S. Carey at the Raccoon Motel -- April 11.
Tuesday, April 11, 7 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
His latest solo album Break Me Open lauded by Pitchfork magazine as "somber and searching, filtering personal vulnerability through his familiar delicate melodies and vocal effects," famed Bon Iver vocalist/drummer S. Carey headlines a solo concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel on April 11, his most recent recording inspiring Under the Radar magazine to rave, "The dark and prescient record is majestically expansive."
Sean Carey grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and as the child of a singer and a music teacher, has been immersed in music his entire life. Raised listening to James Taylor, the Beach Boys, and Bruce Hornsby, Carey learned to play the drums at age 10, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in 2007 with a performance degree in classical percussion. That same year, upon hearing through mutual friends that Justin Vernon was planning on forming the band Bon Iver, Carey listened to Vernon's self-released For Emma and Forever Ago on MySpace until he had learned all the songs. After singing a few songs with Carey backstage at one of his concerts (Carey's current band serving as openers for Vernon's), Vernon asked Carey to play the show with him that night, and officially signed him to the band later that same evening.
After each month-long stint of touring with Bon Iver, Carey would return to Eau Claire for three weeks, and during his time at home, would record songs and experiment with layering sounds together. Carey told The Observer, "I didn't start out thinking I was going to write an album. I had a couple song ideas, and it just went from there. I recorded a few songs, and as time went on I got further into those songs and recorded more layers, then I had friends come over and record stuff I couldn't play, and by that time I had come up with more songs until finally I just had this full-length thing." What resulted was Carey's 2010 solo debut All We Grow, which was consequently followed by the 2012 Hoyas EP, 2014's Range of Light, the 2015 EP Supermoon EP, 2018's Hundred Acres, and last year's Break Me Open. Among his songs' employment on TV series, Carey's "In the Dirt" appears in a season-seven episode of House M.D., and also in the last scene of the episode "What Went Wrong" from season three of the drama The Good Wife.
S. Carey performs his headlining engagement in Davenport on April 11, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $20, and tickets are available by visiting TheRacoonMotel.com.
