The Arcadian Wild at the Redstone Room -- October 18.
Wednesday, October 18, 7 p.m.
The Redstone Room, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
With the outfit praised by Broadway World for music that is "quiet, understated, but so incredibly impactful," the indie-folk and pop musicians of The Arcadian Wild headline an October 18 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room, the group's most recent recording Welcome lauded by The American Root as "a momentary refuge from the stress and turmoil that plague today's everyday existence."
Led by songwriters Isaac Horn and Lincoln Mick, the former a guitarist/singer and the latter a mandolinist/singer, and with Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild was named for a utopian landscape in Greek mythology. The group got its start roughly a decade ago, when Horn and Mick met as choir students at Nashville’s Lipscomb University. While both had grown up on alt-rock and punk, they quickly bonded over a shared love for American roots music and the endless possibilities that lay beyond the boundaries of tradition and expectation. The band cut their teeth playing house shows, where they learned to treat their audience like family, and released their self-titled debut to widespread praise in 2015, racking up nearly 50 million streams on Spotify alone.
Heavy touring followed with what Horn and Mick have described as a revolving door of supporting players, and the group returned in 2019 with a second full-length album, Finch In The Pantry, which debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart. In January of 2020, Horn and Mick welcomed fiddler Warren into the band full-time, but when the pandemic forced the trio off the road shortly after, they shifted their focus to composing and recording a multi-movement song cycle that resulted in the 2021 EP Principum, which reached number three on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart and helped earn the band performances everywhere from the Woody Guthrie Center to the Ryman Auditorium.
The band’s 2023 album Welcome marks the start of a captivating new chapter for the genre-bending trio. Like much of the band’s catalog, the album blurs the lines between chamber folk and progressive bluegrass, drawing on everything from country and classical to pop and choral music with lush harmonies and dazzling fretwork. The result is perhaps The Arcadian Wild's most arresting collection yet, with Jesus Freak Hideout deeming the work "a welcoming invitation to feast at a table with longtime friends" and No Depression calling the album's title "a fair summation of the kindness and openness of their songs."
The Arcadian Wild play their Davenport engagement on October 18 with additional sets by John Cole Born and Wolfskill & the Wild, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $15-18, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)326-1333 and visiting CommonChordQC.org.
