Abby Litman and Hannah Connoly

SAT 3/30/2024 Show at 8 PM / Doors at 7 PM

$25 in Advance / $30 at the Door

MUSIC | ART | FOOD |DRINKS

About Abby Litman:

Abby Litman’s music flows through time and pays respect to tradition and contemporary songwriting simultaneously. You can hear the backdrop of Abby’s adopted hometown, Los Angeles, and its storied folklore that come from the music through the Laurel Canyon sound of Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill and many others. The Maryland-born singer-songwriter, visual artist and curator of Good Folk LA, a series of house show gatherings around the sprawling city, that Abby has made into an institution that honors fresh, new songwriters on the scene. The graduate of the Thornton School of Music creates elegantly turned California pop songs on Steady, (out February 9, 2024). It’s the latest installment of Abby Litman’s classically constructed song composition and stellar production and fruitful collaboration with producer Tyler Chester.

Steady’s continuation of Abby Litman’s journey includes the love song to her singular self, “Sequoia,” featuring Sara Watkins, and “Lose Myself,” both of which have gained praise from radio hosts and critics alike including Music Mecca writing “with her delicate sound and poignant lyrics, Litman is a positive force in the modern folk world, and “Lose Myself” is the latest example.”

Abby grew up in D.C.-adjacent Bethesda, Maryland, and got into Bob Dylan via her father’s record collection and his Martin guitar. She listened to Dylan’s records and commandeered the guitar, the better to learn the great singer’s licks and turns. In high school, Abby was in a process of profound discovery, taking in favorite poet Edna St. Millay, Joni Mitchell, and the exquisitely melancholy songs and brilliant guitar work of Nick Drake.

After graduating from Thornton, where she studied the inner workings of pop music, Abby released her first EP, 2016’s Seasons. A pair of EPs, 2022’s On My Mind and 2023’s Still on My Mind, that brilliantly update the Ladies of the Canyon, California sound. A believer in the power of community in a music town, she founded Good Folk LA, that has included performances by Sara Watkins (who plays fiddle on “Sequoia” and takes the song into new level of complexity) and many others including, Trousdale, Rett Madison, Her Crooked Heart, Humbird, Courtney Hartman, and Adam Levy. As Abby says, “I feel like I had something to prove in Los Angeles.

Steady opens the door to Abby’s latest music, with confidence and newfound honesty. As Ear to the Ground has noted, “If you’re into folk music and thoughtful words, this is for you.” Along with her long-time advocacy for fellow singer-songwriters via Good Folk LA, her music comes from the L.A. sensibility while remaining universal. With her ability to channel the intricate twists of the ‘70s folk style, Abby creates something new under the sun. She wrote the songs on Steady for anyone who’s gone through a love affair, or maybe just a deep friendship, and needs a voice to remind them how going through these things brings us to somewhere else, and maybe even freedom. Abby has the music and the words, and she’s also got the heart.

About Hannah Connolly:

Hannah Connolly is a singer-songwriter originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, now living in Los Angeles, California. Her debut album From Where You Are was released in 2020, soon to be followed by her forthcoming second record, Shadowboxing.

Connolly writes the kind of thoughtful, image-rich music that evokes a moment in time, capturing vivid snapshots, many from her own life, with such precision they feel — perhaps paradoxically — universal.

A prolific writer, Connolly regularly journals, writes poetry and, of course, writes songs, ever honing her already crystalline view of the world around her. Pieces of From Where You Are come from some of those writing exercises, and the record grew to become an immersive, deeply moving meditation on how profound loss and its ensuing grief irrevocably change who we are and who we will become.

Connolly, the oldest of three children, has been writing songs since she was a young teenager, a practice she attributes to her love for artists like Patty Griffin — Griffin’s “Rain,” in particular, is a touchstone for Connolly, as her godfather once introduced her to the acclaimed songwriter’s work with a custom-made mix CD when Connolly was younger. Her father, too, is artistic, channeling his talents into sculpting and painting, finding time for his passions in between shifts driving for UPS. Connolly credits her father, who has since retired and plays the guitar and bagpipes (he played the latter on From Where You Are track “Cullen Bay,” in honor of his late son), with introducing her to artists like Tracy Chapman and the Talking Heads, while her mom shared Sheryl Crow and Shania Twain.

With nearly half her life spent as a songwriter, Connolly is unusually seasoned, thanks both to her natural gift for turning life’s more important moments — the good ones and the tough ones— into song and to the experiences that shaped the person she is. Shadowboxing is the work of an astute observer of the human condition, one who no doubt will have many more stories to share for years to come.

See you at the show!