MUSIC: John R. Miller and Tommy Prine

Description

John R. Miller and Tommy Prine Friday, August 15 Doors 7pm / Show 8pm Member $26 / General Admission Advance $28 / GA Day of Show $32 (plus fees) All ages / Seated -- Tommy Prine's debut album This Far South (June 2023) was not only a long-awaited introduction but a testimony to Prine's 20s and the loss, love, and growth that has defined them. Co-produced by a close friend and kindred musical spirit, Ruston Kelly, and beloved Nashville engineer and producer, Gena Johnson, the album is rich and dynamic from cathartic jams to nostalgic storytelling. Celebrating the album's first year, Tommy is releasing a deluxe version of the record on June 21, 2024 – featuring reimagined versions, a special guest and a brand new song. "Releasing my debut album changed so much in my life. The only things that stayed the same were my family, my pets, and my friends. Everything else changed drastically. I've had a few moments that felt like the point of no return, releasing the album being one of them. Not in a scary way, just in a way that there is no taking back art that you put out into the world. Once it has affected one other person, it has already begun its own life and will in turn change the creator's life." Prine is currently crisscrossing the country headlining shows with his band and appearing at festivals including Green River, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, and Bourbon & Beyond. This past year, Prine opened for Jason Isbell and Tyler Childers, was named one of Amazon Music's 2023 Breakthrough Artists to Watch and wrapped up the year by making his Grand Ole Opry debut. Tommy learned to play guitar by watching his father, mimicking the ways his fingers moved, he inadvertently developed his own singular style. Prine sonically brings together a colorful patchwork of musical influences spanning Gillian Welch, Outkast, Bon Iver, the Strokes and more. Lyrically, Tommy explores existential questions and emotional experiences in his music. -- John R Miller is a true hyphenate artist: singer-songwriter-picker. Every song on his thrilling debut solo album, Depreciated, is lush with intricate wordplay and haunting imagery, as well as being backed by a band that is on fire. One of his biggest long-time fans is roots music favorite Tyler Childers, who says he's "a well-travelled wordsmith mapping out the world he's seen, three chords at a time." Miller is somehow able to transport us to a shadowy honkytonk and get existential all in the same line with his tightly written compositions. Miller's own guitar-playing is on fine display here along with vocals that evoke the white-waters of the Potomac River rumbling below the high ridges of his native Shenandoah Valley. Depreciated is a collection of eleven gems that take us to his homeplace even while exploring the way we can't go home again, no matter how much we might ache for it. On the album, Miller says he was eager to combine elements of country, folk, blues, and rock to make his own sound. Recently lost heroes like Prine, Walker, and Shaver served as guideposts for the songcrafting but Miller has completely achieved his own sound. The album is almost novelistic in its journey, not only to the complicated relationship Miller has with the Shenandoah Valley but also into the mind of someone going through transitions. "I wrote most of these songs after finding myself single and without a band for the first time in a long while," Miller says. "I stumbled to Nashville and started to figure things out, so a lot of these have the feel of closing a chapter."