River Whyless are a hard-touring bunch of Americana troubadours. This Asheville, N.C., quartet has some time off in May, but other than that they’ll be playing dates all over the country between now and the summer festival season, for which they’ll probably have to kick into overdrive.
The band just released a single, “Hold Me To Ya,” which flickers along, powered by a slippery desert-blues guitar line and a slow-burn rhythm with lots of rolling accents. (A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the single go to benefit organizations committed to protecting National Wildlife Refuges.) Fiddle and high vocal harmonies signal the roots connection, but this band has an ambitious, experimental, global, mystic streak that comes through as well. “We tend to sneak in some secret noises into our records,” violin player and vocalist Halli Anderson has said about how they sometimes get creative in the studio.
There are four songwriters in River Whyless, and the wide-ranging influences come through. This is communal music anchored in a place but open to the world.
River Whyless will perform at Fairfield Theater Company’s Stage One, 70 Sanford St., Fairfield, Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $17. 203-259-1036 or fairfieldtheatre.org.
