Heather Maloney with special guest High Tea
Doors 7PM / Show 8PM
$16ADV / $20DOS
Seated show
Some albums are monoliths, compressed under the weight of a singular circumstance bearing down on an artist. Heather Maloney’s “Soil in the Sky” is a collective memory. Stitched together from personal and universal ecstasy, loss both intimate and ancient, Maloney’s fourth full-length release is a collage of tremulous folk, existential ballads, and assertive rock. Taken as a whole, it’s a constellation that looks a lot like life. The artist holds the center.
The Massachusetts-based “writer song-singer” found music in the midst of three years at a meditation center, honing a sound moored in days of silent reflection and reverence for storytellers like Joni, Rilke and Ken Burns. On “Soil in the Sky,” she takes us to the midwest’s existential crisis, a barstool scooching against fate, a make-my-day reckoning with society’s old guard. They’re roads less traveled and she keeps good company. Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith lends a distinctive duet to “We Were Together,” a rare love song from Maloney that nods to a Walt Whitman poem; Maloney and Rachel Price form a harmonic Voltron on “Enigma,” a triumphant uppercut to oppressive power structures. The album is sonically rounded out by an all-star cast of players including longtime collaborator Ryan Hommel, Griffin Goldsmith, Jared Olevsky, Reed Sutherland, Dave Eggar and Jay Ungar.
In sound and sentiment, these 12 songs cover an immense amount of territory. But they’re all powered by the same source. There’s a spiritual thread throughout the record. That inspiration doesn’t necessarily come from above — Maloney has a patchwork metaphysical support system — but from all around: the glow of humanity gathered in the people and places that lap out in our wake. Heather has toured nationally as a headliner as well as in support of acts like Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Gary Clark Jr., Colin Hay, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and many more. The New York Times called her music “utterly gorgeous, visceral” and SPIN Magazine described her as “stunning, breathy, and starkly memorable”.
High Tea, the y'alternative folk-punk duo hailing from Massachusetts, is a concoction of sweepingly soulful harmonies, guitar riffs to knock your socks off, and a refreshing blend of old blues and new rock. Isabella DeHerdt and Isaac Eliot have come together to fill spaces with homegrown storytelling and Lumineers-esque vocals. Their songs are ripe with Americana heartbreak, and tell tales of growing up, going wild, and always coming back to the ones you love.
Their previous releases have been featured on playlists, radio shows, and publications like The Boston Globe and The Greenfield Recorder (among others). The title track of their EP Old Cowboy led them to be chosen as one of WBUR’s top 4 Massachusetts Tiny Desk entries of 2022. Their most recent full-length release, The Wick And The Flame, blended the ambience of groups akin to Bonny Light Horseman with harmonies reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, instrumentals that evoke memories of The White Stripes, and stories which build on the folkloric lineage of iconic writers such as the Indigo Girls, creating a new sound wholly unique to High Tea.
High Tea's newest release, Scuba Diving, pushes into new territory while still maintaining their folk-Americana roots. It starts with "Whole Lotta Lovin," an energetic jam with darker undertones, a dynamic song about a mysterious and dangerous romance. The second track, "Elijah (Do It Now)," follows a boy stuck in the trench of generational hyper-masculine trauma, desperately wanting to leave. This is followed by "Bliss Don't Come Quick To Me," a diary entry, a talk with an old friend, the singer lamenting their frustration of quick-fix culture, with the feeling that true happiness is just out of reach. The finale is also the title track, an offering about the debilitating feeling of helplessness that can come with being close to someone on the brink of collapse, pleading desperately for them to "hold on to something."
Whether it’s swelling melodies or smooth harmonies, bluesy guitar licks or the driving beat of a bass drum, High Tea writes from the heart, and their songs are rooted in intimate personal experience yet strive to find the universal understandings of life that all audience members will be able to connect with. They invite listeners into their lives, and the worlds they've created. Come sit by the fire and find a piece of yourself in the music of High Tea.