(HUDSON, N.Y.) – It’s a weekend of Americana trios at Club Helsinki Hudson, with old-timey trio the Wiyos on Friday, November 8, 2013, at 9pm, followed by Montreal indie-rockers Plants and Animals on Saturday, November 9, at 9pm. the Wiyos play and compose music inspired by the early American musical idioms of the 1920s and ’30s, including blues, country, ragtime, gospel, and swing. With their inventive folk-rock, Plants and Animals could be Canada’s answer to Wilco.

Beloved for their unique blend of early swing jazz, rural folk, old-time blues and Appalachian music, the Hudson Valley-based trio the Wiyos are an intercontinental sensation, having warmed up U.S. audiences on a full 28-day summer tour for Bob Dylan in 2009 and having been featured in the BBC TV programs “Folk America – Hollerers, Stompers and Old-Time Ramblers” and “No Sleep ‘Til Yell.” Gleefully subverting genre distinctions, their music comes from a time before commercial formatting separated blues from country, ragtime from gospel, and swing from hillbilly. Their sound is reminiscent of days-gone-by, when live bands could be heard both on the radio and at community dances, juke joints, and house parties.

Plants and Animals was shortlisted for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize (modeled after the UK’s Mercury Prize) and was nominated for 2009 Juno Awards for Alternative Album of the Year and New Group of the Year. Formed in 2002 by guitarist/vocalist Warren Spicer, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Nic Basque – who handles bass, keyboards and guitar chores – and drummer/vocalist Matthew “Woody” Woodley – Plants and Animals began as an all-instrumental group heavy on improvisation. The trio released its first full-length album of songs, Parc Avenue, which reflected the group’s embrace of classic-rock verities, Beatlesque experimentation, Grateful Dead-like space jams, and organic roots-rock, in 2008. Sarah Neufeld of Arcade Fire contributed string parts to the album, which was followed up in 2010 by La La Land and in 2012 with The End of That.

The title logo for The End of That is self-consciously patterned after that of The Last Waltz by legendary Canadian rock group The Band. The group has shared stages with Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells, Grizzly Bear, Wolf Parade and the National.

For reservations in The Restaurant or in the club call 518.828.4800.

 

Club Helsinki Hudson
405 Columbia St.
Hudson, N.Y.
info@helsinkihudson.com
518.828.4800