About this Event
Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine have been making music together since they were teenagers.
They came out of the 1980s western Massachusetts hardcore scene, went on to found the extraordinary folk-punk band Cordelia's Dad, and spent the decades since following American music into places few musicians would think to look.
Cordelia's Dad could move from punk-rock fury to centuries-old ballads, shape-note hymns and stark acoustic music — sometimes in the same evening. Along the way they played CBGB, Newport Folk Festival and major venues across North America and Europe, becoming a band famously able to claim musical proximity to both Nirvana and Doc Watson.
Now Eriksen and Irvine have returned to the music as a duo.
Their new 2026 album Absence and her sister takes old New England ballads and new songs that somehow sound ancient and strips them nearly to the bone: Tim's extraordinary voice, guitar and fretless bajo sexto surrounded by Peter's frame drum, drums, glockenspiel, percussion and voice.
The result has been called folk minimalism and Gothic Americana — strange, intimate music carrying traces of punk, Sacred Harp, Appalachian music, Balkan traditions, experimental minimalism and the nearly telepathic connection of two musicians who have been playing together for most of their lives.
And their history together is remarkable.
Tim Eriksen became one of America's most celebrated traditional singers, a musical consultant and performer for Cold Mountain, the recipient of the Jean Ritchie Musical Heritage Award, and a songwriter whose work has been recorded by Alison Krauss, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Joan Baez. Baez chose Eriksen's “I Wish the Wars Were All Over” as her final recorded musical statement.
BBC Radio 2 called Eriksen “the best ballad singer of his generation.” T Bone Burnett called him “one of the best singers in music.”
Peter Irvine has been beside him for much of that journey.
A founding member of Cordelia's Dad, Irvine is a drummer, percussionist, vocalist and sound designer whose musical life has stretched from hardcore punk and CBGB to Newport, Mountain Stage, experimental theater and the Academy Awards, where he performed backing Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello.
Together Eriksen and Irvine have also explored Bosnian music with Žabe I Babe, worked with traditional musicians and singers from Appalachia to East Africa, and created the experimental musical-theater project Pumpkintown.
Their first piece together as teenagers was Terry Riley's minimalist In C.
Almost four decades later, you can still hear that experimental instinct.
The music can become quiet enough that a drum stroke changes the entire room — then Eriksen opens that enormous voice and suddenly ancient songs feel very much alive.
This isn't a museum presentation of traditional music.
It's music made by two former punks who never stopped asking what an old song could become.
And at White Lilac, there may be no better way to experience it: two musicians, roughly 45 listeners, and only a few feet between them.
TIM ERIKSEN & PETER IRVINE
Tuesday, October 6 • 7 PM
White Lilac • Kenosha
All ages
Tickets at whitelilackenosha.com
Event venue & nearby stays
The White Lilac, 6th Avenue, Kenosha, WI, USA, United States
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