(HUDSON, N.Y) – Bass-playing singer-songwriter Nat Baldwin and guitarist-composer Ben Seretan perform a double-bill at Spotty Dog Books & Ale on Thursday, October 30, 2014, at 8pm. The two artists are united in how they tread the fine line between conventional song forms and experimental music, although their approaches are quite different.

After studying avant-garde jazz and improvisation with jazz legend Anthony Braxton, Nat Baldwin started writing songs featuring double bass and vocals. In 2005 he joined Dirty Projectors. He has performed on Grizzly Bear’s “Shields,” Vampire Weekend’s “Contra,” Department of Eagles’ “In Ear Park,” and Phosphorescent’s “Pride.”

Despite his busy schedule recording and touring as the bass player for Dirty Projectors, Nat found time to write and record “In The Hollows,” his follow-up to 2011’s “People Changes.” “In The Hollows” features Hudson’s Otto Hauser (Vetiver, Lia Ices, Espers), Rob Moose (The National, Antony and the Johnsons, Bon Iver), and the Ymusic string trio.

Baldwin cites albums by Nick Drake, Judee Sill, Joanna Newsom, Antony & the Johnsons, and Bill Callahan as providing inspiration “in balancing that intimacy with minimal, but powerful, adornments.”

 

 

If heaven exists, Ben Seretan wants to find it with delay pedals and join the chorus of angels. Long, swirling clouds of tones met with cascading waterfall plucks of electric guitar joined together by a honeyed singing voice and a deep appreciation of tenderness. At times fearfully, ecstatically joyful, at other times whispering drowsily into the coffee cup of your ear. His music can variously recall that of Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Alexander Turnquist.

Seretan grew up in Southern California, studied music at Wesleyan University (graduated with honors, Alvin Lucier, Anthony Braxton, MGMT, et al), was a Flux Factory artist-in-residence 2014, a Sitka Fellows Program recipient 2013, a Wassaic Project artist-in-residence 2012, the organizer and performer of sunrise concert series, and has performed in horse barns, bedrooms, churches, movie theaters, power plants, rooftops, and once on top of the wheelhouse of a tall ship.

Admission is $5.