Northrop Summer Music Festival

Chastity Brown with Southwire and The Ericksons

Past event
Jun 21, 2013
Chastity Brown with Southwire and The Ericksons

TONIGHT'S CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO BAD WEATHER. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS HAS CAUSED. PLEASE STAY SAFE EVERYONE!

Throw all genres and hyphenates together you want to describe her – gospel, roots & soul, jazz, blues & country – they are all right, and also not enough. Chastity Brown channels songs that are carried deep in the American psyche, the hunger, desperation and confidence that run through our times.  Coming from Tennessee to Minnesota, touring the country, touring Europe, she has had half her own lifetime and million lifetimes gone before to concoct her powerful sound.  Chastity was recently hailed by NPR as a "promising new voice" and her live act was chosen by CMT as one of the Top 10 Moments of the 2012 Americana Festival. Her song, "After You" was featured in the new BBC & HBO television movie "Mary & Martha," starring Hilary Swank.


In 2008, The Ericksons released their first record, Middle of the Night, a raw, acoustic set of songs. Home called to the sisters, though, and they returned to the Midwest and in 2010, released Don’t Be Scared, Don’t Be Alarmed, a record more fully fleshed out by producer Beau Sorenson (who recently produced Field Report’s debut). Their first records, with their picked guitars and string, their animal, natural harmonies and deep melancholy hinting at greater loss. That great loss, and the move to acceptance and love is key to the lush new release from The Ericksons, The Wild. The result is the fullest, richest record yet from The Ericksons, an honest reckoning with that grief and love, rooted in American sounds. Wearing influences like A.A. Bondy, Emmylou Harris and The Pines on their sleeves, The Wild completely envelops the listener in the life that Bethany and Jenny have made in song. From the torch song with a gasping punch of “Find Yourself a Lover” to the open, beating heart of “Six Feet Underground” and the everyday blues of “Dirty Dishes,” there is a universal beauty here that transcends lived pain.


Southwire is an alchemical mixture that began as a collaboration between a folk singer and a hip hop group. 

Jerree Small's hauntingly beautiful voice and piano contrast Crew Jones frontman Ben (Burly Burlesque) Larson's sermons of righteous indignation. Pretty, deep, and weird melodies mutate into spoken word poems and firebrand preaching. Heaviness and swing are applied by the rhythm section with Matt Mobely on bass and Sean Elmquist on drums.