JP Harris’ Dreadful Wind and Rain, John R. Miller & Chloe Edmonstone tour Europe starting tomorrow

JP Harris has a secret: his name is actually “Squash.” Long before Harris became a well regarded honky-tonker, he used his childhood nickname while playing archaic “old-time” American tunes at underground fiddlers’ gatherings, engrossed in this punkish folk music world. Don’t You Marry No Railroad Man, his debut recording of traditional music under the moniker JP Harris’ Dreadful Wind and Rain, features ten tracks spanning the breadth of American old-time repertoire.

Harris wades between ancient ballads that traveled from the British Isles to Appalachia like “Barbry Ellen,” to droning banjo ditties such as Hobart Smith’s entrancing “Last Chance,” here played on one of Harris’ coveted homemade banjos. Harris also works as a serious carpenter which adds a unique authenticity to his versions of the classic “House Carpenter” and lesser known “The Little Carpenter.” Alongside Harris’ haunting vocals, the album prominently features the low-tuned fiddle and harmony singing of his longtime friend and Old Crow Medicine Show member Chance McCoy, who produced the record at his West Virginia studio in an old barn. On this sparse and arresting recording, Harris isn’t mining his roots as a marketing pitch, he has the chops to back it up. In fact, this collection of songs made him who he is today. Welcome home “Squash."

John R Miller is a true hyphenate artist: singer-songwriter-picker. Every song on his thrilling debut solo album, Depreciated, is lush with intricate wordplay and haunting imagery, as well as being backed by a band that is on fire. One of his biggest long-time fans is roots music favorite Tyler Childers, who says he’s “a well-travelled wordsmith mapping out the world he’s seen, three chords at a time.” Miller is somehow able to transport us to a shadowy honkytonk and get existential all in the same line with his tightly written compositions. Miller’s own guitar-playing is on fine display here along with vocals that evoke the white-waters of the Potomac River rumbling below the high ridges of his native Shenandoah Valley. 

On this special tour JP Harris' Dreadful Wind and Rain teams up with John R. Miller and features Georgia-born singer and fiddler Chloe Edmonstone. As a member if Locust Honey String Band she knows how to bring some quality Old-Time, Bluegrass, and Pre-War Blues leavened with traditional music of the American southeast. 

TOURDATES:
02/03: Clonmel, IRL - Clonmel World Music
03/03: Co Tipperary, IRL - The Tearoom Sessions
04/03: Kilkenny, IRL - Cleere's
05/03: Dublin, IRL - The Grand Social
07/03: Ballybofey, IRL - Balor Arts Centre
08/03: Cookstown, IRL - The Red Room
09/03: Glasgow, UK - SWG3 Poetry Club
10/03: Newcastle, UK - Cluny 2
11/03: Manchester, UK - The Castle Hotel
12/03: Nottingham, UK - The Bodega
14/03: London, UK - The Lexington
16/03: Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg
17/03: Amen, NL - Café de Amer
18/03: Malmö, SWE - Folk å Rock
19/03: Stockholm, SWE - Bar Brooklyn
20/03: Oslo, NO - Belleville
21/03: Gothenburg, SWE - Pustervik
22/03: Hamburg, DE - Nochtwache
23/03: Eindhoven, NL - De Rozenknop
24/03: Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
25/03: Herent, BE - GC de Wildeman
26/03: Venlo, NL - Joriskerk
28/03: Bilbao, ESP - Kafe Antzokia
29/03: Avilés, ESP - Factoriá Cultural
30/03: Santander, ESP - El Almacén de Little Bobby
31/03: Madrid, ESP - Clamores
01/04: Zaragoza, ESP - Rock & Blues Café
02/04: Valencia, ESP - Loco Club