Pieta Brown & Jeffrey Foucault

$22 ($20 adv.).

media release: On tour together for the first time and sharing an all-star band, Pieta Brown (“…Seductive simplicity and lyrical grace” — BBC) and Jeffrey Foucault (“…Contemporary and timeless” — New York Times), come together for a rare and special split-bill, an onstage exploration and real-time exchange highlighting two of the most distinct voices and catalogs in American music.

Featuring John Convertino (Calexico) on drums, Jeremy Moses Curtis (Booker T) on bass, Erik Koskinen (Low) on electric guitar, and Eric Heywood (Pretenders) on pedal steel, GAMBLERS ALL braids together the strands of Brown’s and Foucault’s two decades on the road and in the studio, for a kind of moveable feast.

PIETA BROWN

The daughter of two preacher’s kids, Pieta Brown’s early upbringing in Iowa was in a rural outpost with no furnace, running water, or TV.  There, she was exposed to traditional and rural folk music through her father, Greg Brown, the now beloved Midwestern folk singer.  Later, while living with her mother in Birmingham, Alabama during her formative years, Pieta drew on and expanded these influences and began writing poems and composing instrumental songs on piano.  By the time she left home at 18 she had lived in at least 19 different houses and apartments between Iowa and Alabama.

In her early 20's, after experiencing what she describes as "the songs calling,” Pieta started experimenting with the banjo and eventually picked up a 1930's Maybell arch-top guitar during a visit to her father's place and never looked back.  Emerging from a disjointed and distinctly 'bohemian' upbringing, Pieta began performing live and making independent recordings soon after teaching herself how to play guitar. "I grew up around a lot of musicians and artists living on the fringe, and have always felt most at home among them," Pieta says.

Continually revealing new layers as both a songwriter and performer, Pieta is being recognized as one of modern Americana's true gems.  In recent years Pieta has released multiple highly critically acclaimed albums, with much attention being paid not only to her distinct sound and style, but also the power of her singing and songwriting, including fan favorite Paradise Outlaw (2014 Red House, which Bon Iver master mind, Justin Vernon, called his “favorite recording made at our studio.”) Pieta has toured North America with Mark Knopfler, and toured various regions of the U.S., Australia and Canada with John Prine, Amos Lee, Brandi Carlisle, JJ Cale, Ani Difranco, Mavis Staples, and Calexico among others.  She has co-written songs with and made recent guest appearances on albums by Calexico, Amos Lee, and Iris Dement, whose latest masterpiece Workin’ On A World (2023) Pieta co-produced.  Pieta’s songs and music have been heard in various TV Shows and indie films including Everything Will Be Fine (Wim Wenders).  With the release of her most recent album Freeway (September 2019, Righteous Babe) co-produced by Bon Iver drummer, S. Carey, followed by multiple experimental collaborations since with various artists including JT Bates, S.Carey, and Howe Gelb & The Colorist Orchestra, as well as a new instrumental based side-project she calls Sylvee & The Sea, Pieta’s music and artistry continue to rise.

“Self-styled poetess, folk goddess and country waif, Pieta's music resonates with a seductive simplicity and lyrical grace."  - BBC

"It's exciting to hear such quiet mastery of a genre." - Bust

“…moody, ethereal...I will listen over and over again." - NPR's All Songs Considered

"She has that kind of voice...intimate, raw, enveloping." - Chicago Reader

"...a style and a sensuality that’s all her own...."- Pop Matters

"Among the top tier of songwriters today..." - FAME (Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange)

"...a gifted singer-songwriter whose lyrics are pieces of polished poetry"  - Huffington Post

JEFFREY FOUCAULT

“I grew up in Wisconsin. My Dad wore a tie to work and played a knock-off Gibson with a chunk of the headstock missing where he’d backed over it with the car. Mom sang along. I knew all my Grandparents well into my thirties, and both my Great Grandmas. Winter Sundays were for church or ice-fishing, and summers we hauled an old travel trailer up to the north woods. School was a drag, and I mostly drew pictures. When I was 11 I bought a cassette copy of Little Richard’s Greatest Hits. At 17 I learned to play all the songs on John Prine’s 1971 debut in my room with the door locked and subway posters of British New Wave bands looking morbidly on. At 19 I stole a copy of Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Live & Obscure’. At 24 I made a record and start traveling around the country. I have two older brothers. They don’t sing but they both fish.”

In two decades on the road Jeffrey Foucault has become one of the most striking voices in American music, refining a sound instantly recognizable for its simplicity and emotional power, a Midwestern amalgam of blues, country, rock’n’roll, and folk. He’s built a brick-and-mortar international touring career on multiple studio albums, countless miles, and general critical acclaim, being lauded for “Stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest” (The New Yorker), and described as “Quietly brilliant” (The Irish Times), while catching the ear of everyone from Van Dyke Parks to Greil Marcus, to Don Henley, who regularly covers Foucault in his live set. His eighth collection of original songs, THE UNIVERSAL FIRE, will be released in 2024.

“Jeffrey Foucault sings stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest” - The New Yorker

“Songwriting brilliance” - MOJO

“Quietly brilliant” - The Irish Times

“The music of Wisconsin native Foucault is the kind so many aspire to but never attain: beat-up troubadour folk whittled to dolorous perfection” - UNCUT

“...Densely layered tales of longing and loss, beauty and simple pleasures.” - Chicago Sun-Times

“Pure songwriter” - NPR’s Morning Edition