7pm Doors • 8pm Show • $15 • Tickets on Eventbrite and at the door
Cathartic, genre-bending Folk Explaining Marty O’Reilly’s music is like describing a dream. It feels familiar, but at the same time unchartered. His songs sound bluesy but not blues, folk but not folk, soulful but not soul. Marty’s voice is beautiful and unique, his lyrics stark yet lush over gritty electrified guitar, melding beautifully into genre-defying music within the vast definitions of Americana. One can hear an urgency and complexity in the songs, expressing something elemental and perhaps contradictory: love and anger, joy and pain, real and imagined. The live performance is at the core of Marty’s projects. On stage, whether accompanied by a band, or alone, he enters a trance and the music is born again as something new every night. It’s what his followers call “magic”. He goes from raw gospel blues to cinematic epics, from heavy driving grooves to delicately arranged folk songs. Marty leaves the stage out of breath and sweaty, his audience in awe. It's hard to describe, impossible to categorize. Yet people who know the music will try to explain it to you, just as you might struggle to explain a dream in the morning. The details might slip away as you recount them, but the feeling remains. “I started playing music as medicine for myself to feel good and digest some melancholy,” Marty leaves off. “Over time, I realized if music makes me feel good, the people around me who become a part of it will feel good too. It connects us on the same wavelength. I hope to give the world something real and refreshing.
Drew Gibson’s music drifts on influence from the American days of country-blues and the singer-songwriters of the recent past. Since releasing his debut album “Letterbox” in 2007, the self-taught finger-style guitarist has garnered attention from USA Today, The Washington Post, RVA Magazine, and No Depression. With his intensely personal songs and an expert stagecraft as a live performing story-teller, Drew has graced stages across the country at revered venues such as The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.
In 2015 Gibson released his third effort entitled “1532.” The album was born from a healing journey on which he embarked after the loss of his father on the Fourth of July in 2012. "Fifteen Thirty-Two" traces stories of Gibson’s family from its roots in Scotland to the branches across Canada and the United States and was considered one of the top releases in 2015 by No Depression.
In 2016, Drew began recording his fourth album, “Shipbuilder.” After many years in the making, the album was released in April of 2019. “Shipbuilder” navigated songs about the ups and downs of life and how to float above the constant changing tides, while keeping dreams alive as we continue to grow. Gibson is currently recording his 5th studio album, due to be released early 2023.
"Drew Gibson writes big songs that you can hold in the palm of your hand"
- THE WASHINGTON POST