Sun 10/5: Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music) / Tim Barry (Avail) / Ben Nichols (Lucero) @ Rhino's Bloomington

September 23, 2008 by ASquared

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Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Tim Barry of Avail and Ben Nichols of Lucero have announced plans to tour together this fall, and will be performing at Rhino's Youth Center in Bloomington on October 5th.

Chuck Ragan is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With his emotional and gravel-coated bellow, Chuck Ragan made a name for himself as one-fourth of the much loved Gainesville post-hardcore outfit Hot Water Music before releasing his first solo album in 2007. The group disbanded on good terms in 2006, and the other three members went on to form punk band The Draft, while Ragan launched a solo career playing folk music similar in tone to a former acoustic Hot Water Music side project called Rumbleseat. He has since released a series of 7-inches on No Idea Records, and a live album and a studio album on Side One Dummy Records.

Based out of Richmond, VA, singer/songwriter Tim Barry is most well known as the frontman for Avail, an aggressive hardcore outfit that's been rocking out in the underground since the early '90s. Fronting Avail since 1991, the band had released six studio albums as of 2006 and toured exhaustively all over the world, turning themselves into something of cult favorites in the process. In the mid-2000s, the politically conscious Barry began releasing solo material that abandoned the loud-hard-fast punk rules of Avail and stripped it all down to Woody Guthrie-inspired folk, the only thing tying the two projects together being Barry's gruff voice and brash delivery.

Ben Nichols, based out of Memphis, Tennessee, heads up the legendary "punk-country" band Lucero. Formed in 1998, Lucero's punk rock roots flavor their now "country-ish" music, while their Southern roots give them the twang that they have come to be known by. Although their music is part punk, part country, part rock 'n roll, the band's members are all original. Steeped in the musical tradition of their hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, Lucero is a breath of fresh air in today's songs without substance musical landscape.

The bill, dubbed 'The Revival Tour', is a series of shows that will see all three artists playing solo sets as well as performing on each other's material.

Ragan explains:

"All the tours that I've done since I've been doing this solo stuff have in some way or the other ended up with a bunch of friends onstage by the end of the night, I've always loved seeing that and now I'm absolutely loving creating something like that with good friends who think and believe along the same lines."

Ben Nichols adds:

"The three of us have been in bands that each have their own sound, but I think we're all coming from the same place musically concerning this tour. When it comes down to it, we all appreciate good songs and good songwriters and that's what this tour is all about - stripping everything down to its basic form and playing some good songs with some of your friends. The idea of Woody Guthrie, just a man and a guitar, is very appealing to all of us, and the chance to be a part of something like that with Chuck and Tim is something I couldn't pass up. We all have our own types of songs, but I think it'll be a blast basically sitting around a campfire every night playing music with some friends."

While the tour will feature individual sets from each artist, it will be more reminiscent of the folk tradition of involving multiple artist collaborations -- and each performer will have guests coming on and off stage, including the three primary songwriters who hunkered down in Barry's Richmond, Virginia backyard this summer to learn each other's respective tracks.

Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime event!

Forum: Music