Tickets:
Tickets for The Lone Bellow with Special Guest Lindsay Lou, ($135 VIP Tickets/ $50 / $30) are available at scmcgr.org or by calling 616-459-2224. St. Cecilia Music Center is located at 24 Ransom Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.
St. Cecilia Music Center (SCMC) brings exciting folk/rock band The Lone Bellow with special guest Lindsay Lou to Grand Rapids on Thursday, May 4, 2023. Making their latest U.S. tour across the country – Georgia to Florida, Washington State to California, the East Coast to the Midwest, The Lone Bellow is highly charged with a new album “Love Songs for Losers” beautifully composed and powerfully performed live on stage. Special Guest Lindsay Lou, national and international Americana Folk Artist will open for The Lone Bellow that evening.
Executive & Artistic Director of SCMC Cathy Holbrook says, “The Lone Bellow is one of those bands that immediately captures the best of songwriting and musicianship that connects to everyone on a deeper level. With their new album “Love Songs for Losers”, you’ll hear original songs that reflect stadium event rock anthems to heartfelt gorgeous Americana ballads within their spellbinding three-part harmony. Michigan native Lindsay Lou, who opens for The Lone Bellow that night, will make this evening even more special.”
Tickets for The Lone Bellow with Special Guest Lindsay Lou, ($135 VIP Tickets/ $50 / $30) are available at scmcgr.org or by calling 616-459-2224. St. Cecilia Music Center is located at 24 Ransom Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.
The Lone Bellow
Throughout their lifespan as a band, The Lone Bellow have cast an indelible spell with their finespun songs of hard truth and unexpected beauty, frequently delivered in hypnotic three-part harmony. In a departure from their past work with elite producers like Aaron Dessner of The National and eight-time Grammy-winner Dave Cobb, the Nashville-based trio struck out on their own for their new album Love Songs for Losers, dreaming up a singular sound encompassing everything from arena-ready rock anthems to the gorgeously sprawling Americana tunes the band refers to as “little redneck symphonies.” Recorded at the possibly haunted former home of the legendary Roy Orbison, the result is an intimate meditation on the pain and joy and ineffable wonder of being human, at turns heartbreaking, irreverent, and sublimely transcendent.
For the Lone Bellow, the triumph of completing their first self-produced album marks the start of a thrilling new chapter in the band’s journey. “At the outset it was scary to take away the safety net of working with a big-name producer and lean on each other instead,” says multi-instrumentalist Kanene Donehey Pipkin, also the vocal producer for their new album “Love Songs for Losers.” “It took an incredible amount to trust, but in the end, it was so exciting to see each other rise to new heights.” And with the release of Love Songs for Losers, the trio feels newly emboldened to create without limits. “This album confirmed that we still have beauty to create and put out into the world, and that we’re still having fun doing that after ten years together,” says guitarist Brian Elmquist. “It reminded us of our passion for pushing ourselves out onto the limb and letting our minds wander into new places, and it sets me on fire to think of what we might make next.”
“One of the reasons we went with Love Songs for Losers as the album title is that I’ve always seen myself as a loser in love – I’ve never been able to get it completely right, so this is my way of standing on top of the mountain and telling everyone, ‘It’s okay,’” says lead vocalist Zach Williams. “The songs are looking at bad relationships and wonderful relationships and all the in-between, sometimes with a good deal of levity. It’s us just trying to encapsulate the whole gamut of experience that we all go through as human beings.”
The fifth full-length from The Lone Bellow, Love Songs for Losers arrives as the follow-up to 2020’s chart-topping Half Moon Light – critically acclaimed effort that marked their second outing with producer Aaron Dessner of the The National, spawning the Triple A radio hits “Count on Me” and “Dried Up River”, both which hit #1 on the Americana Singles chart.
After sketching Love Songs for Losers 11 songs in a nearby church, the band holed up for eight weeks at Roy Orbison’s house on Old Hickory Lake, slowly carving out their most expansive and eclectic body of work yet. “I’ve always thought our music was so much bigger than anything we’ve shown on record before, and this time we turned over every stone until we got the songs exactly where they needed to be, says Elmquist. Co-produced by Elmquist and Jacob Sooter, Love Songs for Losers also found Pipkin taking the reins as vocal producer, expertly harnessing the rarefied vocal magic they’ve developed in touring with the likes of Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves. “Singing together night after night for a decade allows you to understand what your bandmates are capable of, in a way that no one else can,” says Pipkin. “There are so many different qualities to our voices that had never been captured before, and producing this album ourselves was a nice opportunity to finally showcase that.”
Lindsay Lou
Lindsay Lou grew up in Michigan and honed her skills during the days of learning to sing and play with her family. She attended the elite summer program at Interlochen on scholarship and won numerous awards for her talents.
It didn’t take long for Lindsay to tour the world with a band of her own, The Flatbellys, and later The Sweet Water Warblers. The siren songbird and her band flew down South to take their place amongst friends in Nashville, Tennessee.
Today, touring nationally and internationally year-round, Lindsay Lou and her band continue to collect a mass of friends and fans along the way. Notable U.S. festival’s where they play include Telluride Bluegrass festival, Merlefest, Stagecoach, Redwing, ROMP, GreyFox, and a slew of others. Of the live show, fRoot Magazine reviewed “… (Lindsay Lou is) the most affectingly expressive singer since Amy Winehouse, backed by the new Punch Brothers.” The Boot, who featured Lindsay Lou Band as a “Can’t Miss Act” at Americana Fest 2018 says “…Lou brings introspection and masterful vocal work to her live show.”
ACOUSTIC CAFÉ FOLK SERIES TICKETS
**Ticket prices: Single tickets have a $3.00 per ticket fee. All concerts start at 7:30pm.
Joshua Davis
Thursday, April 27, 2023
A Section $30
B Section $20
C Section $10
The Lone Bellow
Thursday, May 4, 2023
A Section $135 VIP Tickets+
B Section $50
C Section $35
Leo Kottke
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
A Section $55
B Section $40
C Section $25
St. Cecilia Music Center’s mission is to promote the study, appreciation and
performance of music to enrich the lives of West Michigan residents.
The Center fulfills this mission by
presenting visiting world-class artists in concert,
providing music education for all ages through our School of Music and
preserving a historic building for musical activities and community events
###
The Rapidian, a program of the 501(c)3 nonprofit Community Media Center, relies on the community’s support to help cover the cost of training reporters and publishing content.
We need your help.
If each of our readers and content creators who values this community platform help support its creation and maintenance, The Rapidian can continue to educate and facilitate a conversation around issues for years to come.
Please support The Rapidian and make a contribution today.