Thursday, February 20
Doors: 6:00 PM / Show: 7:00 PM
Tickets: $20
Early James will be at Struthers Library Theatre on Thursday, February 20, at 7PM. Presented by Roots Rising. Sponsored by Warren Concert Association. The Alabama singer-songwriter weaves dark narratives that resonate with raw emotion, while blending the whimsical with the profound. Early James recorded his first two Easy Eye Sound albums, Singing For My Supper (2020) and Strange Time To Be Alive (2022), at the studio inside the vaunted label’s Nashville headquarters. But for James’ third release, Medium Raw, producer and Easy Eye Sound label head Dan Auerbach envisioned something quite different for the Alabama-bred singer-songwriter-guitarist’s rawboned, sometimes scarifying music.
“Day of the first session, I had my GPS routed to Easy Eye,” James recalls. “We ran into some traffic, and I texted [engineer M.] Allen [Parker] — ‘Hey man, sorry, we’re gonna be about 15 minutes late.’ And he said, ‘It’s OK, we’re still getting set up at the house.’ And I was like, ‘What house?’ ‘We’re recording at this house, it’s really cool.’ It was news to me! It felt unusual in the moment, which I think makes you play the songs differently. But I’m really happy with and proud of the results.
“I wanted to try to find that power of when I first saw him, when it was just him and his guitar,” Auerbach explains. “After working with him a couple of times in the studio, I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do it in the same kind of way. The comforts and luxuries of the studio, where you’re able to hear everything and make adjustments and changes, wasn’t right for this project.”
With Medium Raw now ready to be served, James is embarking on touring (backed by Marmolejo and drummer Joey Rudisell) that will take him through the U.S. and return him to Europe, where he has developed an enthusiastic fan base, for dates in the Netherlands, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, and Denmark. Like the rambling bluesmen of old, whose repertoires would mutate from night to night, James says audiences should expect him to work some new wrinkles into his songs on stage: “I’m trying to play dress-up with this record on the road. You never know what it’s going to be wearing. It depends on what thrift store we get to.”
Early James' gritty and authentic new album, 'Medium Raw', is his most compelling work to date. Hear his signature, sly storytelling and powerful vocal delivery on ‘Medium Raw’ available now. Produced by Dan Auerbach. Recorded at Buddy Jackson’s Honky Château.
Roots Rising is a new Struthers Library Theatre concert series focusing on original American roots music. The series aims to build community and inspire creativity by presenting nationally recognized blues, country, folk, bluegrass, and Americana artists. Join us in our mission to connect friends, families, and neighbors with affordable, high-quality entertainment. The series consists of ticketed main-stage events and free Sally’s Encore Theatre Bar events. Sponsored by Warren Concert Association.
Nicolette & The Nobodies will open for Early James on Thursday, February 20. The opener will go on at 7PM, with Early James to follow. “The best country songs take you home,” says Nicolette Hoang, frontwoman and songwriter for the Guelph, Ontario-based band, Nicolette & The Nobodies. “I want to write music that does that, songs that take you home.”
Nicolette is romantic about retro Western music; she speaks with a soft grit, a warm and distinguished rattle that lends her observations weight. Performing, she loosens into an unabashed howl, a fluid force turning upward at the edges with unmistakable twang. She keeps her lyrics no-nonsense—earthy comments on the human condition, floridity be damned. She reserves her flamboyance and flair for onstage attire—cowboy hats, fringed vests with matching hot pants, boots by all accounts made for walking.
The child of Vietnamese immigrants, Nicolette’s embrace of Country music and all its glittering accouterments comes as some surprise, to even herself. “I had a complicated relationship with music growing up,” she shares. “Music was more of a skill or a task, it wasn’t really presented as a place for play or to explore emotionally, even though that’s what I was drawn to the most about it.”
Nicolette calls herself a “late bloomer” and is prone to a cheerful sort of awe in acknowledging any of her feats. It’s a charming humility, and in fascinating contrast to the storm of sonic energy she becomes on stage—a galvanized woman, whose rebellious radiance and incandescent holler recall the glory of those legends she reveres.
She says, “In some ways, I’ve already surpassed my own dreams for myself in having simply written a song. But now that I’ve found that voice, I want to see what it has to say.”