June 30, 2023
7pm
$15
CD/ALBUM RELEASE SHOW!
David James Allen & The Growing Machine [Solo/One-Man Band] performing at SILENCE in Guelph, Ontario.
with very Special Guests Geordie Gordon & Joseph Gallo Jr.
Listening to David James Allen, it often feels as if he channeling every cool record you’ve ever owned. Built upon a rootsy funkiness that’s part JJ Cale and The Band, accentuated with shades of Daptone and Bill Withers, his songs spin off into emotional realms populated by the likes of Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt and Harry Nilsson. As with all great art, the magic is conjured through alchemy, and more importantly, through a connection to a level of consciousness few of us have the capacity to access. David James Allen has been releasing music for more than a decade, but over the past five years—after moving eastward from Toronto to the wilds of Prince Edward County—he has been startlingly prolific. Beginning with 2017’s When The Demons Come and carrying on through 2020’s Radiations and the following year’s The Architect, Allen has been steadily amassing a remarkable body of work that stands alongside those of any of his Canadian contemporaries. Now comes By The Summertime, an album that keeps Allen’s winning streak solidly intact. Allen cites Canadian poets Al Purdy and Nelson Ball for inspiring many of his new lyrics, but he could surely write his own book based on the backstories to each song on By The Summertime. Finding the sweet spot between simplicity and boundary pushing is a goal many artists seek with varying degrees of success. For David James Allen though, it just seems to be where he naturally resides.
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Geordie Gordon
As a multi-instrumentalist, Geordie Gordon has spent 20 years playing almost every role possible in a band. He is best known for backing up talented artists such as , , , and Born in Guelph, Ontario to a folk music family, Geordie was set free amongst his father’s () instruments. He taught himself fiddle, mandolin, drums and keyboards as a child and experimented with cast-off tape recorders and drum machines in the basement. As a teenager, he was part of , Guelph’s youngest avant-garde pop group, gigging with and on the weekends while attending high school during the week.
In 2008, Geordie formed The Magic as a vehicle for his own song writing. Using disco-inspired grooves to deliver hook laden tunes, The Magic toured The U.S. and Europe and released two albums: 2012’s Ragged Gold and 2016’s Nightfalling.
Recently, Geordie has been setting off on his own, producing his own music and performing solo under his own name. Collecting a lifetime’s worth of musical knowledge, he has been creating powerful, emotional music. His acoustic guitar, lush synth orchestration and driving analog beats meld into a striking and modern singer-songwriter style.
Geordie was a player on U.S. Girls’ 2020 Polaris Prize shortlisted record Heavy Light and appears on the just announced Islands album Islomania.
