Culture
Singer Songwriters Headed to Casa
By: Emily Votaw
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May 19 Casa Nueva will host a singer songwriter showcase; featuring the likes of Wonky Tonk, Julia Lucille and Ben Stalets. The show kicks off at 10 p.m. and is entirely free.
“I love Casa Nueva,” said Toledo’s own Ben Stalets in an interview several days before the singer songwriter showcase. “Athens and Hocking Hills, to me, are kind of like majestic little towns that are buried in Southern Ohio, you almost can’t believe that they’re in Ohio.”
Stalets, who played at last year’s Nelsonville Music Festival, has created a very specific sonic world for himself, one part classic country western and one part gnarly rock ‘n’ roll. His most recent release, Country Mid-Western, feels all-at-once so very 2015 and yet oddly timeless. Complete with tunes that are punctuated with whistles and guitar with that soul-satisfying twang, it’s hard to not take a liking to Country Mid-Western.
“At the Casa show, people will be able to purchase both of my CDs, one of my t-shirts and they can always find my stuff on iTunes, Spotify, any streaming or downloading service,” said Stalets, who mentioned that he’s also awfully excited to chow down on one of Casa’s signature burritos.
Jasmine Lorraine “Wonky Tonk” Poole comes to Athens by way of Kentucky. Poole has appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and has toured the country with her unique brand of indie country pop. Often cited as pulling musical influences from artists such as Loretta Lynn and John Prine (as well as Modest Mouse and the recently passed on Guy Clark), Poole’ls website claims that she is “her own cowgirl.”
Julia Lucille is a songwriter based out of Austin, TX. Her most recent effort, entitled Bedroom Tapes, Volume I, was recorded while she was working through heartbreak while living on a friend’s ranch. “The songs include some field recordings of my walking around the ranch at night or the cicadas in the trees at midday when I would sit in the doorway of my trailer and not really know what to do with myself,” writes Lucille on her website of the project. Every new moon, she releases another song, and distributes it to her fanbase.