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Preview Fri Aug 28 2015
Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray Headline Foundations of Music Benefit Concert @ Quenchers on 9/11
It seems like a cliché to hear artists say "it's all about the music." But on September 11th at Quenchers, that will quite literally be the case. Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray will bring their sunny, cosmic Americana act to Quencher's in support of Foundations of Music, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering Chicago's children through music education. This will be a great show for a great cause, with all proceeds going to Foundations of Music.
Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray would be worth seeing in any case, as their 2014 album Lean Into the Wind captures the lonesome spirit of cowboy country and infuses it with the mind-boggling spaciness of the night sky above. If it takes a few seconds to get accustomed to Miss Shevaughn's voice, it's only because she's a throwback to great folk singers of the '60s and '70s like Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell. Her voice drips with sincerity and wavers with emotion as she grittily traverses the travails of life and the wide open sonic landscapes of America. "Drifter's Compass," the album opener, serves as Shevaughn's personal anthem of defiant overcoming, and on "Blue Dream" she gently paints a watercolor of a psychedelic desert.
Behind Shevaughn's singing, the band keeps up a steady stream of shimmery, psychedelic-tinged country-rock. Gram Parsons would be proud of the tasteful tremolo on "Lone Star Souvenir" and "Brushed the Dust Off (Lean Into the Wind)," two haunting tracks that feel like peyote trips, and "When the Pumps Run Dry" launches into a chaotic, heavily distorted breakdown reminiscent of Meddle-era Pink Floyd. Overall, Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray create a multifaceted, modern Americana sound that pays its debts to the genre's past but builds upon it by bringing earth and heavens together.
The best part of this show, however, is that it's a charity event supporting one of the cooler organizations in the city. Foundations of Music has been around since 1988 and focuses on "culturally relevant, hands-on music education for children in Chicago." Its programs include a choir, a songwriting and production class for junior high students, and various jazz and blues workshops taught by music education experts and guest artists. Nearly 95% of the organization's beneficiaries are low-income students from over 30 Chicago public schools. If there were ever ten dollars worth paying to see a concert, it would be for this show, which represents a positive feedback loop for the music scene in Chicago.
Support for Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray will come from local acts Ty Maxon and Dead Letter. Doors open at 9:00 pm. Tickets aren't yet available online, but you can buy them at the door for $10; remember, all proceeds go to Foundations of Music.