Sunday January 7 * 7pm * TICKETS

milarepa dorji is a guitarist from New England whose unfettered playing is influenced by ‘70s Jazz-Rock, Punk and No Wave sensibilities, and more modern players like Bill Orcutt in equal measure. The son of Improvisation master Tashi Dorji, Mila was exposed to free music from an early age, and continues to explore the boundaries between improvisation and structure, solo and in free-wheeling duo Living Window, whose LP Astralturfing (Feeding Tube Records) Byron Coley called “…an album of pile-driving avant garde hunch reminiscent of pre-Mahavishnu McLaughlin’s slow-hand recordings with Tony Williams or Billy Cox.”

Liam Grant is a New England guitarist with a punk ethos, cut from the American Primitive cloth. The restless guitar explorations, modal epics, and driving uptempo rags recall the likes of Grant's pedagogue, Takoma Records, and the path that was paved by his forebears John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and later Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Jack Rose, and others.

Bridging that past Grant evokes the pith of the landscape in which he was raised. Personal instrumental memoirs and ruminations on the banks of the Merrimack River. Amoskeag. And the place where the waters flow around it. Salmon tails up the falls and black pearls from the river. The exodus to Stratton-Eustis and the Last Night on the Dead River before the great flood.

"Although only 23 years old, Liam’s become a leading force in a much needed third wave revival of American Primitive music. Despite his age, Liam’s the very definition of 'an old soul' and while he draws on a wide variety of contemporary influences, he also channels a comprehensive history of the blues as well as a deeper energy that informs both his playing and songwriting." -- Rob Vaughn, Portland, Oregon – July 2023

Dechen (Ellen McSweeney) is a singer, violinist, and songwriter based in Takoma, DC. She writes art-folk songs about love, death, and the spiritual path. She spent a decade playing classical and contemporary music in Chicago, and recently spent two years training at a monastery in Vermont. Her sets are intimate, stripped-down, and meditative experiences that may help you cry, breathe, and feel your heart. Dechen is joined on this set by bassist Alex Jacobsen of the National Symphony Orchestra.