March 10, 2024

Chris Darby’s musical development began in Missouri, and gradually took form in Kentucky, Illinois, Oregon, Wisconsin, and everywhere in between. Chris is a folk musician whose true home is anywhere his music takes him. Though his singing sometimes reaches the ferocious roar of a territorial lion and other times sinks to the gentle whisper of a wise sage, his vocal style embodies a rare emotional honesty which captures the full range and depth of his life experience. Likewise, his dynamic guitar playing gracefully shifts between hypnotic arpeggios and the building crescendo of an oncoming train.

With her latest album North, Chicago songwriter Heather Styka is headed in the right direction. Styka dances where others fear to tread, 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 Styka’s heartfelt croon draws as much inspiration from classic warblers such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald as it does from Gillian Welch.

Raw and real, The Never DeadBeat Poets combine harmoniously blended lyrics over guitars and ambient percussion, weaving intimate and introspective stories that captivate the soul.

Doors at 1:00pm, Music at 2pm, $10