Culture

Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio hosts a free evening of music with Xylouris White in our brand new Grand Lobby on Thursday, March 29 at 8 p.m.

For their debut album, 2014’s Goats, Xylouris White compared themselves to the titular animals, wandering fearlessly through rough-hewn terrain. Two years later, they showed how far their horizons could reach on 2016’s majestically expansive Black Peak, named after a mountain top in Crete. Just 15 well-toured months later, the duo’s exploratory instincts drive them further onwards still on their third album, Mother, released January 19, 2018 on Bella Union, and named to denote “new life”. As Xylouris puts it, “Mother is the extension of Goats and Black Peak. Three things, all part of a whole.” Across Mother’s nine tracks, Xylouris White nurture fecund growths from the spaces between their instruments. Sometimes the songs drive with an invigorating urgency; sometimes they brood, plead, yearn and lull. The duo seem to discover each other anew at every turn, teasing the songs out from their fluid chemistry with the kind of virtuosity that knows when to listen, accommodate and learn afresh. Xylouris is a scion of one of Greece’s most revered musical families. His father is legendary singer and lyra player Psarantonis. Jim White, meanwhile, has commanded international attention for more than two decades as part of Australia’s Dirty Three.

Now New York-based, White has often been called on to collaborate with numerous alt-A-listers (including: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, PJ Harvey, Cat Power and Smog), where he redeploys the rolling momentum of free-jazz to variously supple, sensitive and seismic ends. Most recently he performed with Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett on their acclaimed album Lotta Sea Lice.

As on Black Peak, Mother’s labours benefited from the midwifery of choice collaborators. Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto produced once again. Also on hand this time was Anna Roberts-Gevalt of old-time folk duo Anna & Elizabeth, whose earthy violin/viola lines and exquisitely sighing vocals can be heard on the track “Lullaby”. The result is an album of extraordinary accomplishment from two supremely seasoned players who’ve kept a close kinship with the richly, rewardingly inquisitive instincts of their youth. In Xylouris’s words, “It’s the natural maturity of fruits as they ripen. As fruit matures by the rhythm of nature, so the music grows at its own pace. So, here are two maturing fruits giving the taste of their present maturity – and they’re still children.”


Before the concert we will be hosting an installment of the Stuart’s Monthly Happy Hour in our brand new Grand Lobby from 6:00pm to 8:00pm! Come on down and enjoy a drink and some good company! It’s a great chance to network, meet new folks, or just catch up with friends over a beer. Full cash bar available along with coffee, tea, and soda too. And then be sure to stick around for the free show afterward too.

Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio hosts visionary lute/drum duo Xylouris White for an evening of music in our new Grand Lobby on Thursday, March 29th at 8 p.m., doors will open at 6 p.m. for our Stuart’s Monthly Happy Hour before the show, with music starting at 8:00pm. This is a FREE show, though donations are encouraged. For more information call (740) 753-1924 or visit our website at www.stuartsoperahouse.org.