Session Americana with Eleanor Buckland
SESSION AMERICANA is musicians’ musicians: a cast of top-shelf players, singers, and writers who tour internationally, taking their own songs, plus hundreds more from the American songbook, on the road. Whether you catch Session Americana in a rock hall or on a festival stage, you’ll be a part of the intimate, raucous scene these players built years ago at Toad, the neighborhood bar where it all began in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
THE SESSION AMERICANA STORY
Session Americana has been accessing the joy for 20 years. A group of musicians musicians, the band deftly creates a unique live experience that celebrates the joy of
the music and of each other. Looking back, the group has a natural, almost inevitable evolution from a loose bunch of friends sitting around swapping songs in a bar, to a hot ticket weekly residency, to a touring collective. Along the way, they have made 10 records, played clubs and festivals across the US and Europe, and developed some
deep collaborative bonds with a wide community of musicians. Their diligent avoidance of music business “shoulds” have led them down a quirky and joyful path through the music world and the result is evident in the musical prowess they bring to every show. Swapping instruments, lead vocals and their original songs, Session Americana is constantly exploring new collaborations and touring like a band out of time, still searching for a welcoming and homey venue, a long lunch with old friends and a good
glass of wine.
After completing a five week tour together earlier this year throughout Ireland and Europe the band will continue to be joined by singer-songwriter, guitarist and fiddle
player Eleanor Buckland playing in the band. Eleanor made her start as one-third of Lula Wiles, the Boston-based folk-rock trio that became an acoustic music scene
favorite with their three critically hailed albums. Now living in Durham NC, the singer songwriter has turned to a different side of her musical interests as a solo artist.
Buckland’s debut album You Don’t Have To Know (released October 2021 on Soundly Music) sets her deeply personal songs against inventive indie rock arrangements.
QUOTES
"I’m lucky to have known Session Americana for most of their twenty (!!!) years! I was just starting out as a songwriter when I discovered their residency shows at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. Pure magic. I’m misty-eyed now thinking about it! I had never seen a band enjoying themselves that much, and everyone in the room was in on it, this raucous and holy thing. I took a "note to self” that I’ve tried to recall many times when music felt hard. Like, the job is simple— access the joy— and if you can do that, it opens a portal. I got to guest sing with Session a few times, witness their sustained mutual love affair with my home state of Vermont, and even help out in the making of one of their incredible albums. I’m ever in awe of Session, individually and as a band. They’re so finely in tune with each other, with their audiences. I’m in awe of their bond, their easy laughter, their intuitive musical conversation that has now gained the richness of decades.
Happy twenty, Session. You can almost legally drink!" — ANAÏS MITCHELL (Vermont-based singer-songwriter and the Tony and Grammy award-winning creator of the Broadway musical Hadestown)
"It's right there in the name for this ultra-gifted, rotating collective of singers and multi-instrumentalists. And sprawl is a good word when it comes to the Boston-based group's raucous live shows, which were initially built around the community concept of traditional Irish seisiúns. The group… expertly blends vintage American roots music styles — from country to jazz to rock — in a rowdy but deft fashion." - Rolling Stone
Missy Andersen & Her One Man Band
Missy Andersen & Her One Man Band, the New Mexico based husband and wife duo, puts a contemporary spin on the roots of American music with influences ranging from Soul, Blues, Gospel, R&B, Country and Jazz. They deliver an uplifting live show that belies/defies the duo format, engaging the audience with storytelling and Heine's percussive, rhythmical guitar and basslines that truly makes it sound like Missy's spirited vocals are backed by a full ensemble.
They've toured throughout the US, Europe and Mexico, sharing the stage with the likes of Los Lobos, Mavis Staples, Taj Mahal, Ruthie Foster and Brian Setzer along the way. Missy is also a two time nominee for Best Female Soul Blues Artist of the year at the Blues Music Awards held in Memphis,TN.
“If a voice as rich, supple, and vibrant as Missy Andersen’s could come out of a bottle – not that it hasn’t been tried – every blues singer would be dripping deep soul.” – Dave Rubin, Author & Journalist.