Love that hat…
By Blurt Staff
The ever-luscious Basia Bulat will be supporting her debut
album Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade Records) with a short US tour this
September. The first date is in Louisville,
KY on September 11 and the tour winds up on
the 20th of the month in Cambridge,
MA. She will be
headlining The Highline Ballroom in New
York City on September 19.
Since the release of Oh, My Darling, Bulat and her
band have been crisscrossing the US
touring on their own and with the likes of DeVotchKa and St.
Vincent. Meanwhile, she was recently nominated in her home country
of Canada
for this year’s Polaris Prize (the winner will be announced on September 29).
Don’t know much about Bulat? Here’s the scoop from the
label:
Since
the age of three, Basia has been sitting on piano stools and trying to hammer
things out. It started with her piano-teacher mum, but along the way Basia’s
picked up guitar, autoharp, banjo, ukulele, sax and flute. In high school her
instrument was the upright bass – a lone girl among “eight-foot-tall guys in
the back of the orchestra, goofing off with the tubas”. There’s a sense of play
that still suffuses her music, jostling under the songs of regret and love,
want and joy.
In
the summer of 2006, Basia went to live in Montreal.
Through friends she met Howard Bilerman, an engineer and co-owner of the famed
Hotel 2 Tango studio. Basia cashed some student loans to record with Bilerman.
It was ultimately these rough early takes, hoarse with excitement that
formed the bulk of Oh, My Darling. Despite the original intention, these
tracks are breathless, thirsty, dislodged from dreary nostalgia. There are
strings, yes, and acoustic guitar, but also a frantic drum-kit gallop; the
influence of the spirits of wild Jeff Magnum, big-voiced Odetta, Emily Dickinson
and all those boisterous soul-music singles. It’s this spark that sets Basia
Bulat apart from the raft of typical singer-songwriters.
Basia Bulat Tour
Dates:
Thu 9/11 Louisville KY
The 9:30 Listening Room
Fri 9/12 Chattanooga, TN
Nightfall Concert Series
Sat 9/13 Decatur, GA
Eddie’s Attic
Sun 9/14 Asheville,
NC Grey Eagle
Tue 9/16 Charlottesville, VA
(HOLD)
Wed 9/17 Washington, DC
DC9
Thu 9/18 Philadelphia, PA The Angel
Fri 9/19 New York, NY
Highline Ballroom
Sat 9/20 Cambridge,
MA Middle East Upstairs