Friday, February 9, 8 p.m.
The Redstone Room, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
A quartet that, according to Vanyaland.com, “laces modern folk and Americana with an electronic jolt, waltzing along the grooved edges of dream-pop, synth-pop, and Brooklyn's mid-aughts guitar-rock revival,” the musicians of Kuinka perform an RME Member Appreciation Show on February 9, demonstrating why NPR raved about the ensemble's “joyful noise” and “joyous organic sound.”
Kuinka artists Miranda Zickler, Jilliam Walker, and brothers Zach and Nathan Hamer came together in 2014 determined to form a unique breed of string band – one that, as is explained at KuinkaTheBand.com, is “proudly defiant of proconceived notions of what fits under the label 'Americana.'” Their 2014 debut The Wild North was followed by 2016's breakout LP The Heartland (both recorded at the famed Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington), which led to Kuinka being featured at dozens of national festivals and headlining several national tours.
With the Seattle Rock Orchestra's John Benefiel joining the quartet on clarinet and saxophone, Kuinka released its EP Stay Up Late in 2017, the songs created in the midst of major life changes as the musicians moved out of the house they'd shared for two years and moved into separate homes in separate cities. ConsequenceOfSound.net called the work “a vibrant EP maintaining Kuinka's roots in Americana while still pushing their sound forward,” and Zickler stated that the musicians' life changes were at the roots of the EP's success. “We'd love for our music to be a soundtrack to adventure,” she said. “Our biggest goal as a collective is to fight the trend of apathy – to infuse everything we do with a sense of joy, and to affect positive change in the world to the best of our ability.”
Kuinka's 8 p.m. Member Appreciation Show at the Redstone Room features an opening set by The Harmaleighs, and tickets are $10 for the general public and free for RME members. For more information and to reserve, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.
