The acoustic duo Kasey Anderson with special guest Star Anna brings you smoldering alt-country tunes as the perfect soundtrack for a late summer afternoon. Anderson and Anna will perform a free all-ages concert, 12 to 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Aug. 30 on City Hall’s outdoor plaza, 600 Fourth Ave. The show is the last of this year’s Seattle Presents free summer concert series.
Anderson is a Seattle-based singer/songwriter/bandleader who has earned the vocal praise of critics and the renowned likes of Steve Earle, Peter Case and Adam Duritz, whose band Counting Crows just released Anderson’s “Like Teenage Gravity” as the lead single for their latest album Underwater Sunshine. Anderson and his band The Honkies will have just returned to Seattle after performing around the country as the Crows’ designated summer tour opener.
Indie music blog FensePost writes that Anderson is “an artist deeply rooted in what it used to mean to be a songwriter.” No Depression magazine calls him “a versatile and confident songwriter and singer,” while The Onion A/V Club notes that Anderson is “equally at home with introspective ballads as he is with political dirges.”
Special guest Star Anna, rising Seattle alt-country, Americana and rock singer, will perform with Anderson. Born and raised in Ellensberg, Wash., the 26-year-old is currently making moves across the nation. With three albums under her belt, an appearance with rock group Pearl Jam at the 2011 PJ20 festival, and a recording with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McReady, Anna is now preparing for another year of nationwide touring.
The Seattle Times describes Star Anna’s sound as “… a little like whiskey: warm and mellow one moment, wisecracking the next.” Kim Ruehl of The Sound Magazine writes, “Perhaps most strikingly, there is no depth to which Anna’s compositions cannot dive, and no topic is off the table here. The dire passion behind her vocals and the delivery of her lyrics are as earnest as they are unquenchable, which is precisely what makes this album so stirring.”
Seattle Presents concerts are presented by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation, Metropolitan Improvement District and Triamp Group.
