Thomas Scorba, Kiely Connell, Stephanie Lambring
May 15, 20256:00 PM
Doors – 6:00 pm
Show – 7:30 pm
Thomas Csorba
Thomas Csorba is getting to the good part. On his 2024 album, Windchimes, he delves into the slow, reflective and “at-home” nature of starting a family as well as the hopes and fears you encounter along the way. Windchimes unfolds as an exploration of life’s seasons, a delicate dance through the past, present, future and the tension that arises as you navigate through it all.
The album, produced by Robert Ellis & Josh Block, was recorded almost entirely live and in one room. The production is classic and simple which allows Csorba’s introspective songwriting and warm vocal performances to remain the focal point. While the recording is built around acoustic guitar, upright bass, and drums, the instrumentation isn’t without surprises – pedal steel, mandolin, saxophone, flute (and yes, chimes) all weave deftly into the tapestry of Windchimes. The musicians’ performances are so stellar they feel effortless and create the perfect space for these songs to exist in.
With Windchimes, the 26 year old has found a voice that is wise, playful, and only getting better. It’s true that the path to success for an artist is steep and riddled with pitfalls, but if this album is any indication, Thomas Csorba is ready to dig his heels in and keep rolling the rock up the hill.
Kiely Connell
Kiely Connell is a Nashville, Tennessee transplant with rustbelt roots. Hailing from Hammond, Indiana just four houses down from the Illinois state line, Kiely draws inspiration from the hardworking people of her native Midwest community. As one of her peers put it: “Kiely’s songs walk a tightrope, planting each step equally with both the grace at the heart of folk music, and the steadfast confidence of an experienced rock and roll soul”.
In a time when most country and Americana artists are forging a similar path, Kiely takes fans on a different journey to unknown places—sonically, and emotionally. She writes songs that have a gothic western aesthetic, a blend of somber poetry and western melodies delivered with her rich and brooding voice.
Her voice merges gritty blues with an ethereal upper register, leaving audiences comparing her to the likes of Patsy Cline, Joan Baez, and Joni Mitchell. Kiely’s incomparable voice, and her poetic storytelling truly make her an Americana artist to watch.
Her new album, My Own Company, release via Thirty Tigers last June has received rave reviews from No Depression, Saving Country Music, Roots Highway and Glide Magazine.
Stephanie Lambring
Born and raised in Indiana, Stephanie Lambring got her start as a songwriter on Nashville’s Music Row, but after five years of composing for other artists, she walked away from the music business entirely until legendary songwriter Tom Douglas encouraged her to return to her craft, this time for herself. Lambring’s debut as an artist, 2020’s Autonomy, was a critical smash, prompting Rolling Stone to hail her “John Prine-esque observation” and NPR to declare her “one of Nashville’s most fearless young singer-songwriters.” In addition to all the rave reviews, the album helped earn performances everywhere from Mountain Stage to the famed Bluebird Cafe, and led to an extensive US tour with Amigo The Devil.
Lambring’s much-anticipated follow-up, Hypocrite, is an even more remarkable work of self-reflection, one that finds comfort in facing the uncomfortable head-on. The arrangements are lush and hypnotic, with Lambring’s breathy vocals floating atop a sea of dreamy synthesizers and shimmering guitars, and the writing is as raw and vulnerable as it gets, confronting everything from religion and trauma to body image and motherhood with unflinching honesty. The result is a record that lands somewhere between Phoebe Bridgers and Alanis Morrissette as it looks for the best by reckoning with the worst, an album full of love and grace and compassion that aims to remind us that imperfection and humanity go hand in hand.