The Suitcase Junket clips

Paste Magazine video post (April 19, 2017)

Brooklyn Vegan album stream (April 20, 2017)

Pure Volume track premiere (March 6, 2017)

Glide Mag video premiere (February 13, 2017)

American Songwriter photo spread (April 13, 2017)

The Boot track premiere (March 16, 2017)

Dusted Mag positive review (April 28, 2017)

Pop Matters positive review (April 27, 2017)

No Depression positive review (May 14, 2017)

Beale Street Caravan syndicated radio performance (May 10, 2017)

Relix session (May 31, 2017)

“DIRTY, RAW” (PURE VOLUME) THE SUITCASE JUNKET EXTENDS TOUR, EARNS PRAISE, AS ‘PILE DRIVER’ OUT NEXT WEEK ON SIGNATURE SOUNDS

ADDS CLEARWATER, FLOYD, RED WING FESTS AS WELL AS NYC MERCURY LOUNGE AND BOSTON SINCLAIR HEADLINING PLAYS

With his full-length label debut ‘Pile Driver’ (Signature Sounds) out this week, The Suitcase Junket is extending his tour to include tastemaker venues like NYC’s Mercury Lounge and Cambridge, MA’s Sinclair as well as several festivals. He has taped a session for Relix, displaying the homemade pieces of his band, including a baby shoe hitting a gas can and a box of silverware and bones.

Here’s the early word on ‘Pile Driver’ from press and other artists alike:

"Honest, original, and energetic in its blending of garage rock and Americana... The atmosphere of this album maintains a thread of focus, but delivers twelve tracks that each demonstrate his unique capacity to mix a sense of a folk foundation with lo-fi guitar sounds and a found-object feel."
- Magdalene Taylor, Brooklyn Vegan, April 20, 2017

"I peg him as a weird hybrid of Mississippi-born one-man band Doctor Ross and Americana rocker Langhorne Slim. The Suitcase Junket’s 2017 track 'Evangeline' also sounds a bit like something from Tom Waits’ workbook, which isn’t a bad thing. His forthcoming album, Pile Driver, promises to go places even Doctor Ross couldn’t navigate." – Edd Hurt, Nashville Scene, March 30, 2017

"Lorenz's songs are carefully constructed pieces of rock and American... The found percussion increases Lorenz’s idiosyncracy, and enhances that atmosphere... Lorenz’s songs carry themselves, aside from backstory or unique sounds, relying on his storytelling and melodies. The fact that he’s sonically inventive is just a bonus."
- Justin Cober-Lake, Dusted Magazine, April 28, 2017

"Completely original show, songs from the heart, melodies you'll sing for days. Definitely go check out a show." – Chris Vos, The Record Company

"a thoroughly entertaining record... The Suitcase Junket is well worth listening to... This junkyard set up would be the most interesting thing about Lorenz if he didn’t have songwriting chops. Fortunately, Lorenz’s skills are considerable and the list of weird equipment operates mostly as an effective hook to bring in the curious."
-Chris Conaton, Pop Matters, April 27, 2017

"The Suitcase Junket crafts beautiful music out of items found in
trash." Jim Farber, Real Clear Life, May 9, 2017

"Vast talents... dirty, raw." - Pure Volume, March 6, 2017

"Lorenz isn’t your traditional Americana musician, not by a long shot... Would fit in nicely on a playlist alongside artists such as Shovels & Rope and the Drive-By Truckers." - Amy McCarthy, The Boot, March 16, 2017

"This guy's a maniac -- a one-man band, dumpster-guitar-playing maniac. Strumming a salvaged guitar, banging on a box of cutlery, and releasing a dynamite voice, The Suitcase Junket is the real deal -- and one of the most electric souls we've ever seen on stage. 'Sounds like Jack White,' you're thinking. You ain't wrong."
- Fresh Grass Festival (Sept 16-17)

“Matt Lorenz is, as Suitcase Junket, one of the most startlingly original and inventive solo artists I've ever heard.” – Chris Smither

"I couldn't tell you exactly why I find The [Suitcase] Junket so intriguing but I do. Creativity...Musicianship, for sure. Songwriting. Every time I sit through Pile Driver I wonder. Every time, though, I move." 

