Songbirds North will host a double feature performance by The Steel Woods and Josh Card on Thursday, Jan. 31 and Friday, Feb. 1. Both shows are at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20.
The Steel Woods Bio:
Part Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, dual-guitar southern blues-rock with elements of R&B, country, bluegrass, gospel, blues, folk and metal, the descriptively named, Nashville-based band deepens its resolve on a theme-driven album that joins the mystery train of the past with the full-speed loco-motion of the present, seeking to bring people together with the universality of music.
Conceptually and musically, Old News delivers a set of songs at once eternal with lyrics wrenched from today’s headlines, featuring mythic reverberations and social critiques to boot.
The album mourns an idealized past but isn’t afraid to point the way to a better future that enlists the best of both worlds.
Like The Steel Woods’ previous release, death and mortality make their chilling presence felt, whether it’s in the collection’s cemetery-placed set piece, “Rock That Says My Name,” whose theme is classic Shelley – “Ozymandias, look upon ye works and despair” – or the vintage bluegrass country of “Anna Lee,” the culmination of a murder trilogy begun with “Della Jane’s Heart” on the last album and ending with the Neil Young/Crazy Horse-ish instrumental, “Red River (The Fall of Jimmy Sutherland).” That preoccupation spills over into an idiosyncratic cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “The Catfish Song,” and a special four-song epilogue that includes faithful tributes to artists who have passed away - Tom Petty (“Southern Accent”), Merle Haggard (the prescient “Are The Good Times Really Over”), Gregg Allman (“Whipping Post” as funeral dirge) and Alabama singer/songwriter Wayne Mills (the meditation on mortality, “One of These Days”). Just as on Straw in the Wind, there’s a Black Sabbath cover, this time a take on “Changes” that transforms the song into a smooth Memphis-style Al Green soul croon, a nod to the cover by the late Charles Bradley.
Josh Card Bio:
Now, residing in the hills of Kentucky, Josh has reunited with his roots to play the music that he has carried with him throughout the years. The songs he’s been writing and storing are finally being heard. Josh went into the studio in November of 2016 and recorded his first Country album. Pulling elements and influence from his Honky-Tonk and Outlaw heroes, Josh made an album that provides to his listeners what modern day Country music lacks: authenticity, honesty, substance, and soul. In early 2017, Josh released his debut full length album titled “Josh Card and The Restless Souls”. Building steam with his passionate and captivating live performances, the album paved the beginning of his career in Country music.
Soon after, he joined the road with Whitey Morgan as a member of the 78’s, playing Honky Tonk across America. In April 2018, Josh began tracking his second album at OmniSound Studios in Nashville, TN. He has set out to make a record that he says will be a “straight forward, from the heart, honest Country record” that is sure to be a game changer in today’s world of watered down, pop-induced “Country” music. “These songs come from my deepest, and sometimes, darkest places. I write about what I’ve lived. The heartache, the love, the highest highs, and lowest lows.”