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Event
Heather Styka and Scott Fab
Heather Styka dances where others fear to tread, gleefully cutting to the truth with gutsy vulnerability. She combines the lyrical intricacy of folk with a catchy melodic pop sensibility and the grit of classic country in songs that are smart and disarming. Call it folk, call it Americana, call it alt-country, but Stykas heartfelt croon draws as much inspiration from classic warblers such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald as it does from Shawn Colvin and Eva Cassidy.
After growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Styka moved to the city to studying creative writing, meanwhile honing her song craft among Chicagos long-standing folk community. Her 2011 release Lifeboats for Atlantis brought her to national attention, hitting #3 on the FOLK-DJ charts. Styka's honest, image-heavy songs have garnered her a number of awards, including being a New Folk Finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival (2015, 2017) and official showcases at Folk Alliance International, NERFA, SWRFA, and FARM.
While living in Portland, Maine, Heather Styka released While This Planet Spins Beneath Our Feet. Recorded in the Adirondacks with Beehive Productions and printed by Styka on a 1901 letterpress in Maine, this 2014 release charted for four months on FOLK-DJ. Stykas next album, The Bittersweet Tapes (2016), tugs the ear on first listen and greets you like an old friend on subsequent visits (Simon Rigby, Indie Music Portal). These gut-punch pretty songs nod to traditional folk, classic country, and even garage rock, carried by Stykas emotive vocals. Recorded in Tulsa, Oklahoma on an old four track recorder with sparse, ethereal production by John Calvin Abney (John Moreland, Samantha Crain), The Bittersweet Tapes retains an unfiltered immediacy. In this raw and intimate portrait of life, disguised as a collection of songs, Heather Styka has truly created a masterpiece A writer with this kind of vision and ability doesnt come along very often (Chris Darby, Independent Melody).
Live, Heather Styka comes off as something like Leonard Cohen crossed with Patsy Cline. Armed with a guileless, unvarnished delivery, she's equal parts wordsmith and entertainer. Stykas energetic shows feel as intimate and candid as late night conversation, peppered with a quirky sense of humor and confessional storytelling. Once again working with Beehive Productions, Styka is currently releasing her her fifth full-length studio album, North, which was recorded with Danish backing band The Sentimentals in a cabin in northern Wisconsin.
Singer-songwriter Scott Fabs introduction to music came from Detroit punk. As a member of the hardcore band GCMS he was part of the same Cass Corridor-scene that spawned the legendary pioneers of the genre, Negative Approach. After practice sessions he started writing songs, when he would put down his drumsticks and pick up a guitar, thus starting his transformation in sound and style.
Having drifted away from music in the early 2000s, Fab started performing again in 2013 and soon afterwards began working on a new batch of songs. He now returns with the resulting album, Leave My Friends. His arrestingly scuffed-up vocals are the sound of Midwest desolation laid bare over the bones of an acoustic guitar and chronicle the complex nature of relationships and loss that haunt us all as we travel through life - a permanent reminder that our existence isnt guaranteed to be long.
Fabs gift for both melody and lyrics will delight fans of Ray Lamontagne, Ron Sexsmith and Ryan Adams alike, as he combines a rustic mystique with striking stories of everyday life. As well as gathering them from his own personal experiences, he draws inspiration from cycling through his local neighborhood and from the novels of Willa Cather and the poems of Charles Simic.
The recording process took place one-day-a-month over the course of a year, when time and money allowed, and this slow-burning approach matches the considered style of his music. Recorded at Big Sky Recording in Ann Arbor, Michigan with musical allies Cary Marsh and Gary Watts, and engineer Geoff Michael, you can hear the deliberation and thought that has gone into every track.
For Fab, his songs are a way of making a permanent connection with the listener. Its why hed rather play to an audience thats more interested in a well-delivered song than a cheap drink and why he finds the superficial nature of social media so depressing. Theres still something to be said for doing things properly, such as devoting a year of his life to the creation of Leave My Friends, and anyone who hears his music will know that its been time well spent by Scott Fab.
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LocationTrinity House Theatre (View)
38840 West Six Mile
Livonia, MI 48152
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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