Big Heavy World Presents
Raise Up Your Eyes:
Emma Back Little World Album Release
Thursday May 24th 2018, 7pm ArtsRiot, Burlington VT
Featuring Senayit, Colin McCaffrey, Meredith Muse and Jessie Owens
in an evening of multi-media performance and community engagement.
Tickets are $10 advance/$12 at the door. Advanced tickets can be purchased at
https://www.artsriot.com/events-feed/emmaback or in person at ArtsRiot, 400 Pine St, Burlington VT 05401
"Back has this knack of bringing you in and making you want to delve further and further into the stories she weaves." Shelby Padgett, Germ Magazine
Presented by Big Heavy World, Raise Up Your Eyes celebrates the release of Emma Back's debut album Little World in an evening of music, dance, art and community engagement that investigates how to heal personal and global conflict through bearing witness to issues of feminine power, racial and religious oppression, war and ancestry.
The evening will begin with an art installation by Meredith Muse and opportunities for the audience to engage in dialogue and activities based on the themes of Little World prior to the formal performance. Senayit will open the performance portion of the night followed by Emma Back with guest musician Little World producer Colin McCaffrey and dancer Jessie Owens performing original choreography.
In live performance, Back uses a loop pedal to create lush layers of strings and Balkan and African inspired percussion as the backdrop for melodic vocal lines that hint at Bjork and Tori Amos influences juxtaposed with the spacious urgency of Andrew Bird. Whether she is tapping her violin bow on the mic stand, beat boxing, stomping, whispering haunting melodic stories into the mic, or digging into a klezmer violin solo, Back's dynamic and passionate performance invokes in listeners a deep sense of intimacy and care.
Produced by Colin McCaffrey, Back's debut release Little World blends acoustic instrumentation with percussive loops, layers of vocal and string harmonies, and flourishes of Eastern-European tonalities. The record was written and recorded during a four-year period of immense transition in Back's life that included a health crisis resulting in her return to Vermont where she was bed-ridden for six months after burning out from traveling in Israel and touring and teaching throughout the US. In her healing process, she found herself exploring aspects of inner-shadow and global issues of conflict, pondering the age-old question, 'how do we connect beyond the differences that divide us and stand in compassion and solidarity?' This yearning to heal, both personally and collectively and the sense of bearing witness to "shadow" as a pathway for transformation, is the heart of Little World.
Senayit is defined by Senayit Tomlinson's unique vocal style along with accessible, infectious melodies and the lyrical sophistication of her prolific songwriting. Deep, natural musicianship and the free and open dedication to that calling reveals itself effortlessly at live performances, whether solo or joined by her band. This intuitive musicianship allows for a freedom of movement and expression indicative of jazz players, yet this is contemporary alternative rock and soul based music which grounds itself in the influences of Radio Head, Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Ray, The Black Keys and formidable elders such as Led Zeppelin. http://senayit.com/
Raise Up Your Eyes will be followed by Back's solo national tour in support of the Little World release. Cities include: Boston MA, Boulder CO, Denver CO, Santa Cruz CA, San Francisco CA, New York NY and more TBA.
Little World is out May 24th. Lead single is out now.
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