WILLOW WATERS & The Earthtones -record release - with BHH

The Cedar Presents

WILLOW WATERS & The Earthtones -record release - with BHH

Thursday, July 25, 2024 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM

All Ages

Seated

$20 Advance, $25 Day of Show

This is a seated show with general admission, first-come-first-served seating. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request access accommodations, please go to our .

For Cedar presented shows, online ticket sales typically end one hour before the door time, and then, based on availability, tickets will be available at the door.

Spend an evening with Willow Waters & The Earth Tones (ft. JT Bates, Maddie Thies, Mikey Marget, Arianna Wegley, and Anna Dolde) as they perform the music from their new record I RISE, I FALL. Centered around Willow's delicate and expressive piano compositions and improvisations, this record explores new and familiar themes of love and longing, the body-mind-spirit and its relation to the more-than-human world, self-reflection, and a search for meaning. The night will open up with gorgeous soundscapes from BHH (ft. Jake Baldwin, Zac Harris, and Pete Hennig). Don't miss out on this one-of-a-kind performance!

WILLOW WATERS & The Earthtones

As the ripples on the surface of the river mingle and transform the lines and reflections of our world, so Willow Waters’ music shapeshifts and defies categorization. Dancing lithely between rock and roll, country, old folk, and jazz; bolstered by rich, intricate, and often surprising arrangements and instrumentation, her music exhibits exhaustive precision and delightful variety. And centering this vast array of orchestration is Willow’s singular voice – a voice that is grounding in timbre yet soaring in its revelations.

To call Willow’s music “activist”, as some might be tempted to do, would not be wrong exactly, but perhaps it would miss the mark. Or at least not paint a full enough picture. Certainly, she writes from a deeply environmentalist perspective. There are moments in her music when one feels that the voices of the trees and the waters and the skies themselves are singing. And, as a trans-femme, her music is deeply queer and trans-feminist. But, to limit our description to “activist – folk” is a reductive mischaracterization. What Willow’s music achieves is remarkable: she seems to delve deep into the sacred feminine – the ancient current of energy bearing all life – and sings with the powerful voices that reside there. Her music is fertile and abundant. It is at times strong and steadfast as cottonwood roots, and at others light and graceful as her drifting seeds. She sometimes sings with a warm, liquid ease, and sometimes she wails and spits resistance and rebuke.

And then, woven into this rich fabric, is the simple pleasure and delight of walking this earth. The breeze on the mountains, the shade of a tree, and a damn fine cup of coffee. She reminds us of the pure joy of living, the ecstasy of feeling grass on your bare feet. Willow takes us to the heights of spirituality and then eases us down to the crystalline happiness and contentment of earthly existence.

And so it is that this complexity is the greatest lesson of Willow Water’s music: that there can be no earthly delight without the righteous anger and rebuke against the powers that wish to destroy it. The mother bear will happily stand by the riverside, drinking in the waters and bathing in the sunlight, but threaten her and she will rise up, terrible. Willow’s music artfully holds these two forces in a taut electric tandem, and reminds us of the radicality of loving existence with every fiber of one’s being. -written by Carlisle Evans Peck

We gather to celebrate the release of I RISE, I FALL an 11-track album on Aura Vortex Records this July 2024. The album is a piano-centered journey through a heart lost in longing. These tunes were written during a phase of Willow's life when she was reeling from unrequited love and searching to envision something more aligned. Much sparser in texture than the release show of 2023, the record retains a gentleness throughout that holds a tender focus. Willow's heartfelt lyrics and rich dynamic voice sit at the center of songs tenderly accompanied by upright bass, drums, guitars, saxophones, keyboards, cellos, synths, and layered voices.

To learn more about Willow Waters:

• Visit their website here

BHH

BHH is a minimalist improvisational ensemble that creates captivating soundscapes filled with smooth and blending textures.

The ensemble consists of Jake Baldwin (trumpet), Zacc Harris (guitar), and Pete Hennig (drums). Their delicate and intentional playing will draw the audience in for a unique and intimate deep listening experience.

To learn more about BHH:

• Visit Jake Baldwin's Instagram page here
• Visit Zacc Harris's Instagram page here
• Visit Peter Hennig's Instagram page here

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis, United States