Willi Carlisle - The Universal Bubba Tour

Performers

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  Willi Carlisle

  Folksinger Willi Carlisle holds tight the conviction that love is bigger than hate, and no-one is expendable. Carlisle’s music has always been a dance between absurdity, spectacle, and philosophy. On his fourth studio album, Winged Victory, Carlisle returns with his signature blend of traditionally-rooted folk music and kaleidoscope of oddball characters to confer with his core tenets in more overt and provocative ways.

  Carlisle delivers Victory as the next chapter in his long-running direct address to the hope that by understanding our collective suffering we might be free of it. He’s intent on creating art and a well-rounded life in a broken world. The idea began with 2022’s Peculiar, Missouri when Carlisle proclaimed “your heart’s a big tent, everybody gets in.” After gathering together all the world’s weirdos and misfits under the big tent, with 2024’s Critterland, Carlisle let them loose into the world. Now, on Winged Victory, they speak for themselves, unencumbered by social expectations.

  Victory, Carlisle’s first self-produced album, will be released June 27 via Signature Sounds. It both indulges a few of his wildest dreams (including a version of Richard Thompson’s “Beeswing,” among several traditional folk song covers), and feels like the inevitable sequel to Critterland’s charismatic menagerie of chaos. Though occasionally raunchy, and routinely provocative, Victory is not afraid to make a spectacle for the sake of a point. Victory should be understood as a reflection. It revels in the beauty of tiny, monetarily-worthless moments and things, offering with them a consideration of our innate humanity.

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  Creekbed Carter Hogan

  For trans folksinger Creekbed Carter Hogan, everything good is made from the rotten stump of something else. Their new self-titled album, Creekbed Carter, is both creed and archive, formed from the eccentric preoccupations of a messy Catholic childhood that have been crafted into a dazzling, troubling, and ultimately wondrous collection of songwriting.

  This 10 track record draws from the intimacy and precision of Hogan’s live shows to build a new landscape for queer folk and country. Familiar spirits haunt these songs – Roger Miller, Bobbie Gentry, Elliott Smith, Karen Dalton – but ultimately, Hogan’s music emanates from the force of their own desires. Clever, searing, bald, and true, Creekbed Carter is, above all, an act of resilience: a flaming sword that both creator and listener can use to cut their way out and through, together.