Name: June Star @ Hi-Tone
Start: 2024-10-07T20:00:00-05:00
Location: Hi Tone

Baltimore Maryland’s June Star (Andrew Grimm and Dave Hadley), with aching vocals and plaintive folk arrangements, comes off like a Smog-era Bill Callahan if he had chosen to dive inward or The Jayhawks if they were more keen to stark emotional realism. Grimm’s rich baritone voice and Hadley’s atmospheric, elegiac pedal steel brings a time-honored aesthetic to their unique tales of fractious love, quixotic anxiety, the looming shadow of death, and the promise of redemption. June Star has performed in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC and West Virginia.
"June Star closed the night accentuated by the grace of Greta Thomas on violin and Katie Feild on guitars and perfect vocals; while front man Andrew Grimm kept the crowd smiling with wry banter and then lulled them to weep with his poignant lyrics, paired Creston guitars, and magical voice. June Star songs are always moving poetry." Americana Highways (Baltimore, Maryland)
"...my review of the show? So good. Just guitar, vocals, pedal steel/steel guitar, and "songs about love." his voice is so distinctive. strong, rich, nasally, nuanced. shades of one of my favorite voices, Richard Buckner, but uniquely his own. his lyrics hint of an English Literature professor but in the very very best of ways. layered, twisty, often veiled just enough to make you think or wonder. At one point in the show, he spoke of how from 1985 until 2006 all he listened to was Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. (*maybe, we could ask him to write an AOTW feature. seriously. Clams, send him an e-mail) he played "Romeo had Juliet" (bleep) then he played "Waitin For My Man" and said it was what it would sound like if Lou Reed and Jimmie Rodgers had a baby. this was GENIUS." Three Dimes Down (Chicago, Illinois)

"Baltimore based June Star have, improbably in this day and age, survived and prospered for nearly two decades as one of the nation’s best kept musical secrets. The four piece, focused around singer/songwriter Andrew Grimm and pedal steel guitarist David Hadley, have been plying their trade since 1998, but their musical reference points reach back much further. Hadley’s pedal steel lines are strongly flavored with a lifetime listening to classic country while Grimm’s lyrics and bone-dry delivery are reminiscent of figures from the alt-country movement of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s like James McMurtry. Their tenth studio album, Pull Awake, boasts eleven songs that synthesize the band’s disparate influences into a highly musical, coherent whole. The production presents a balanced sonic picture and incorporates instruments outside of the band’s typical configuration, like banjo and harmonica, without losing sight of the larger artistic picture." Gas House Radio