WILKINSON JAMES, spearheaded by singer-songwriters Liz Wilkinson and AJ Scheiber, blends honky-tonk vocal stylings and edgy but classic-sounding original songs to create music that a listener once described as “the bastard offspring of Townes Van Zandt and June Carter Cash.” Their self-titled debut, produced by Ben Kyle of Romantica, dropped in early 2014; the Aster show will celebrate the appearance of their new CD, Abandon, a Fall 2016 release on St. Paul’s House of Mercy Records. Expanding from the folk and country vibe of the first Wilkinson James record, Abandon is a moody collection of original tunes that in a given moment might sound like folk, jazz, or alt-rock, as dobro, saxophone, and tremolo guitar wrap around rootsy vocals and care-worn lyrics.

https://www.reverbnation.com/wilkinsonjames

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Special guest JIM WALSH is an award-winning songwriter, author, and journalist from Minneapolis. Currently a columnist for the Southwest Journal, his work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Minnpost.com, among other publications. A teacher at the Loft Literary Center and author or co-author of three books on the Minneapolis music scene (including All Over But the Shouting, a definitive oral history of The Replacements) , he is the former leader of bands REMs, Laughing Stock, and The Mad Ripple, and the ringleader behind the 10-year-old singer/songwriter showcase The Mad Ripple Hootenanny. His new CD Songs For the Band to Learn will be out in December 2016.

http://www.jimwalshmpls.com