Name: Abe Partridge W/ Matthew R. Sayles @ 2 Roots Gallery, Eau Claire
Start: 2024-10-06T18:00:00-05:00
Location: 2 Roots Art & Wine Gallery

$Abe Partridge W\/ Matthew R. Sayles @ 2 Roots Gallery, Eau Claire$

This is an incredible opportunity to see one of the most celebrated musical and visual artists out touring right now-- in a beautiful gallery in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin! $10 at the door, with Matthew R. Sayles of Philville Records opening and hosting the show. (This is the debut of Abe Partridge in Eau Claire, and only one of a handful of shows he's ever played in Wisconsin -- you don't want to miss the opportunity to see this level of talent in such an intimate room--shows like this don't pop up too often!).
Abe Partridge is a heralded musician, singer/songwriter, visual artist, and podcaster based in Mobile, Alabama. His 2018 debut, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days earned him rave reviews, with Tony Paris saying in The Bitter Southerner: "He plays guitar the same way he writes lyrics, bashing the strings with abandon until they are just about to come loose, then beautifully picking the notes until every last word falls into place. More to the point, Partridge writes to make you sit up and think. He wants to jar your reality. Sometimes, his lyrics are sly and subtle. Sometimes they come at you with a roar and thunder, as if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were approaching, and the heavens were opening up to herald a warning."
Since the release of his debut, Partridge has toured relentlessly, including several tours of the Netherlands and the U.K. developing a reputation for moving, passionate, and sometimes comedic, performances at prestigious songwriter festivals such as 30A Songwriters Festival, Frank Brown Songwriters Festival, and Americanafest. He is a regular at the Bluebird Café in Nashville and Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. He has performed on the syndicated radio programs, Mountain Stage and Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. He has shared the stage with Morgan Wade, Paul Thorn, Steve Poltz, Dan Bern, Jerry Joseph, Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Tommy Stinson, Shawn Mullins, John Fullbright, and more.
Most recently, Partridge and co-producer Ferrill Gibbs released the Alabama Astronaut podcast, where they explore songs previously undocumented at churches in Appalachia. The podcast finds Partridge chatting with Holiness preachers and looking into the practice of snake handling. It was in the Top Ten documentary podcasts on Apple Podcasts within days of its release and now has over 50k downloads and a 4.9-star rating.
When Partridge is not writing or touring, he is also a highly acclaimed visual artist. His paintings, primarily acrylic on tarred board and watercolors, now hang in art galleries around the southeast and in the private collections of Tyler Childers, Mike Wolfe (American Pickers), Rick Hirsch (Wet Willie), and Tommy Prine. His artwork was featured in Stephen King’s 2019 sequel to The Shining - Dr. Sleep. He painted the cover art for Charlie Parr’s, Last Of The Better Days Ahead (Smithsonian Folkways). He also created art for Tyler Childers’ 2022 release, Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven?
American Songwriter Magazine said, “Abe Partridge has established himself as one of the most respected songwriters and visual folk artists in the southeast.”
In November of 2022, Partridge released the EP Alabama Skies on Baldwin Co. Public Records label which includes "Abe Partridge’s 403d Freakout". Partridge told Songfacts the story behind the song: " 'Abe Partridge's 403d Freakout' was a song I wrote in about 20 minutes. It took me two weeks to make it rhyme, and then it took me about six months to learn it. I just sat and wrote a couple of pages of thoughts as they came to me. It was my attempt at describing my thoughts chronologically as they sometimes occur in my head before I filter them. It is those thoughts that I often have if I allow myself to mentally wander."
Partridge's exhibit With Signs Following was on exhibition at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, AL from January 13 - May 20 of 2023 and is expected to travel to other city contemporary art centers in the next few years. His full-length studio album, Love In The Dark, on BCPR label, was released on May 12, 2023.
Matthew R. Sayles is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and founder of Philville Records, an independent label he formed in 2000 in Marquette, Michigan.
Sayles has toured nationally and internationally, and has had the honor of performing with country, bluegrass, and western swing legends like Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Asleep at the Wheel, Larry Sparks, Doyle Lawson, the Duhks, Uncle Earl, Hot Club of Cowtown, members of Bob Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Review" and a long list of other highly talented regional and national roots music performers.
Sayles's solo performances bounce from up tempo Telecaster-picked roots country, early rock & roll, roadhouse blues, Americana ballads, and bluegrass, to north African-inspired instrumental pieces on five string banjo and south American-infused arrangements on the Andean ten-stringed Charango.
An accomplished songwriter, story-teller, and performer with a deep interest in the history of American roots music, Sayles's live performances evoke a modern interpretation of the coffee house shows of the 1950s and 60s, while still keeping one foot grounded in the beer halls, honky-tonks, and night clubs of the recent past and present.
Philville Records was located in Ventura, CA from 2009-2019, and is now based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Sayles continues to write, record, and produce, as well as perform with his latest project the Driftless Revelers, the Ventura based Ventucky String Band, and his California alt. country project the Detroit Sportsmen's Congress. He also performs solo and does session work with Eau Claire, Duluth, Marquette, Los Angeles, Ventura, Portland and Santa Barbara alt. country and roots music projects.