their two-stoplight hometown.
The move has since proven to be a boon for the duo. The sisters have created a catalogue of original music with nods to American folk traditions, modern indie rock, Texas country-folk, and roots rock, all tied together with lilting harmonies that only sisters can create. Timeless imagery and fables are at the core of each song, from tales of a boggy creek bottom where a murdered man sleeps, to a Texas roadhouse with bawdy dancers and clinking beer bottles, to more poignant reflections on the loss of winter or a man gone wrong.
The sisters are supported by a dynamic and talented trio: Spencer Pheil on lead guitar, Trent Renshaw on drums, and Tom Hoy on bass.
Chuck Dauphin of Music News Nashville says, "They are just for lack of a more sophisticated term Damn Good. Take a listen to a cut like "Chances," and if you are not totally hooked by their spellbinding harmony, your hearing must not be working right. It's a sonically brilliant cut from start to finish, one that simply needs to be heard. Ditto that for the Appalachian feel of "The World Knows Far Better," where the harmony is chilling, as is the harmonica work from Brechyn. The sisters even match musical wits and talent with the incredible Jim Lauderdale on his gem "What You Don't Know," which they keep as haunting as his 1990s original."
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LocationBright Box Theater (View)
15 N Loudoun St, Suite 100
Winchester, VA 22601
United States
Categories
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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