Bonnie “Prince” Billy + Bitchin Bajas with Bill MacKay

Bonnie "Prince" Billy + Bitchin Bajas with Bill MacKay

Monday, June 20
Dan Smalls Presents Bonnie “Prince” Billy + Bitchin Bajas (together AND apart) live in Asbury Hall with Bill MacKay

Tickets: $25 general admission seated, on sale Friday, March 25 at 10am at Ticketweb.com, Babeville Box Office (M-F 10a-5p), or charge by phone 866-777-8932

7pm Doors 8pm Show

Bonnie “Prince” Billy + Bitchin’ Bajas  (together AND apart)

with special guest Bill Mackay

Bonnie “Prince” Billy + Bitchin’ Bajas  (together AND apart) with special guest Bill Mackay

YES! An unlikelier of collabs on the face of it comes to pass, and makes SO much sense upon consideration that you wonder why you hadn’t rioted for your right to experience this sooner. Chill, man! Life gave you a surprise — a missing peace — now GO with it.
Yessir, Bitchin Bajas and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy be in righteous and TRUE collaboration on this  one, flowing ideas through the air between them, which seems a rare thing in this age where records course forth without wires, pieced together out of the zeros and ones that divide and don’t define us. The air’s meant to be shared, and that’s how Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties came to pass — a morning, afternoon and evening of frisson in blissed acceptance of the eternal recurrence. And it always came.

These guys GET each other. They share a passion for arresting the moment in the process of now, and both of ’em get music from this action in their way. Bajas have a fan in Bonny; their ability to stretch time and get in between the grains scratches his itch to LIVE in those instances. And this makes him a worthy co-jammer, a fourth plane to the BB triangle that quantifies and dimensionalizes the sound. Inevitable, then, that they’d do something. Their first blend was for the Shirley Collins tribute comp, a rendition of “Pretty Saro” that built from the starkness and tonal monophony of the auld ballads and opened the hatch to timeless stasis. But if more was desired (which it was), more would be needed — the full trio of Bajas in the room together, in audience with the ‘Prince.’ Following one of their many mini-jaunts around the country, Bitchin Bajas stopped by Bonnie’s aerie one day after tour to make it so.
It was an epic and fortunate day.

Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties contains moments of tranquility and trance, with the players integrating their separate ways, vibing off each other, making songs together. Bonny is at his spirit-melting celestial best wandering through a lifetime of fortunes that amount, when incanted, to a prayer to the god of many names. The Bajas’ access to the universal aural paintbox is unparalleled; their reach is deep. And it all went down onto a 2-track reel-to-reel in primitive left-right seps that helped to define their ability to finish it in mixing. These WERE jams, with whatever preparation, gear, thought and cords — vocal and electric — backgrounded, in support of intuition and what existed AT THE MOMENT.
Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties is simple and stark and empyrean and inspirational…and pretty modal, too — probably never more than three chords! — as Bonny and the Bajas pursue the life of the spirit down ever-fading vapor trails, in a bottomless (and topless — let ’em loose!) space.

This concert will feature sets from both performers on their own and together.  Along with an opening set from special guest Bill MacKay.

Through his extensive work in in creative folk, experimental rock, and the avant-garde Bill MacKay has emerged as a highly inventive composer-songwriter and versatile, unpredictable guitarist. His 2015 releases, Land of Plenty a duo recording with Ryley Walker on Whistler Records, and Altamira by MacKay’s band Darts & Arrows on ears&eyes, bear the hallmarks of his sound: a trip equally influenced by the folk of Appalachia and Britain, the hybrid rock & jazz of urban America, and the ragas of India.


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Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/20/2016
8:00 pm

Address
341 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo
New York
14202
United States