- Frank Gutch, Jr., No Depression, May 14, 2017

“The Suitcase Junket is one of the natural wonders of the world. Incandescent creativity, in every direction. I have never seen anything like him before, and I expect I never will again. Sui generis. Holy good goddamn, people.” – Peter Mulvey

"Pursuing your musical career as a one-man band takes a high level of charisma and stamina if you want to keep your audience entertained. Luckily, Matt Lorenz possesses both of those things and he puts them to use as the Suitcase Junket. The New England musician is also talented as a craftsman and as a lyricist... Using his makeshift instruments, Lorenz creates electric music that walks the line between rock and roll and Americana." - Glide Mag, February 13, 2017

"Now this is the shit I'm talking about, Jack. The Suitcase Junket is a lo-fi, low-tuned, low-down blast of end-times folk blues. It's crude; it's magnificent. With a stage set-up that resembles a junkyard foley stage or Fred Sanford's living room, The Suitcase Junket — one man band leader Matt Lorenz — incants and intones like a cross between Hound Dog Taylor and a Tuvan throat singer who has swallowed a bird. Take the singer-songwriter idiom, give it a low grade fever and a guitar and this is what you get. Captivating, mesmerizing, and gone ... real gone." – Frank De Blase, Rochester (NY) City Newspaper, January 13, 2016

"Amazing, unique."
- Rege Behe, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, January 11, 2017

“Jaw-dropping... He does it all so well. It’s the biggest sound i’ve ever heard come from a solo performer. Matt is definitely his own thing and it is something. The live experience is pretty, darn unforgettable.”
- Kevin Cubbins, Beale Street Caravan, May 10, 2017

The Suitcase Junket Tour Dates

April 18 – Avalon Theater – Easton, MD

April 19 – Gypsy Sally’s – Washington, D.C.

April 20 – Basin & Main – Honesdale, MD

April 21 – The Shea Theater – Turner Falls, MA

April 27 – Abilene – Rochester, NY

April 28 – The Linda – Albany, NY

April 29 – The Narrows – Fall River, MA

May 3 – Shitty Barn – Spring Green, WI

May 5 – Hi-Fi – Indianapolis, IN

May 8 - The Musical Instrument Museum - Phoenix, AZ (w/ Tift Merritt)

May 10 - Bootleg Front Room - Los Angeles, CA (w/ Tift Merritt)

May 11 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA (w/ Tift Merritt)

May 12 – Vintage Wine Bar – Redding, CA

May 13 - Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR (w/ Tift Merritt)

May 14 - The Triple Door - Seattle, WA (w/ Tift Merritt)

May 16 - The Soiled Dove - Denver, CO (w/ Tift Merritt)

May 18 – The Turf Club – St. Paul, MN

May 19 – House Concert – Des Moines, IA

May 21 – Elk Creek – Milheim, PA

May 24 – The Purple Fiddle – Thomas, WV

May 25 – The McNemar House – Buckhannon, WV

May 26 - Jewel City Jamboree - Huntington, WV

May 28 – Virginia Arts Festival FRINGE – Norfolk, VA

May 31 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA

June 1 – Mercury Lounge – New York, NY

June 3 – Club Helsinki – Hudson, NY

June 10 – Roots on the River – Bellows Falls, VT

June 14 – Café Nine – New Haven, CT

June 16 - Stone Mountain Arts Center - Brownfield, ME               

June 17 - Clearwater Festival  - Croton-On-Hudson, NY

July 2 - Great Blue Heron Music Festival - Sherman, NY  

July 7-9 - Winnipeg Folk Festival – Winnipeg, Canada

July 14 - Red Wing Roots Music Festival  - Mount Solon, VA

July 27-28 – FloydFest – Floyd, VA

September 16-17 – FreshGrass Festival – North Adams, MA

The Grace of Jake trailer

FIRST BOOK ON HISTORY OF NEWPORT FOLK FEST ‘I GOT A SONG’ (JUNE 6 / WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS) MADE POSSIBLE BY NEW INTERVIEWS WITH ORGANIZERS, ARTISTS FROM PETE SEEGER TO JIM JAMES

PASTE PREVIEWS BOOK WITH FEATURE: http://bit.ly/2ojHiYf

READINGS PLANNED FOR RI, NYC

The first full-length book covering the full story of the Newport Folk Festival – I Got A Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival, by Rick Massimo, is enriched with numerous new interviews. Massimo spoke with organizers, musicians, behind-the-scenes figures from every era, encountering some fascinating tales.

