Chris Garneau / Dawn Landes

Show Description

Chris Garneau's unique, acoustic indie folk songs, performed on piano, wurlitzer, voice, cello, harmonium, and bass is androgynous & sensual. His simplistic, low-range piano, searing cello, classical at heart, creates a rare blend of anti-folk, pop, and rock, with a fun and quirky sense of humor that often pierces through the dramatic, sometimes theatrical performances. Chris's first full-length record, "Music for Tourists", is to be released in early fall on Absolutely Kosher Records.

Dawn's music comes from the mouth, mind and hands of New York-based singer-songwriter Dawn Landes. Reminiscent of music as disparate as the raw traditionalism of Woody Guthrie and the experimental alt-folk lyricism of Joanna Newsome, the Louisville, Kentucky native has caught the attention of critics from New York to Europe, Rolling Stone, Venus, Salon.com even before having a record label or hot shot publicist. On stage Dawn plays a variety of instruments, ranging from an 8-dollar guitar to a pink accordion. Whether she's performing by herself or with accomplices (members of the bands Hem and The King of France), her live show brings moving silence to the crowd and has caught the attention of a number of popular touring artists who've taken her on the road.

"Dawn Landes' music falls in a strange place in a musical landscape defined by both sound and vision, where your package and your people have as much to do with your success as your music does. As with her surprising debut Dawn's Music from last year, the new album Fireproof is packaged as a mystery (hand-screened cardboard sleeve with no discernable label information), populated with lovely, accomplished and haunting acoustic pop that deserves a much bigger audience than this self-released enigma could ever reach. Landes' melancholy falls somewhere in the realm of Cat Power crossed with Gillian Welch, or Suzanne Vega meets Diane Cluck. She writes hooky, smart pop songs, and delivers them with laidback yet self-assured style. She has laid off the accordion on the new album, but the disc is populated with a variety of warm sounds beyond the acoustic guitar which holds them together, from banjo to bells. And Landes' playing is just as compelling as her confident and emotional vocals. Perhaps Landes is comfortable where she is, crafting pop nuggets for a small group of friends and supporters, but with her songwriting, voice, musicianship and natural beauty she is a dead ringer for the next big thing, and despite all that, she's also a dead ringer for a true artist who will continue to do things her own way. Listen up. " - Other Music