Gemma Ray Announces Nov/Dec U.S. Tour Dates/ Nov 11 in Pittsburgh @Hambones

Berlin-based, British-born Gemma Ray will bring her unique torch song psychedelia to the U.S. via a November/December tour in support of her new album The Exodus Suite. The tour will take Ray and her band throughout the country, beginning November 11^th in Chicago, IL and wrapping up on December 6^th in Los Angeles, CA. A current itinerary is below.

The Exodus Suite – released on June 10, 2016 – has earned Ray international praise, from outlets including Paste (“shadowy beauty”), Mother Jones (“Spine-tingling”), American Songwriter (“riveting”), She Shreds, Mojo (“beautiful, as ever”), Uncut (“a moving collision of past and present”), and Rolling Stone Australia (“deep and meaningful seduction”), among others.

Her sideways blues songs are cinematic and brooding, and sit more comfortably in the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds/PJ Harvey school, “blowing sugary femme-pop out of the water” (NME). It should come as no surprise that Ray has collaborated with several Bad Seeds, as well as the late great Alan Vega of Suicide, Howe Gelb, Sparks, Heavy Trash and the Filmorchester Babelsberg, among others.

Recorded live in seven days at Berlin’s infamous Candy Bomber Studios (situated in the former Tempelhof Airport) by Ingo Krauss, the title The Exodus Suite reflects the personal-political themes of the songs within. An unexpected yet inescapable influence on the album sessions was the presence of 8,000 Syrian refugees housed in the hangar beneath the studio during recording. While Ray’s lyrical explorations of love for all life, exile and relocation, nature’s sovereignty, technology, class, and most of all the need for human empathy were all written prior to entering the studio, she explains, “I realized, more after the fact, that it gave an immediate mirror to some of the lyrics which are, though not political in any direct sense, influenced by these strange and tense times.”

NOV. 7             CHICAGO, IL                SCHUBAS

NOV. 9             CINCINNATI, OH          MOTR

NOV. 10           GRAND RAPIDS, MI    FOUNDERS BREWING

NOV. 12           PHILADELPHIA, PA     PHILAMOCA

NOV. 15           BOSTON, MA               ATWOODS

NOV. 16           BROOKLYN, NY          THE OWL

NOV. 17           ARLINGTON, VA          IOTA

NOV. 18           DURHAM, NC              DUKE COFFEEHOUSE

NOV. 19           ATLANTA, GA              THE 529

NOV. 21           HOUSTON, TX            SATELLITE

NOV. 23           AUSTIN, TX                 MOHAWK

NOV. 27           TUCSON, AZ               CLUB CONGRESS

NOV. 28           SAN DIEGO, CA          SODA BAR

DEC. 2             SPOKANE, WA            OBSERVATORY

DEC. 3             PORTLAND, OR          BUNK BAR

DEC. 6             LOS ANGELES, CA     BOOTLEG THEATER