These are exciting times for me, because one of my favourite singer-songwriters Jeremy Quentin aka Small Houses will soon tour in Finland (11.09-14.09) with excellent local group Ochre Room. These concerts in Finland are part of Small Houses first Euro tour that started today in Iceland. Scroll down to see all the tour dates.
Jeremy Quentin is a Philadelphia-based (originally Flint, Michigan) folk / alt-country singer-songwriter, who has three released albums under the moniker Small Houses. First one Our Dusking Sound (2010) might be only good, but the last two, North (2011) and Exactly Where You Wanted To Be (2013), are wonderful albums. If you’ve followed this blog during the recent years, you are well aware that I’m a great admirer of Jeremy Quentin as a singer and as a songwriter. He is able to create enchanting moments with his beautiful singing voice and gentle finger-style guitar playing. For me, it all started with the song Late July back in 2011. It was my first introduction to Small Houses and ended up being my favourite song of the year. The album North was full of delicate folk melodies and inspiring songs. Especially the songs Country Flowers, North and the aforementioned Late July are very dear to me and are always able to serve as a perfect antidote against stress and anxiety. You can listen to North at bandcamp and/or watch these videos, Late July and the official music video for North below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_hK2qyGlQc]
In early 2013, the third Small Houses album Exactly Where You Wanted To Be hit the stores and our hearts. It’s certainly one of the top 10 releases of 2013. Jeremy had become even stronger and more confident as a songwriter without losing that pure gentle honesty of his music. You can listen to Exactly Where you Wanted To Be at bandcamp or watch these videos, official video Oh, Hiding Out, I Saw Santa Fe from Halfway House Sessions and the official video for Our Sweet below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbHA_4mg3nU]
Jeremy Quentin is already making new music. This unreleased song Old Habits is stunning and a huge favourite of mine.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGAkkQy-d3c]
Further Studies:
I really like Lawrence High School Classroom Sessions. Several of my favourite artists like Chris Bathgate and Small Houses have done these where they discuss their art and play their music. Jeremy did this in early 2012. There are five youtube clips. This is a link to part 1: Sarah’s Song and conversation. You will easily find the rest from youtube.
On a more recent note, Jeremy Quentin just appeared on a documentary web series All Eyes On. This project by Mike Gallagher focus on one person each month. In august 2013 all eyes were on Jeremy. So good way to learn more about the person behind the music is to go to All Eyes On website (and scroll down a bit). There you can watch video interview & live sessions + listen to three podcasts.
And let’s not forget that besides Small Houses, you’ll get to see a wonderful Finnish folk-rock / americana band Ochre Room. They released their amazing debut album last year and have been working on the follow-up during the spring and summer of 2013. I’m extremely excited to hear some of these new songs for the first time on this tour. Here are some great ones from the debut album Evening Coming In. Blue Ribbon, Don’t Try and video for My Summer.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87674287″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”100″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87676561″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”100″ iframe=”true” /]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_QZQEU37DM]
Oh and a big thank you for Ochre Room for organizing this tour. It doesn’t really get much better than this. I think I’ll have to go to either Rauma or Helsinki as well. Only Turku isn’t enough. By the way, The Turku concert at Pikku-Torre is also Flavour Of The Month’s 15 Year anniversary. That’s worth of an own blog post within a few days. Anyway here are all the Small Houses Euro tour dates with the Finnish ones highlighted:
SMALL HOUSES EURO TOUR:
04.09.13 – Cafe Rosenburg – Reykjavik, Iceland
05.09.13 – Ob.la.di Ob.la.da – Reykjavik, Iceland
06.09.13 – Ob.la.di Ob.la.da – Reykjavik, Iceland
07.09.13 – Cafe Haiti – Reykjavik, Iceland
11.09.13 – Klubi – Tampere, Finland
12.09.13 – Kahvila Soppi – Rauma, Finland
13.09.13 – 8raita – Turku, Finland
13.09.13 – Pikku-Torre – Turku, Finland
14.09.13 – Korjaamo – Helsinki, Finland
18.09.13 – Kampen Bistro – Oslo, Norway
19.09.13 – Landet – Hägersten, Sweden
20.09.13 – TBA – Lund, Sweden
21.09.12 – Norreport – Halmstad, Sweden
27.09.13 – KussKuss Küche – Berlin, Germany
28.09.13 – Børneteatret – Copenhagen, Denmark
29.09.13 – YouAreAwesome – Bremen, Germany
03.10.13 – The Jet Lounge – Amsterdam, Netherlands
04.10.13 – SWAN – Amsterdam, Netherlands
07.10.13 – The Windmill Brixton – London, England
And some important links:
Small Houses Website
Small Houses at Facebook
Ochre Room Website
Ochre Room at Facebook
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