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*CREDIT THE PHOTOGRAPHER IF IMAGES USED, PLEASE! NO EDITING AND/OR REMOVAL OF WATERMARK(S)*DELTA RAE
I’ll admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve been to church, but never in a million years would I have imagined that on a decidedly warm only-in-Los-Angeles late October Tuesday night, merely blocks away from the Original Tommy’s Burger in Historic Filipinotown, that I would bear witness to a musical phenomenon with the power to fill my soul with holy spirit power. North Carolina’s Delta Rae along with opening act Frances Cone brought something more than just quality musicianship or a Southern folk sensibility to the fully packed Bootleg Theater. They both brought life and energy and power to their ardent fans. This modern folk show was not your grandfather’s Mumford & Sons.
FRANCES CONE
Frances Cone, a Brooklyn-via-Nashville songwriting and real-life partnership, consisting of Christina Cone and Andrew Doherty, along with touring drummer/bassist Garrett Hine are a salve for the wounds of loss, disappointment and pain. Their beautifully lush sound, along with Christina’s crystalline vocals on songs like “Unraveling,” “Arizona” and “Wide Awake” are emotional tour de forces. Rife with a swirl of influences from Solange, Bon Iver, Sarah McLachlan, Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks, their latest album, Late Riser is a rich straight-from-the-heart tapestry of sorrow and transcendence, fear and offering, infectious melodies and moments of somber reflection. To call them indie-folk would truly be a disservice, because they musically exist less as a rhythm-and-guitar outfit and more as a gospel and soul meditation on love and devotion. This band is wholly about following your heart, no matter where it leads.
DELTA RAE
From the sunny tobaccolands of Durham, North Carolina, Delta Rae is at its core a family affair. Siblings Ian, Eric and Brittany Hölljes along with singer Elizabeth Hopkins, percussionist Mike McKee and bassist Grant Emerson are more than the sum of their parts. Right out of the gate, a stage dotted with flickering Southern Gothic bayou lanterns tossed a soft light across the theater, with the sounds of cicadas, crickets and bullfrogs playing, only to be interrupted by their first song, “Take Me There,” a Paul Simon-esque ballad which jump-started the show. Electric, danceable, and positively unstoppable, the Delta Rae “experience” is really a ministry of hope and light masquerading as a concert. From anthemic songs like “Chasing Twisters,” and “Hands Dirty,” to more blues-pop bangers like “Heart Won’t Break,” to tear-jerking, “The Wrong Ocean,” and socially-empassioned “All Good People,” Delta Rae reminds us of the troubles we face, but also of our power to overcome them. Along with all the dancing and amazing music, the show covered quite a lot of territory: From Hopkins addressing the crowd forthrightly about the daily and historical legacy of white supremacy and patriarchy; to a call to action to vote progressively in next year’s election; to the recognition of educators and healers (one nurse and one teacher in each city are given a free ticket to the show); to Eric explaining that their dream of producing their third and fourth albums was more than realized this year when Delta Rae set a record for the quickest band to be funded on Kickstarter. If you haven’t already, please get on board with these Southerners before their newest albums The Light and The Dark drop in March 2020. There are shows and then there are shows. Delta Rae is both.
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