Lac La Belle is an acoustic duo from Detroit, Michigan, made up of multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Jennie Knaggs & Nick Schillace. Influenced by early Americana, the music of Lac La Belle seamlessly blends history with the present, to create stories that capture the human experience. Lac La Belle offer it with expertise, via accordion, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, harmonizing vocals, and fingerpicking resonator guitar.
What sets this acoustic duo apart is their utilization of their varied experiences; Schillace has a separate career performing his instrumental guitar pieces, and he wrote the first academic work on the recordings of John Fahey; Knaggs has history with New Music compositions and improvisations, including her vocal work in Matthew Barney’s film “River of Fundament”. This with their separate experiences learning folk and blues in Appalachia, American roots binds the duo’s compositions with a heavy thread.
The release of their third album, "A Friend Too Long", (October 2014), has drawn critical acclaim, as Lac La Belle elaborate upon their cohesive duo, with the addition of upright bass, pump organ, piano, percussion and strings. Written in a secluded cabin in Michigan's upper peninsula, and recorded in their Detroit home during the snowiest winter on record, "A Friend Too Long" animates the lives of fictional characters grappling with the tensions between the urban and the rural, the individual and the community, economic decay and the land of plenty.
The group has completed six tours of the mid-west, south and east, and has completed two European tours in 2012, 2013, with a third slated for 2015.
What sets this acoustic duo apart is their utilization of their varied experiences; Schillace has a separate career performing his instrumental guitar pieces, and he wrote the first academic work on the recordings of John Fahey; Knaggs has history with New Music compositions and improvisations, including her vocal work in Matthew Barney’s film “River of Fundament”. This with their separate experiences learning folk and blues in Appalachia, American roots binds the duo’s compositions with a heavy thread.
The release of their third album, "A Friend Too Long", (October 2014), has drawn critical acclaim, as Lac La Belle elaborate upon their cohesive duo, with the addition of upright bass, pump organ, piano, percussion and strings. Written in a secluded cabin in Michigan's upper peninsula, and recorded in their Detroit home during the snowiest winter on record, "A Friend Too Long" animates the lives of fictional characters grappling with the tensions between the urban and the rural, the individual and the community, economic decay and the land of plenty.
The group has completed six tours of the mid-west, south and east, and has completed two European tours in 2012, 2013, with a third slated for 2015.
This performance will be with upright bassist Serge van der Voo, and they will play the bulk of their new album, "A Friend Too Long".
Friday, December 12, 2014
Lac La Bellewith special guest Rollie TussingTrinity House Theatre38840 W Six Mile Rd
Livonia, Michigan 48152
8:00 p.m. All ages.
Tickets $15, $12 subscribers