Calico

Sportsmen's Tavern

326 Amherst St.

Buffalo NY 14207

716-874-7734

Calico

Sunday January 14

5pm

$10

https://www.calicotheband.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7cD7si_BT0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pxWHNwfxDE

CALICO the band is a California band in the deepest, most natural sense of the term. Specifically, the moniker is shorthand for California country—as if that weren’t vividly apparent from the first moments of Under Blue Skies, the group’s resonant, accomplished sophomore album, with its musical intricacy, lyrical eloquence and timeless immediacy. The thought-provoking, tightly harmonized songs of founder/leaders Manda Mosher and Kirsten Proffit exist in a continuum with the seminal form Gram Parsons famously dubbed Cosmic American Music.

The sound of Under Blue Skies is informed by the duo’s shared love of Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Eagles, the Everly Brothers, Fleetwood Mac and, of course, the Beatles. Their songwriting touchstones include Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, The Band and Tom Petty. Mosher and Proffit feel so connected to this classic music that they’re able to bring it into the present tense and make it their own.

“Because we’ve spent so much time together, we feel more comfortable expressing vulnerability in the lyrics; there are definitely more love songs. There’s certainly meaning to Rancho California, but it’s more broad strokes; on Under Blue Skies, we were able to dig in and get more personal.” - Manda Mosher

Case in point: “405,” Proffit’s lone solely penned song on the new album, on which romance blossoms against a backdrop acutely familiar to L.A. residents. The chorus goes, ‘We’ve got life behind us, open skies above and the walls of the canyon on either side/In front of us now is a great divide, and there’s nothing between us but the 405.’”

In other songs, the luminous textures of blended voices over stringed instruments counterbalance heavy themes. “Fine Line” considers the delusional state that befall so many aspirants who come to L.A. in hopes of realizing their dreams. “Roll Away The Stone” considers the struggle of overcoming addiction from the point of view of someone who cares enough to share the burden with the strung-out individual. And “Cold Cold Love” is a murder ballad in modern dress about the dark consequences of obsessive love. The linchpin songs also include a pair that ponder separation: “Free Man,” a tonal change of pace on which co-writer Jason Charles Miller trades vocal lines with Kirsten and “The Leaving Kind,” on which Kirsten sounds uncannily like Linda Ronstadt fronting the Stone Poneys.

Kirsten and Manda had finished the record to their satisfaction when they came up with the entirely fitting idea of covering the Mamas & the Papas classic “California Dreamin’.” Just before Christmas 2016, they headed to Scott’s PLYRZ Studio in Santa Clarita with their rhythm section of Ted Russell Kamp and drummer Matt Lucich, augmented by a crew of all-star players including Greg Leisz on pedal steel, Neal Casal on 12-string electric, Patrick Warren on keys and Kaitlin Wolfberg. The partners dueted on the lead vocals, and the entire band provided lush, spirited backing harmonies.  The track’s inclusion turns out to be an inspired idea—the performance is ecstatic and suffused with communal spirit, and Scott captured it with characteristic verve and skillfulness.

Coming to see the show from out of town? Please visit our friends at the Adams Mark Hotel.

http://www.adamsmark.com/

Please call 716-845-5100 to get a special Sportsmen’s Tavern Rate for Concert Series Ticket Holders.

Or try the Best Western on Delaware Avenue

http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/US/NY/Buffalo-hotels/BEST-WESTERN-On-The-Avenue/Hotel-Overview.do?propertyCode=33035&cm_mmc=PTI-_-local-_-feed-_-33035

716-886-8333

Please Note that the artists have a 3 hour window to complete the show. This does not meant the performance will be 3 hours in length.

ALL SALES FINAL

REFUNDS ISSUED AT DISCRETION OF VENUE LESS SERVICE FEES