BLAKE BERGLUND

The Denim Wedding is rolling into St. Louis. Belle Plaine & Blake Berglund countered each other with their most recent acclaimed releases. Plaine's Malice, Mercy, Grief and Wrath and Berglund's Realms showed two completely different approaches to the art of storytelling while remaining so heavily intertwined. Each contributing to the songwriting fabric of the others' work while sharing a "family band" has resulted in a union of styles that compliment and play off each other. A wit is present in their live performance and an intellectual maturity in their material. Spending a honeymoon touring across Europe with Colter Wall, they are taking their matrimonies back into the American Honky Tonks along with guitar-twangster Bryce Lewis and the best country drummer in the bis, Steve Leidal. Belle Plaine & Blake Berglund will be alongside Les Gruff and the Billy Goat at The Heavy Anchor on Wednesday, September 25, 2019 --------------------------------- Belle Plaine is a singer, a songwriter and an inventive musician who was raised on the Canadian prairies near the hamlet of Fosston, Saskatchewan – population: 45. The ingenuity, lonesome yearning and collaborative work ethic of country life have infiltrated her songwriting, her sound and her methods. Belle’s reverence for artists who defy categorization has led her to create a brand of roots music that combines vintage blues and swing tones of the 1940s with classic country styles made popular in the heyday of the Grand Ole Opry. Belle’s greatest strength is an unfailing ability to weave stories, genres and emotions with her formidable voice. Twangy early influences from the family AM radio mixed with a dozen years of classical voice training throughout Belle’s upbringing led her into studying contemporary music in college. When Belle started performing full-time, she paired her voice with instinctive songwriting and a tinder-dry wit, and that provided all the fuel required to make hearts smoulder. As an avid collaborator she has performed her music with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, was a guest vocalist on Colter Wall’s breakthrough debut album, Imaginary Appalachia, and saw her co-writing and harmony-singing chops featured on Blake Berglund’s latest record, Realms. Belle’s 2018 album Malice, Mercy, Grief & Wrath highlights her tremendous voice and prodigious songwriting abilities, and showcases her varied musical influences from Link Wray and the Everly Brothers, to Cole Porter and Neko Case. The record was produced by Jason Plumb [Colter Wall, The Dead South]. While Malice, Mercy, Grief & Wrath contemplates the ephemeral nature of life, it also manages to address themes that are persistently unfolding in our lives: forgiveness, redemption and hope. Belle Plaine has built a loyal following that continues to flourish. She has been rewarded with festival spots such as at Small Halls on Prince Edward Island and Regina Folk Festival in Saskatchewan, and appearances at industry events like Folk Alliance International and JUNOfest. Belle is proving her entrepreneurial spirit with multiple releases and cross-country tours under her belt – making it clear that she is a career musician who relishes sharing her voice, and her songs, with the world. • • • With his fifth full-length release, Realms, Blake Berglund exposed the common ground occupied by the Cowboy and the Mystic. However, despite its esoteric nature, a relatability shines through as voiced by average characters with not so average abilities to tell their stories. Born and raised on the edge of Saskatchewan's Moose Mountain Provincial Park, Berglund's childhood responsibilities of tending to two-hundred head of horses with equal amount cattle gave the work ethic and risk management to approach a career from 'outside of the box'. Whether it be selling over 11,000 albums literally door-to-door or turning away from mainstream fashions dictated by the “country music” industry, he has forged a path unique to itself. Berglund's psychedelic country is delivered in a road-worn manner by his long time band The Vultures, a hot-shot group of twangsters whom have honoured country music traditionalisms while pushing their innovations for almost a decade. A tour schedule that regularly exceeds a hundred performances a year has seen Berglund alongside Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, Tyler Childers, Belle Plaine, The Dead South and Colter Wall. The latter three as part of a movement coming from within the borders of their home province of Saskatchewan. 2018 saw the nuptials with previously mentioned, Belle Plaine – further tightening up the collaborations between the two that have resulted in countless tours, co-writes, music videos and limited-edition releases. Berglund, contributing to Plaine's 2018 critically acclaimed release, Malice, Mercy, Grief and Wrath. Other collaborative appearances include Colter Wall's 2018 Songs of the Plains in a three way vocal event with Wall and Canadian country icon, Corb Lund. Berglund has nominations and awards from the Saskatchewan Country Music Association, The Western Canadian Music Association, The Canadian Country Music Association and the Independent Music Awards. 2019 expects his anticipated follow-up, The Architect, as well as continued contributions to his travel-blog “The Quest for Real Country Music” - described as Hunter S. Thompson meets Saving Country Music meets Lord of the Rings. Berglund currently resides in Regina, Saskatchewan and Nashville, Tennessee. • • • A new generation of Midwest Country music, St. Louis’ Les Gruff and the Billy Goat released their third album on December 8 at Off Broadway Music Venue. Their sound, driving like a barge and rolling like a riverboat, defines a genre the band has affectionately deemed “River Dirt.” Akin to its cousins in the Oklahoma and Texas Red Dirt genre, River Dirt perfectly captures the roots, rhythms, and reflections of life in historic middle America. The album, entitled Les Gruff and the Billy Goat, demonstrates the maturity of a band that has spent years touring extensively in Texas, the Midwest, and beyond. Lead singer Billy Croghan originally formed the group out of personally challenging circumstances after losing his father – the man who gave him his first guitar – in a highly-public suicide. Mixed with grief and the growing pains that come along in one’s mid-twenties, the band originally wrote this collection of songs at its inception. Armed with a whole new perspective after years of performing and traveling together, the band has polished this album of toe-tappers and lovers’ laments into a precious gem ready for release into the now booming Americana scene. To complement their refined take on these tracks, they recorded at Native Sound Studio, the choice of many of St. Louis’ premier recording artists such as Tommy Halloran and Pokey LaFarge with engineer Patrick Crecelius at the control panel, and mastered the songs with St. Louis’ Brad Sarno at Blue Jade Audio Mastering. Les Gruff and the Billy Goat have been regularly touring through Texas, performing with bands like Jesse Ebaugh’s (of Heartless Bastards notoriety) Tender Things, Mayeux and Broussard of Austin, TX, and recently opened for rising Americana star Charley Crockett (Dallas, TX) at Off Broadway Music Venue.