Event

Erik Koskinen Band ~ nobool presents

nobool presents
Erik Koskinen Band
Saturday, June 25, 2016
The Viking Bar
Doors: 8:30 PM | Music 9:30 PM (2 SETS)
$8 Advance / $12 Door
Tickets Go On Sale ~ Wednesday, May 25 at Noon.

"The best country songwriter in Minnesota, Erik Koskinen doesn't sing about tailgating, partying with babes and driving down dirt roads. He's more old school, with a focus on working-class themes, whether it's about the effects of oil in "Boomtown," the calling of a musician in "Six Pack of Beer and a Pack of Cigarettes" or the challenges of being unemployed on Independence Day in "Slow Burn." Those tunes are on his splendid second album, "America Theatre," a collection that would make Merle Haggard proud."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

Erik Koskinen's America Theatre is a translucent eulogy to the genuine. Musically sprouted from the blend of American folk, country, rock-n-roll, and blues, Koskinen and his top-shelf band realize a sound that is distinctive and fresh while familiar and classic. From the tender opener, "First Time in Years" to the defiant "Six Pack of Beer" to "Boomtown," a track that flays the history of the west's settlement from bedrock to fracking with a locomotive's force of barbwire guitars, marching bass and cracking drums, Koskinen moves the listener through a landscape of personal and social struggles, as well as small triumphs, of our nation and its people. Ending on the quiet heartbreaker and breath taker, "Slow Burn," Koskinen's album is a lyrical and musical metaphor of American's theaters of war, of history, of relationships, and of the reflections in the mirror. Knowing but not didactic, Koskinen channels the ways of Whitman and reverently enters the anthology of uniquely crafted wry songs with the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ry Cooder while speaking as plainly as your neighbor. Koskinen joins the ranks of chief musicians and sharp wordsmiths.