Festival Recap: Eaux Claires

oh clair bannerEau Claire, Wisconsin is a long ways a way from Austin, but not too far away in terms of mindset: here, we call our city the Live Music Capital of the world, and in the Eau Claire is the Music Capital of the North. Nestled in the Chippewa Valley and overlooking the the river, we were treated to three days in the woods with 22,000 of our newly formed friends celebrating music, arts, and the spirit of the river valley. At the center of it all was the man who dreamed up such a festival: Justin Vernon, who, alongside Aaron Dessner, brought all of us together in essentially his backyard to experience something greater.

Read on for our recap of the inaugural Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival and see some pictures from the fest.

**Feature Photo Courtesy of Graham Tolbert

Read more

Festival Preview: Eaux Claires

Screen Shot 2015-07-02 at 10.00.28 PMSometimes the ATH crew ventures beyond the Live Music Capital and gets to experience rad festivals. Last summer, I had the pleasure of traveling to Barcelona for Primavera Sound, and while Spain may not be on the horizon for me this summer, Wisconsin is. In a few short weeks, we’ll be hitting the grounds of the first ever Eaux Claires festival, the love child project of Justin Vernon (Bon Iver/Volcano Choir) and Aaron Dessner (The National). While we’ll give you updates live from the festival so you can live vicariously through us and figure out which acts you need to see when they make their way through our neck of the woods, you can read on for the top five things we’re looking forward to about the inaugural festival.

Read more

New Single (+ Album Stream) from The Daredevil Christopher Wright

I’m absolutely loving the new record from The Daredevil Christopher Wright, a Eau Claire three-piece who’ve created an eclectic sound akin to the likes of Here We Go Magic or Fleet Foxes.  Their album combines elements of folk, group harmonies, but there’s also a slightly experimental bent–though not as much because the group wanted to focus on the songwriting on the record for performance purposes (I commend that!). If you’re sitting at work, wondering what the next record you’re going to HAVE to buy is, then you need to take a listen to The Nature of Things, which hits stores next week. You can stream it in its entirety HERE.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/02-Divorce.mp3]

Download:The Daredevil Christopher Wright – Divorce [MP3]