Tara Dente & Friends

The sounds of Tara Dente have been echoing out into the corners of venues, parks, streets, and over the span of the Atlantic ocean in her hometown of Asbury Park, NJ, since the age of 24 when she stepped out of the safety her childhood home’s basement to reveal songs she’d been writing in private from the age of 17. Open mics lead to features, lead to headlining slots, lead to growing a 6-piece band, which would culminate on the mainstage of beloved Virginia-based Floyd Fest music festival in July of 2021. That journey brought her ultimately to Nashville, TN, faced with the difficult decision to leave behind that band who bolstered and helped reshape her solo sound for over 5 years.

Seeking a sound not quite explored and recorded, with two studio albums and several other independently-recorded and released projects behind her, Tara’s best and most authentic is yet to come. Leaning on a foundational performance style involving foot percussion and fierce finger-picking style on acoustic guitar, Tara is leaning on her foundation as a solo performer, while channeling a newfound confidence and self-knowledge which brings an uncharted energy to her live performances. Her soaring, emotion-filled lyrics and vocals, paired with a driving low-end and enchanting gypsy bells from a suitcase kick drum rig, are impossibly exciting for the senses and are sure to entertain. For the first time since a fall 2019, southern US tour, Tara will set out from Kansas City, to Texas, across the desert, up through California and on through the Pacific Northwest, ultimately to Whidbey Island where some of her family resides, serving as both a tour and a personal pilgrimage. Tara’s newest single, Intentional Fall, recorded in Nashville’s renown Blackbird Studio, will be released at the end of August 2022. Written at the beginning of COVID in 2020, it is a song about taking the jump into the unknown, not looking back to the safety of familiarity; what was formerly avoided, is now inevitable. Indeed, she sets out into parts of this country, personally previously unexplored, claiming adventure and creative expression delayed by a very long and transformative couple of years.

Stay connected to Tara for her upcoming release, and for updates on her journey west in the coming months!

 

Abby Litman

Singer/songwriter Abby Litman is an up-and-coming folk musician whose songs marry the lyrical traditions of American folk music with inventive acoustic arrangements and modern concepts. A graduate of USC’s Thornton School of Music, she released her debut album, Seasons, along with original artwork, in 2016, her single, The Garden, accompanied by an animated music video, in 2019, and has played in and curated shows across Los Angeles. She founded Good Folk, an LA-based concert series for local folk musicians, in 2017 and has featured more than thirty artists.

Originally from Bethesda, Maryland, Litman’s first foray into music started with classical piano lessons at the age of 6. Her dad, a Bob Dylan fanatic, made sure to supplement Chopin’s nocturnes with a healthy dose of Bob Dylan, and it didn’t take long until Abby was permanently hooked to Dylan’s gritty, honest, and mythic storytelling. Sneaking off with her dad’s Martin guitar, she began learning Dylan’s guitar parts by ear and notating her father’s edition of collected Bob Dylan lyrics. By high school, she was writing poetry and making her own songs. She learned to read and listen widely, from Nick Drake to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Joni Mitchell, whose soaring, arching vocal lines continue to serve as a measuring stick for her own.

In 2021, Abby worked with producer Tyler Chester (Madison Cunningham, Margaret Glaspy, Andrew Bird) and recorded a 3-song EP that is scheduled to be released in spring 2022. These songs, revisited and recorded during a year and a half of lockdowns and quarantines, showcase Abby’s extensive range, knack for harmony, and penchant for heartfelt storytelling. Her sonically-rich playing accompanies her frank, searching lyrics that mirror the anxieties of her, and any other, generation: reckoning with uncertain truths, finding meaning in a world that always seems to be on the cusp of ending, and making the most out of a life that’s been put on hold.

 

Ben Greenberg