Tré Burt
Presented by Westerly Sound
Opening with Ward Hayden and Avi Jacob
Sunday, August 14
Show: 8p | Doors: 7p
Tickets: $20 advance / $25 door
($2 Service Charge Included With Online Tickets. All sales are final, no ticket refunds or exchanges. Seats are on a first-come, first-serve basis, and seats are not guaranteed with ticket purchase.)
treburt.com
wardhaydenandtheoutliers.com
facebook.com/avijacob
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When Tré Burt was signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records in 2019, he was one of only two artists - including label mate Kelsey Waldon, to join the label in the past 15 years. Caught It From The Rye, Tré Burt’s debut album was re-released on Oh Boy in Jan 2020. The album showcases Burt’s literary songwriting and lo-fi, rootsy aesthetic, which he honed busking on the streets of San Francisco and traveling the world in search of inspiration. Like label mate and songwriting hero John Prine, Burt has a poet’s eye for detail, a surgeon’s sense of narrative precision and a folk singer’s natural knack for a timeless melody. Caught It From The Rye is an urgent missive from an important new voice in songwriting.
For a songwriter who thoughtfully documents what he sees in the world, 2020, while challenging, was rich with inspiration. The year birthed the single, Under The Devil’s Knee, a song that continues the tradition of outspoken political folk songwriters of yore. It is an incredibly moving protest song tracing the lives of George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Breonna Taylor. Recorded remotely featuring Allison Russell, Sunny War and Leyla McCalla. “Humanity feels like it’s slipping away from us, as a country. I wanted to reinstate the humanity of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner and so many other brothers and sisters slain by police in the way I know how. I wanted to immortalize their dignity and make the work easy for future historians and remind the present that no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, this is about actual pain and real human suffering caused by a system of governance that is morally bankrupt. This, I felt was my duty as an American songwriter to do. Music is a powerful force, especially when you put it through a protest song. It makes the fight more tangible. Reframes perspective. None of which entered my mind when writing this, at all. That was out of anger. I wrote this song out of anger. They should all be alive.” - Tré Burt
Tré’s sophomore album, You, Yeah, You builds on his previous work as “he grows ever more sophisticated, empathetic and razor sharp as a storyteller and musical philosopher” - NPR. Recorded in North Carolina with producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff) the album reads like twelve rounds in a ring, summoning the will to fight the unknown rather than surrender to fear and fatigue. You, Yeah, You is a cohesive body of work that clearly illustrates the ever expanding space in which Tré Burt’s voice belongs.
Tré toured in summer 2021 with Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and Shakey Graves as well as making his Newport Folk Festival debut performance, “Tré Burt blazes his own troubadour path, a powerful and moving debut from a singer poised to become a folk festival mainstay for years to come” Rolling Stone
Following a support tour with Watchhouse, a performance at the venerable LUCK Reunion on Willie Nelson’s ranch, and the 2022 release of the EP Know Your Demons, Burt heads out on his long awaited debut headline tour in the US and Europe and summer festival touring to include Under The Big Sky, Hinterland and numerous other festivals.
“Burt’s music expresses an ache for harmony, justice and solidarity. “You, Yeah, You” tells a story about the Sweet Misery and grief that defines our time”
“Burt’s stories, be them freewheeling tales about watching time pass by or hyper-focused political screed, represent a breath of fresh air in the Americana genre”
“Burt’s album possesses a raw, heart-rending sound, one that will thoroughly absorb you. Prine would be proud.”
“Tré is just a master storyteller… I plan to follow him for a good long time”
"Free Country" Manifesto
What first led me to country music was the honesty of the lyrics. Truth is hard to find and here was a genre where many of the early songs of country music had laid bare the honesty of a feeling, of a situation or of an emotion. Really, truth is hard to find and it’s especially difficult to be honest with yourself. The truth hurts. But what I’ve always appreciated about the early songwriters of the country genre was that they had an innocence to their songwriting. I don’t think many of these early songwriters knew any better, and I don’t mean that as an insult, I mean it as a compliment. Their innocence hadn’t yet been corrupted. They knew nothing different but to tell it like it is, and some of them paid a steep cost, look at ole Hank Williams.
You can’t be in touch with that kind of emotion and not have it take some serious toll on you.
Question: Do you know what we don’t need?
Answer: Social Media
Question: Do you know how long mankind existed without social media?
Answer: 200,000 years
Question: Do you know what social media gives most people?
Answer: Nothing, but anxiety.
And that’s what led us to making this album. Freedom. We were given a gift, fans pledged their money to our Kickstarter campaign, they gave us the means to make this album. The pandemic showed up and it gave us the time to evaluate life, purpose, and our place in it. And then it gave us the time and the opportunity to write about observations and meaningful experiences and to record it in this collection of songs.
So, we’re giving it back. Not having to stand on stage and please anyone for a stretch of nearly 16 months gave us a certain freedom. A freedom to exist in a more innocent and honest state. It gave us the opportunity to be honest with ourselves and to put our observations and feelings into lyrics and music. It was a creative freedom I hadn't felt since I first started writing songs.
My father always said to me that if he had something worthwhile, that he thought would benefit other people, then he would give it away. He would want other people to have it if he thought it could help them. I don’t know if this album will be beneficial to everyone, but it’s felt beneficial to us and we want to share it. If you want “Free Country” then we’re gonna give it to you. And it’s free to download for anyone who wants it.
This album isn’t about politics. Ward Hayden and The Outliers aren’t concerned with the names of the players, firebrands that anyone holds near and dear, whose banner they hang their ego and identity on or whose words other people use to speak for them. This is an album of reflection and an examination of the socio-cultural divide, with a desire to survive it, surpass it and then move past it.
This is about you, this is about me, this is about us as people. It’s also about the hope and trust that the strong emotions a lot of us are feeling will manifest into positivity. Sometimes before deciding to visit a car wash, you have to first acknowledge that the car you’re driving is in fact dirty and in need of being cleaned up.
Here’s the thing….you can’t kill an idea, you can’t wipe out an ideology because you find it offensive or hurtful or damaging. And it’s fine to oppose it, but that won’t do away with it. So, here’s the other thing…you can replace is with something better.
If you want to numb out and not think, turn on the tv. But, if you want to experience Free Country, download the album, press play, read along with the lyrics and let’s see what happens.
Avi Jacob is a folksinger from Boston MA, by way of Providence RI & Charleston SC. He has toured nationally and opened for Dr. John, among others. Jacob is best known for his confessional songwriting, which has won the attention of national music publications including American Songwriter. He’s one of the most honest artists you’ll come across, baring his soul in his music. His 2020 EP Preservation is a good introduction – click here for a listen. Jacob is currently working on an upcoming release and has posted a song “New England Woman,” available on his Bandcamp site here.
- Ken Abrams, whatsupnewp.com