Lava Presents! Folk/Americana June 21, 2007

June 21st

The Uptown 1928 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94612

$7.00

Over 21 Show 9:00pm

The Dying Californian www.myspace.com/thedyingcalifornian

Berkeley-based lead singer and songwriter Nathan Dalton stumbled across his dusty muse – blends DIY obstinacy with Willie Nelson, Cowboy Junkies, and 29 other flavors of parched Americana. Dalton’s occasional guitar solo aims to free the listener of this forlorn funk, but by the album’s warm-hearted, full-circle conclusion – “The City Inside the Stone, Part Two” – any desire to escape has faded to empathy. -- Nate Seltenrich, East Bay Express.



Winfred E. Eye www.myspace.com/winfredeeye

Winfred E. Eye's Aaron Calvert sings in an old-coot faux Howlin' Wolf croak, and gets beauty out of the creaks in his croak, though not nearly as much as the Wolf did; nor does he achieve the Wolf's ferocity. So on The Dirt Tier, the couple of tracks where Aaron is at his most full-bodied are the least effective—the old-coot voice is an old beatnik shtick, and in the 2000s it functions more as a mask than as an expressive instrument. But actually, on most of these songs the voice can't quite find its body—I'm assuming this is deliberate—and that's when it's at its best, since in disintegration it mingles with the rest of the instruments, adding a wheezy sorrow. --Frank Kogan, Village Voice



Odessa Chen www.myspace.com/odessachen

Her voice is haunting, a high, sweet whisp of sound, sometimes no more than a whisper. Oaklander Odessa Chen’s instrument lingers in the mind long after her origional songs have told their tales of love, regret, longing, and death. by Jason Serinus, East Bay Express

Official Website: http://www.uptownnightclub.com