Advertisement
On Sale: NOW!This Event is All Ages and General Admission
__________________________________________
New York. London. LA. Firebrand. Punk. Renegade. Bold-faced icon. Startling songwriter. Grammy nominee. Pop sensation. Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Award winner. Record setter. Brash live force. Brazen recording artist. Spider monkey on a tear.
What if the story began with a banjo? With a residency trying to figure out writing songs? Perhaps a high gloss, but busted life and ultimately a secessionist raising in Jackson, Ohio? No wonder Elle King is hotter than a pepper sprout. Even more than ZFG attitude, there’s the forthright attack on a life lived frayed at the edges and pulling at the scenes. Sure, she had famous parents, but when it gets real for King, it all happens with her Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw in a scrappy Southern Ohio town that puts the “just” in getting by.
�“Home isn’t a longitude, latitude or a place,” King begins, explaining what anchors the energetic songwriter. “It’s the fucking people. My grandfather was a carpenter who had a shed, where he always played country music. PawPaw always had a truck, some kind of Ford Ranger – and he had dogs that are mongrel dogs, typically used for hunting; they lived outside and barked their heads off.
“My Grandfather’s a hunter; everybody’s a hunter because they’re all poor and they eat everything they K*ll. Squirrel, deer, snapping turtle, whatever, people ate it all. (Back home) the coal mine shafts and factories closed down. My Grandfather was a railroad conductor for CSX, but it’s tough there but there’s a lot of beauty because it’s also a little untouched. The people have so much to them. My Maw-Maw worked hard to create a beautiful home and make us all feel loved. I say how proud I am about where I come from, because I see how they live, how hard they work, they dream. They party fucking hard and we laugh; we don’t cry unless we’re laughing. Not just my family, but the next generations of these smart people who know how to get by.”
�It all permeates “Ohio,” the opening track on Come Get Your Wife. Banjo-plinking, yearning vocal, the wide-open suggests the pull of where – and how – she grew up. Intoning “Find me singing on a back porch swingin’/ Cur dogs barkin, left my dip in the kitchen/ That’s when it hit me... I’ve been gone to long,” King’s roots run deep and honest in the realm of country music.
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Revolution Hall, 1340 SE Stark St, Portland, OR 97214-1497, United States,Portland, Oregon
Tickets