Tag: Midwest

Hitting the Road — The Soods Embark on Midwest Fall Tour This Week

Jason Roy of The Soods. Photo – Matt Ten Clay

The Soods are ready to hit the road.

The indie-rock collective is embarking on a short Midwest tour, which runs October 11 to 16.

The tour includes shows in Grand Rapids and Lansing, Michigan, as well as Chicago; Davenport, Iowa; and Fort Wayne, Indiana. It will also celebrate a milestone for one of The Soods’ side projects—Elroy Meltzer.

“This one will just be Steven [Meltzer] and me,” said Jason Roy, frontman and co-producer for The Soods, who’s based in Grand Rapids.

“It actually marks 10 years this year since we started Elroy Meltzer together, so we actually will be doing some songs off those first two albums. Steven still actively writes, records, and performs as Elroy Meltzer and has an album coming out on October 10 called 9 Out of 10 Ain’t Bad that people should check out as well.”

For its tour, The Soods have prepared an extensive setlist filled with new songs, old favorites, and covers.

“I think we have rehearsed about 25 or 26 songs, five covers ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Gorillaz, and then a pretty even split of Soods songs and the aforementioned Elroy stuff,” Roy said. “We’re pretty excited to play five unreleased ones as it’ll be the first time we played a few of them.”

I recently spoke with Roy about the collective’s tour and recent releases.

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Kim Richey Returns to Her Midwestern Roots for Tonight’s 20 Front Street Show

Kim Richey will perform tonight at 20 Front Street in Lake Orion with Jordie Lane and Clare Reynolds.

For Kim Richey, tonight will serve as a Midwestern musical homecoming of sorts.

The Nashville roots singer-songwriter, who originally hails from Dayton, Ohio, will perform tonight at 20 Front Street in Lake Orion with Australian singer-songwriters Jordie Lane and Clare Reynolds. It will be Richey’s second time performing at the 100-seat intimate acoustic music venue.

“I always try to do songs from all the records, at least one or two from every record. I’ll be playing a lot of stuff from ‘Edgeland,’” said Richey during a phone interview from Banff, Alberta. “It’s such a blast to sing with people who are great singers, so we have a lot of great harmony things going. Clare plays keyboards and percussion as well, Jordie plays electric guitar, and I play acoustic.”

Edgeland album artwork

On her latest album, “Edgeland,” Richey moves through the topography of life as a woman committed to following her music. She chronicles missed train rides, cautionary tales of dangerous love, potential new pathways and other self-discoveries on the 12-track Americana-infused project.

From the Buck Owens/Don Rich opening notes of “Red Line” to the Laurel Canyon lushness of “The Get Together” to the Dusty Springfield-inspired “Can’t Let You Go” to the somber “Black Trees,” Richey’s husky crystalline alto sweeps listeners up in a whirl along her heartfelt auditory journey.

“Once every few years, you pick a dozen songs or so for a new album,” said Richey, who’s also lived in Los Angeles and London. “I think those songs reflect where I was at the time while making the record, but I have a home now, so things have changed.”

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