Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno in Concert with Dori Freeman
Venue: Floyd Country Store, Floyd
Organizations: Dori Freeman, Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno
Date: Saturday, September 30, 2023
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost:

Description:
The Floyd Country Store presents Vivian Leva & Riley Calcagno in concert with Dori Freeman on Saturday, September 30, 2023.

Vivian Leva’s voice is the sound of living tradition. Raised by parents who absorbed ancient tunes and ballads during visits to legendary old-time musicians, Leva grew up steeped in the Appalachian and country music of her Lexington, VA home. On 2018’s Time Is Everything, her label debut on Free Dirt Records, Leva earns a spot in the lineage of great neo-traditional songwriters like Gillian Welch and Sarah Jarosz. And much like these singers, Leva finds inspiration in the past without being stifled by it.

It is unsurprising that she found an instant musical connection upon meeting Riley Calcagno at a fiddle festival in Washington state. Calcagno, who also spent his formative years immersed in traditional music through his playing with the widely recognized band The Onlies, appears throughout Leva’s debut album, acting as co-producer and adding banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin and harmonies. Whether on recording or in concert, Leva and Calcagno’s vibrant and magnetic harmonies shift effortlessly between archaic ballads, classic country and honky tonk, and the best of contemporary Americana, imbuing each story of love, passing time, and heartbreak with a hearty emotional punch.

It’s rare to find such mature and confident voices in such young artists whose music springs so organically from a grassroots connection to the traditional music community in which they were raised. Since the record’s release Leva and Calcagno have toured as a duo across Canada, the US, and the UK, and received wide critical praise. Rolling Stone Country wrote that Time is Everything “shines a light on the past without giving up its place in the present” and Wide Open Country called the record “a triumph of lyricism and musicianship.” As individuals, they have performed with Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Donna the Buffalo, and Bruce Molsky to name just a few. To this collaboration they bring both the steady hands of experience and a refined taste for American music, yet still a youthful abandon that can’t be forced.

Links:

• http://vivandriley.com/wp/
• https://www.facebook.com/vivandriley

Dori Freeman’s was raised among a family of musicians in the Blue Ridge Mountains and hailed by Rolling Stone as “one of the most authentic vocalists to emerge from the hills of southwestern Virginia in recent years,” she’s a bonafide Appalachian artist, while simultaneously shattering the archetype by empowering the characters in her songs with personal strength and homegrown wisdom. Through this process, she both defies and expands notions of what it means to be from the region.

Dori comes from a family rooted in art and tradition. Her grandfather is an artist and guitar player, and her father, a multi-instrumentalist and music instructor. While her style subscribes to no one genre, the influence of her Appalachian upbringing lies at the core of her music - heard especially in the lulling mountain drawl of her voice. She sings without affect and with striking clarity, delivering each song carefully and earnestly.

Dori's style was shaped by American Roots music: Bluegrass, Rhythm and Blues, and Old Country. Her early introduction to musicians like Doc Watson, The Louvin Brothers, and Peggy Lee have heavily influenced her modern yet timeless sound. Dori learned how to play the guitar at fifteen and began writing her own material a few years later, citing Rufus Wainwright and his haunting melodies and achingly honest lyrics as the spark that inspired her to pen her first song. Her songs often center on heartache and pining; unrequited and sometimes unconventional love common muses for her melodies and lyrics.

Links:

• http://www.dorifreeman.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/dorifreemanmusic
• https://www.instagram.com/dorifreeman/

General admission tickets are $20.00 and reserved seating is $25.00.

To purchase tickets online, visit: https://aftontickets.com/event/buyticket/27x045z9dl.

Doors open at 6:00 PM and the music starts at 7:00 PM.

The Floyd Country Store is located at 206 South Locust St in Floyd, VA.

To view the event flyer, visit: https://i.postimg.cc/HLF8MBPj/image.png.

For more information, visit: https://www.floydcountrystore.com/event/viv-riley-with-dori-freeman-live-2023-09-30 or https://www.facebook.com/floydcountrystore or https://www.instagram.com/thefloydcountrystore/ or call 540-745-4563.