Calvin Arsenia

Dirk Powell and Kelly Hunt join forces for a joint album release tour celebrating Powell’s new album, “Wake,” (dubbed a ‘masterpiece’ by No Depression) and Hunt’s album “Requiem for a Sleepless Night” which was produced by Powell at his Cypress House studio near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and features evocative vocal/instrumental collaborations on 12 of Hunt’s original songs. Together, they will bring their unique blend of soulful originals and time-honored traditionals to the Midwest and Southwest.

Memphis native, KELLY HUNT, sings with what Rolling Stone Country describes as “the lilting cadence of a folksinger born somewhere far away, sometime long ago.” Indeed there is a patina to her sound, especially when she opts for her Depression-era tenor banjo—a calf-skinned instrument whose origins supposedly date back to a man named Ira Tamm and his dog-and-pony show in the 20s and 30s. That mysterious banjo, with its warm, soulful sound, plays the starring role in her 2019 debut album, Even the Sparrow, which was a finalist for the International Folk Music Awards “Album of the Year.”

DIRK POWELL is known as a “musician’s musician” in the circle of American roots music and beyond. He learned banjo and fiddle from his Kentucky grandfather, James Clarence Hay, and has been a part of the thriving Cajun/Creole music community in Louisiana since his early 20s. He has toured and recorded with musicians such as Joan Baez, Rhiannon Giddens, Eric Clapton, Buddy Miller, Loretta Lynn, and Levon Helm, while his contribution to film has found him collaborating with directors like Anthony Minghella (“Cold Mountain”), Ang Lee (“Ride with the Devil”), and Spike Lee (“Bamboozled”). His solo records, which often combine a traditional foundation with a wide-ranging commitment to emotion and original songs, have had impact around the globe. His original song “Waterbound” has been recorded over 100 times. He is also in demand as a producer and owns his own studio, the Cypress House, on the banks of Bayou Teche near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

Patrick Wolf released his first E.P. at the age of 19, a groundbreaking debut of classical, folk, and electronic music that set the pace for a stellar decade, releasing seven self-produced and solely written albums and performing multiple laps around the globe on tour, amassing an ever-growing and dedicated, spellbound audience. A viola, piano, dulcimer, harp, lyre, and tenor guitar player, Patrick’s decade of critically acclaimed work, touring, joining Patti Smith’s band, collaborations with Florence Welch, Marianne Faithful, Angelo Badalamenti, and rapid, stellar ascent led to a sudden retreat from the industry where a decade of personal trial ended with a renaissance and reconnection with his work and vocation, documented in a feature film biopic documentary slated for release at the end of this year, executive produced by Tilda Swinton. Last year, he released his seventh album “Crying the Neck”, an end-of-summer folkloric odyssey set in the landscape at the end of the East of England where Wolf lives and works. The album’s success brought him back to his North American audiences; for his first tour in over 13 years, he embarked on a ten-week tour driving himself from east to west coast, where he discovered not only his fanbase had been waiting all that time, but a brand new one had grown in his absence in the States. The success of last year’s tour brings Patrick back to North America this year with “The Tour of the Beast”, this time an extensive East to West coast and back again routing with a coinciding 7” single and release campaign, launching two new songs to the States and ringing in the next era of Patrick Wolf. The first, a bombastic harpsichord banger and outsider anthem “The Beast”, partly inspired by conversations had in the meet-and-greets of last year’s tour and a hymn of solace, initially written as a response to Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus”, a lyre and vocal lullaby called “The Laughing Dove”.