MATT THE ELECTRICIAN, BEN KYLE, RACHEL RIES + J.E. SUNDE

The Cedar Presents

SOLSTICE SONGWRITER CIRCLE featuring MATT THE ELECTRICIAN, BEN KYLE, RACHEL RIES + J.E. SUNDE

Tuesday, June 21, 2022 / Doors: 7:00 PM CT / Show: 7:30 PM CT

All Ages

Seated

$12 Advance, $17 Day of Show

This is a seated show with general admission, first-come-first-served seating. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our .

General Admission tickets are available online.

ABOUT THIS SHOW

A summer solstice songwriter circle featuring Matt The Electrician, Ben Kyle (of Romantica), Rachel Ries (of Her Crooked Heart) and J.E. Sunde. Four great songwriters, taking turns unpacking a few of their favorite songs...in the round. A solstice Cedar campfire.

MATT THE ELECTRICIAN

For his latest album We Imagined an Ending (November 5, Burnside), Matt the Electrician (Matt Sever) challenged himself to turn the seven deadly sins on their head.   “I got to wondering, ’What would be the opposite of that?’  Despite Sever’s teenage years immersed in nihilistic hardcore and metal, bleak-for-bleakness’ sake has just never been his bag. 

“Of course, I didn’t realize ‘the opposite of the seven deadly sins’ was also a fairly well-worn path,” Sever continues with a laugh.  “There are all these different virtues that answer the sins, like the seven Bushido virtues and the seven Quaker virtues...”   

Sever can rattle off many of his song pairings without even checking his notes:   “Night Owls” (Faith); “Big Changes” (Justice); “Dance” (Honesty); “Switch Shadows” (Empathy); “When the Lights Went Out” (Hope); “Heartbeat” (Peace); “Home Again” (Prudence); “Temporary” (Equality); “What If You Needed Me” (Community); and “Mindless” (Knowledge).  

Produced by Tucker Martine  (Decemberists, Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens, First Aid Kit), Sever recorded We Imagined an Ending way back in October of 2019.  “On all of his records, Tucker creates this wider space,”says Sever. “There’s just this natural wide space to this album that I really love.” 

At least three songs— “Night Owls,” “Temporary,” and “If You Needed Me” — were written with his late mom at the forefront of his mind, and “When the Lights Went Out” (whose lyrics include the album’s title) came to him within minutes of hearing the news about the death of fellow songwriter Neal Casal by suicide. “When the lights went out / We had to light the way,” he sings.  

“There’s actually a lot of death on this album,” he observes. “But it’s more about the cycle of things. The full line in “When the Lights Go Out” is, ‘We imagined an ending, and then tried to let it go.’  We all have what we think is going to be the way things are going to work out, but then they don’t always work out that way at all. Like you might think, ‘Oh, we’ll see Mom next Christmas,’ or whatever, and then you just don’t. So then you have to just figure out how to move on and get through that. And as hard as it may be, there’s growth that comes out of that moving-on process, and things you learn from it. And out of that growth comes... hope.”

To learn more about Matt the Electrician:

• Visit his website here

BEN KYLE (OF ROMANTICA)

Ben Kyle grew up in the foothills of Gilnahirk, on the east side of Belfast, in the north of Ireland, in the middle of 5 boys and 2 girls,  the son of a doctor turned preacher and an Irish international hockey player. 

Over a colorful career he has received 10 International songwriting awards, worked with Ringo Starr, Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo, Sara Watkins, Dan Wilson and Carrie Rodriguez (on the duets album We Still Love Our Country), recorded 8 studio albums and overcome a 4 year battle with Lyme disease.  Ben now lives simply and joyfully and makes music with his family in Minneapolis, MN.

"Perfect" - American Songwriter       

"Amazingly good” - Associated Press     

"Splendid. Tender and moving" - The Telegraph

To learn more about Ben Kyle:

• Visit his website here

RACHEL RIES (OF HER CROOKED HEART)

Rachel Ries is the musician, writer, producer at the core of Her Crooked Heart, a modular supergroup with local baddies: Siri Undlin, Hilary James, Adelyn Strei, Hannah Hebl. The most applicable genre? Poet Rock. Rachel is also the founding director of Kith + Kin Chorus, an uncommon rock & roll choir in the Twin Cities, a very involved auntie, and the (slow) builder of her very own tiny home on wheels: the Petite Palais.

To learn more about Rachel Ries (of Her Crooked Heart):

• Visit Her Crooked Heart’s website here

J.E. SUNDE

J.E. Sunde is a native of Wisconsin who lives in Minneapolis. A songwriter and composer who writes from the American Songwriter tradition but just to the left of center.

After many years of crafting beautifully unusual music with The Daredevil Christopher Wright, Jonathan Edward Sunde immersed himself in a new solo project that embraces his influences, from smart, bouncy Paul Simon-y folk-pop to the earnestness of Jonathan Richman to the heartbreak and boldness of Nina Simone.

To learn more about J.E. Sunde:

• Visit his website here

Host or Publisher The Cedar Cultural Center