The Romany Rye will be hitting the road with Delta Spirit this summer for an extensive North America tour that launches on June 7th at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, CA. Highlights include two shows in New York - June 30th at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom and July 1st at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn - and a performance at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre on July 23rd.
The Romany Rye is touring in support of its debut album, Highway 1, Looking Back Carefully, an intimate collection of songs penned by former Colour guitarist Luke MacMaster.
The singer-songwriter produced and recorded the album along with Delta Spirit's Kelly Winwrich and the two were joined in the studio by a group of friends that included Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), David Quon (We Barbarians) and Blake Mills. Shortly after completing the album, MacMaster put together the band now known as THE ROMANY RYE, inviting Judson Spillyards, Joshua Spillyards and Ryan Hitt from Christopher Denny's former backing band, The Natives, to join him.
Raised in the rustic mountain community of Big Bear, California, located outside Los Angeles, MacMaster grew up listening to his dad's vinyl record collection and soon began crafting his own songs. From its vintage looking album art and organic instrumentation, to its deeply personal ruminations on life, love and despair, Highway 1, Looking Back Carefully recalls the L.A. songwriters of the 60s and 70s who first fused the intimacy of folk music with the vibrancy of rock and roll - and then blows through that intersection to blaze its own path.
"If love is a language, I will cut out my tongue/no use for singing songs already been sung," sings MacMaster on the soulful album opener, "Brother." Gentle and melodic to the ear, a closer listen to "Dear Holly" shatters any peaceful, easy feeling as the narrator describes himself as "a ghost town with seven empty lakes." "Marquee," a tale of striving for fame in a city where "every diamond in the sidewalk is fighting for its time to shine," unfolds over a lazy banjo line. It's juxtapositions like these that brighten this journey through a dark night of the soul.
Date City/State Venue
5/30 Little Rock, AR Riverfest
With Delta Spirit:
6/7 Costa Mesa, CA Detroit Bar
6/8 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up
6/9 San Francisco, CA The Independent
6/10 Portland, OR Doug Fir
6/11 Seattle, WA Neumo's
6/12 Vancouver, BC The Venue
6/14 Boise, ID Neurolux
6/15 Salt Lake City, UT The Urban Lounge
6/16 Boulder, CO The Blue Theatre
6/17 Omaha, NE Waiting Room
6/18 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theatre
6/19 Chicago, IL Metro
6/21 St. Louis, MO Firebird
6/22 Indianapolis, IN Radio Room
6/23 Columbus, OH The Basement
6/24 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
6/25 Pontiac, MI The Pike Room
6/28 Boston, MA Middle East Downstairs
6/30 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
7/1 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
7/2 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
7/3 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
7/5 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
7/6 Charleston, SC Pour House
7/7 St. Augustine, FL Café 11
7/8 Orlando, FL The Social
7/9 Atlanta, GA Masquerade
7/10 Birmingham, AL Bottletree
7/11 Hattiesburg, MS Thirsty Hippo
7/13 Little Rock, AR Juanita's
7/14 Tulsa, OK Cain'e
7/15 Dallas, TX Lola's
7/16 Houston, TX Mango's
7/17 Austin, TX Emo's
7/20 Santa Fe, NM Santa Fe Brewing Company
7/21 Tucson, AZ Plush
7/23 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
7/24 Santa Barbara, CA Velvet Jones
