By Alicia James
Grab yourself a suitor or a sweetheart for a night of dancing close and stomping the floors. Bombs Away Café will host Portland-distilled folk quintet The Moonshine this Saturday, June 28 at 9:00 p.m.
Formed in winter 2012, The Moonshine released their debut album titled “And Now…” in January 2014.
Now the Cascadian string band takes their upbeat mix of old-timey picking and contemporary songwriting along the I-5. Self-billed as “an idea on the rise” and “a rhythmic network of folks and song from everywhere and nowhere,” The Moonshine’s sound evokes loping road trips across vast swathes of American landscape.
Michael Gerard Levasseur, songwriter and guitarist, fronts The Moonshine with bittersweet vocal stylings that recall early Paul Simon. Levausseur is simultaneously innocent and worldly, young and ancient. Rachel Renee’ (autoharp), Susanna Low-Beer (violin), J. Elwood Johncox (stand-up bass), and Sara Wolf (banjo) complete the Moonshine experience with string accompaniment that is equally at home at a backyard barbeque or a county fair dance hall when county fairs were the only single’s event in town.
Live sessions have been featured prominently on West Coast radio stations PRP, KHUM and KLCC. The Moonshine is currently recording the soundtrack to Plant This Movie, a yet-to-be released indie documentary about urban farming around the world narrated by Daryl Hannah.
The Moonshine opens for The Student Loan on Saturday, June 28 at Bombs Away Café, 2527 NW Monroe Ave, Corvallis, OR. Show starts at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door. Preview their music at http://www.themoonshinemusic.com/.
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