Thursday, March 9, 2017

THE SUITCASE JUNKET LAUNCHES 36-DATE TOUR AS NEW VIDEO OF “BETA STAR” PREMIERES WITH OTHERWORLDLY, TWO-TONE THROAT SINGING INTRO

SHOWCASES MARCH 22 IN NYC & APRIL 3 IN NASHVILLE PLUS TIFT MERRITT SUPPORT DATES & OTHER HEADLINING SHOWS
 
The Suitcase Junket will get in the car for a tour that kicks off in NYC March 22 at Rockwood Music Hall, stage 2; Nashville April 3 at the Family Wash as sponsored by American Songwriter and Reverb Nation; and then brings him to 35 more shows by summer. He’s already taking off, with over a million Spotify spins to date and a session for NPR in 2015: http://www.npr.org/event/music/447200083/folk-alley-presents-the-suitcase-junket-earth-apple
 
The car is also where he perfected his South Indian-inspired throat-singing technique, that allows him to sing in a low drone and a high overtone at the same. This sound kicks off the song for the new single “Beta Star,” for which he has released a new video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TtotODQuzQ
 
The Suitcase Junket’s stellar songwriting with earworm choruses and muscular, gritty sound puts him in a company of shining lights of Americana and rock & roll like Shovels & Rope, M. Ward, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Flat Duo Jets, and The Record Company (for whom he has opened shows).
 
When Matt Lorenz, aka the Suitcase Junket was in college, he took a south Indian cooking class. He remembers, “Some of the dishes were named by what linguists call retroflex Rs and Ds. I was driving around in the car and tried out this new mouth shape and heard a really quiet overtone. I was fascinated. Where the hell did that come from?” He discovered that it was relative to a low note the he hummed and that he could control it, practicing in the car for about five years. Learning it on his own, without a teacher or even a YouTube video, is part of what makes Matt the Suitcase Junket and it’s in keeping with the way that he builds his other instruments from found objects. Here’s a video in which he demonstrates the technique and talks about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmnvG1hY6nU
 
He says, “When I figured out how to do, I joined this old club. People have been doing as long as there’ve been fires to sit around. The technique functions a lot like a solo instrument in the rig, sort of like a harmonica or an electric guitar or something. The lines that I’m doing are a fair bit simpler than if I was doing harmonica or guitar.”
 
“But there’s a lot more that I can learn. I’m still practicing it and trying it out, trying to get better at it.” So when he’s driving from gig to gig, you know what else he’ll be doing.
 
THE SUITCASE JUNKET TOUR DATES
 
March 22 - Rockwood Music Hall  - New York, NY                                  
March 29 - Capital Ale House Music Hall - Richmond, VA           
March 30 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC                  
April 1 - Crawdebauchery Food & Music Festival  - Pompano Beach, FL
April 3 – The Family Wash – Nashville, TN           
April 5 - The Ark - Ann Arbor, MI (w/ Tift Merritt)
April 6 – Space - Evanston, IL (w/ Tift Merritt)
April 7 - Shank Hall - Milwaukee, WI (w/ Tift Merritt)
April 8 - Cedar Cultural Club - Minneapolis, MN (w/ Tift Merritt)
April 9 - Reverb Lounge - Omaha, NE          
April 13 -  Gasa Gasa – New Orleans, LA
April 15 – Saturn – Birmingham, AL
April 18 – Avalon Theater – Easton, MD
April 19 – Gypsy Sally’s – Washington, D.C.
April 21 – The Shea Theater – Turner Falls, MA
April 28 – The Linda – Albany, NY
April 29 – The Narrows – Fall River, MA
May 8 - The Musical Instrument Museum - Phoenix, AZ (w/ Tift Merritt)
May 10 - Bootleg Front Room - Los Angeles, CA (w/ Tift Merritt)
May 11 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA (w/ Tift Merritt)
May 12 – Vintage Wine Bar – Redding, CA
May 13 - Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR (w/ Tift Merritt)
May 14 - The Triple Door - Seattle, WA (w/ Tift Merritt)
May 16 - The Soiled Dove - Denver, CO (w/ Tift Merritt)
May 18 – The Turf Club – St. Paul, MN
May 24 – The Purple Fiddle – Thomas, WV
May 25 – The McNemar House – Buckhannon, WV
May 26 - Jewel City Jamboree - Huntington, WV
May 31 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
June 14 – Café Nine – New Haven, CT
June 16 - Stone Mountain Arts Center - Brownfield, ME                
June 17 - Clearwater Festival  - Croton-On-Hudson, NY
July 2 - Great Blue Heron Music Festival - Sherman, NY    
July 14 - Red Wing Roots Music Festival  - Mount Solon, VA
July 27 – FloydFest – Floyd, VA
July 28 – FloydFest – Floyd, VA

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