GRITTY 1-MAN BAND PLAYS “SWAMP YANKEE” WITH FOUND INSTRUMENTS AND HARMONIC THROAT SINGING
Suitcase Junket – the remarkable act using mainly found instruments
who was named to Spotify’s Best of 2016 Folk & Americana playlist –
will release his new album ‘Pile Driver’ April 21
on Signature Sounds. He’s also been named as one of “public radio’s
favorite sessions.” The Suitcase Junket’s stellar songwriting with
earworm choruses and muscular, gritty verses puts him in a company of
shining lights of Americana and rock & roll like Shovels & Rope,
M. Ward, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Sam Amidon, Flat Duo
Jets, and The Record Company (for whom he has opened shows).
The one-man band – aka Matt Lorenz – calls his music “swamp
Yankee,” with a muddy, southern aesthetic joining with pioneer
ingenuity. The Suitcase Junket originated after he found a Japanese-made
guitar in a dumpster and cleaned out the mold with white vinegar. It
sounded best in an open tuning (he’s now settled on open C), which
reminded him of early 20th century field recordings and
focused his songwriting for the project. He now plays the guitar
simultaneously with a kick attached to a double-wide suitcase on which
he sits; a high hat that features a box of silverware and an 8
millimeter film reel; a baby shoe hitting a gas can; a cooking pot; and a
circular saw blade. The upcoming ‘Pile Driver’ tour will see him add a
keyboard as well.
While singing verses and choruses with a powerful voice, he has
also taught himself South Indian throat singing, a technique by which
one can sing a low droning note and get a high harmonic. After five
years of practice in the car and shower, it sounds absolutely
otherworldly. Onstage, he sings this through a bullet-style microphone
that hides the drone note amidst the guitar’s amplification but lets
through the overtone glide atop the mix. This is shown at its apex with
the intro to the “Beta Star” or the break in “Ten Rivers.”
However, ‘Pile Driver’s’ constant is the Suitcase Junket’s
remarkable songwriting, with rousing choruses underpinned with gritty,
distorted guitar and imagistic, evocative verses. The album kicks off
with the modal “The Next Act” and rides the high peaks of the garage
rocker “Jackie,” the punk-blues tale of an affair gone wrong
“Evangeline” and back-against-the-wall narrative of “Why So Brief,” the
anthemic “What Was I Gonna Say,” and the inspiring “Seed Your Dreams, ”
with its carpe diem message. “Mountain of Mind,” perhaps the album’s
most affecting song, a portrait of overcoming an abusive relationship
and one’s own self-destructive tendencies. “Beta Star” tackles the first
pangs of love and featuring an alternating keyboard and guitar part
played simultaneously. He shows himself a master fingerpicking guitarist
on “Busted Gut” and “Ten Rivers.” The album then closes with the great
campfire song “Red Flannel Rose,” finding the Suitcase Junket singing of
perseverance.
Suitcase Junket is an artist to watch in 2017. Boston's NPR station
WBUR has said, "It's an astonishing thing to watch Matt Lorenz
perform... What’s impressive is not merely the complexity of the
endeavor—Lorenz sings, strums and plays up to four instruments with his
feet at once—but how utterly he is able to transcend the mechanical
minutiae." Already, The Suitcase Junket has opened tour dates for Lake
Street Dive, The Record Company, Jackie Greene, the Suffers, and Los
Lobos and played Mountain Jam, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Joshua Tree,
and Green River festivals.
Suitcase Junket Winter Tour Dates
January 12 - Abilene Bar & Lounge - Rochester, NY
January 13 Rusty Rail Brewing Company - Mifflinburg, PA
January 14 - Club Cafe - Pittsburgh, PA
January 15 - House Show - Buckhannon, WV
January 18 - The Purple Fiddle - Thomas, WV
January 19 - The Burl - Lexington, KY
January 20 Bar None - Springfield, IL
January 21 - Private Show - Johnston, IA
January 22 - The Warming House - Minneapolis, MN
January 24 - Off Broadway - St Louis, MO
January 26 - Cafe Carpe - Fort Atkinson, WI
January 27 - SPACE - Evanston, IL
January 28 - Tanners Grill & Bar Kimberly, WI
February 01 - Atwood's Tavern - Cambridge, MA
February 08 Atwood's Tavern - Cambridge, MA
February 15 Atwood's Tavern- Cambridge, MA
February 22 Atwood's Tavern- Cambridge, MA
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