Australian singer Vance Joy sings heartfelt songs in the sensitive/confessional mode of Ed Sheeran, but he does them with a splash of that stomp-along fervor found in bands like Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers. Joy’s voice quivers and shakes, and the skeletal and urgent guitar accompaniment seems to only add to the sense of coiled emotion in his songs. Joy’s music resonates with a mix of intimacy, vulnerability and energy. He can do a lot with an expressive non-verbal moan-yodel.
There’s a throughline to music by artists like Coldplay and Fleet Foxes. You may even hear a suggestion of Warren Zevon’s “aa-oooo” from “Werewolves of London” on Joy’s ukulele-driven hit “Riptide” from 2014, which reached thousands of ears when Joy was the opening act for Taylor Swift that year. Joy’s songs have a pleasant darkness that allows for dramatic bursts of sunlight piercing through the clouds.
Vance Joy plays the Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville, on Friday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 and up. 860-226-7711 and mohegansun.com.
![NORTH CANAAN, Conn. (AP) — It was the barking that saved Rippy, a mutt that fell deep into a working rock quarry. After passersby and even a drone failed to locate the lost dog, rescue workers drawn to his barks rappelled down the pit’s walls and lifted him out three days after he went missing, […]](https://www.courant.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Quarry_Dog_45004.jpg?w=526 "NORTH CANAAN, Conn. (AP) — It was the barking that saved Rippy, a mutt that fell deep into a working rock quarry. After passersby and even a drone failed to locate the lost dog, rescue workers drawn to his barks rappelled down the pit’s walls and lifted him out three days after he went missing, […]")
