The Milk Carton Kids at the Codfish Hollow Barn -- October 29.
Saturday, October 29, 8 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Street, Maquoketa IA
At Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, the venue will celebrate both the end of its 2022 concert roster and the coming of All Hallows' Eve with a special Codfish Halloween concert on October 29, the night boasting headlining sets with the Grammy-nominated folk duo The Milk Carton Kids and up-and-coming country-music sensation Katie Pruitt.
Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan formed their musical duo the Milk Carton Kids after Ryan attended one of Pattengale's solo performances in their shared hometown of Eagle Rock, California. The singer/guitarists subsequently came together after both artists reached a professional crossroads in their largely unsuccessful solo careers, eventually releasing their debut Retrospect, a live album recorded at Ventura, California's Zoey's Cafe in March of 2011. Predating the official band moniker and released under Pattengale and Ryan's own names, Retrospect led to the musicians performing at SXSW and joining Joe Purdy's North American tour as his opening act and backing band. Debuting that July, sophomore effort Prologue was the Milk Carton Kids' first studio album and the first release under the band's name, a recording the San Francisco Chronicle described as "bittersweet and beautiful." Its inclusion "There By Your Side," meanwhile, was named National Public Radio's Song of the Day and made year-end best lists with Daytrotter and American Songwriter, with the Milk Carton Kids headlining their first North American tour after Prologue’s release.
The duo's third recording The Ash & Clay, which earned the Milk Carton Kids a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, led to Pattengale and Ryan touring with Austin-based artist Sara Jarosz, a 2013 taping of Austin City Limits, and selection by the Americana Music Association as Duo/Group of the Year. In 2015, Monterey earned the artists some of their strongest reviews, as Rolling Stone labeled the album a “beautifully realized folk recording” and Paste magazine called it “exquisite.” Since then, the Milk Carton Kids have released two other critically acclaimed albums in 2018's All the Things That I Did & All the Things That I Didn't Do and 2019's The Only Ones, and in addition to their TV and radio performances on such programs as Conan, CBS This Morning, and A Prairie Home Companion, the Milk Carton Kids were featured in T Bone Burnett's and the Coen Brothers' concert-film documentary Another Day/Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Inside Llewyn Davis alongside Joan Baez, Jack White, and many other folk-music luminaries.
An Atlanta native, Katie Pruitt attended Belmont University in Nashville, where she joined a band and received the inaugural Nashville Songwriting Scholarship from the BMI Foundation, In 2017, she was awarded the Buddy Holly Prize from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and signed with Round Hill Records, with her EP OurVinyl Live Session subsequently released in March of 2018. Pruitt was named by Rolling Stone as one of 10 new country artists you need to know and by NPR as one of the 20 artists to watch, highlighting the singer/songwriter as someone who "possesses a soaring, nuanced and expressive voice, and writes with devastating honesty."
In September of 2019, Pruitt released "Expectations," the title track from her full-length debut, with additional singles from this project including "Loving Her" and "Out of the Blue" on November 15, 2019. Pruitt's Expectations album was released by Rounder Records and earned the artist a nomination for Emerging Act of the Year at the 2020 Americana Music Honors & Awards. That same year, she duetted with Canadian singer/songwriter Donovan Woods on "She Waits for Me to Come Back Down," a track from his album Without People, and in 2021, Pruitt won the Pop Awards' citation for Emerging Artist of the Year.
The Milk Carton Kids and Katie Puritt play their Codfish Halloween engagement on October 29 with an additional set by Kevin Garrett, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $30-35, and more information and tickets are available by visiting CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