For example, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show learned to play the guitar from listening to recordings from Newport Folk Festival growing up so it was a special moment for him with OCMS got to step on stage. “He was very conscious of all the traditional musicians who came up from the south, who different it must’ve felt for them to be playing at Newport for then-college kids. He feels a huge affinity for the people who came before him.”

Much of the theme of the book focuses on the changing views of folk music and how they reflected on each era of the festival. Massimo says, “Pete Seeger was in favor of mixing up genres. He donated his fee from the second festival to bring Canadian fiddler Jean Carignan, which was a precursor to the non-profit model. His vision lives on in the For Pete’s Sake stage.” He spent a day with George Wein and hours on the phone with Jay Sweet following the threads as well from the early years of trad music through to songwriters and now to an expansive interpretation of folk.

Joe Boyd, who was doing sound when Bob Dylan went electric, provided insight into that moment. “He had a lot to say about the progress of the ‘60s festival and what happened after Bob Dylan went electric and the folk boom faded. The effect of folk music morphed rock & roll so that you had lyrics with meaning,” says Massimo.

Pete Yarrow was the hardest interview but he finally did come through enthusiastically. John McCauley spoke about reviving the idea of the after party with concerts in town after the festival ends for the night.

Paste ran a feature on February 22 to preview the arrival of the book: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/02/first-ever-book-on-newport-folk-festival-history.html

Rick Massimo appearances:

April 29 – Brooklyn Folk Festival – Brooklyn, NY
July 27 – Books On The Square – Providence, RI

$24.95 Paperback, 978-0-8195-7703-0

DEAR AMERICA SPECIAL EVENT APRIL 13 FEATURES PERFORMANCES FROM MUSICIANS REGINA SPEKTOR, AMANDA PALMER, ELVIS PERKINS, JOHN FORTE

WRITERS SUSAN MINOT, A.M. HOLES, ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, MARIA POPOVA, MATTHIEU AIKINS TO SPEAK & READ

SPECIAL EVENT BENEFITS PLANNED PARENTHOOD, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, THE TREVOR PROJECT, AND NRDC

Special event Dear America will be held on April 13 with musical performances from GRAMMY-nominee Regina Spektor; musician, author, and performance artist Amanda Palmer; and “dark, delicate” (NY Time) music of Elvis Perkins; and John Forte of the Fugees, and noted soprano Julia Bullock. Also speaking and reading is an array of writers, including poet, short-story writer, novelist and screenwriter and incarceration activist Susan Minot; A.M. Homes; author of The True America: Murder and Mercy in Texas Anand Giridharadas; Brain Pickings podcast mastermind and published writer Maria Popova; and noted war correspondant Matthieu Aikins. The special event benefits Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Trevor Project, and the National Resources Defense Council. Tickets are on sale now: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=7318495

Performer bios:

Regina Spector is Russian-born, American musician Regina Spektor is an internationally known, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter.

Amanda Palmer is a performer, songwriter, and New York Times best selling author. She first came to prominence as the piano-playing songwriting half of the internationally acclaimed punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls.

Elvis Perkins has released three full-length collections of songs, two under his own name ( 'Ash Wednesday' ’07 XL Recordings & 'I Aubade', ’15 MIR) and one under the band name Elvis Perkins in Dearland (’09 XL Recordings). The band with whom he has toured extensively also released the 6 track 'Doomsday EP' in 2009 (XL). In the past two years he has made two film scores:“I am the Pretty Thing the Lives in the House” (Netflix Original, October ’16) and “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” (A24 ’17). A soundtrack album for the latter will be released in 2017. Elvis is currently collaborating with theatre performer/creator Geoff Sobelle (Object Lesson) on his new piece HOME, set to premiere at BAM's Next Wave Festival in December.

Susan Minot is the author of Monkeys, Lust & Other Stories, Folly, Evening, Rapture, a poetry collection Poems 4 A.M. and, most recently, Thirty Girls about children abducted by the LRA in Uganda and how women struggle to cope with trauma. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, O Henry Prize Stories, Granta. New York Times, McSweeney's and Vogue. She wrote the screenplay for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” and the film "Evening" was adapted from her novel.

John Forte is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, filmmaker and activist. First recognized for his work with multi-platinum hip hop group The Fugees, Forté's felony conviction and eventual Presidential commutation cemented Forté's commitment to reforming America's broken criminal justice system.” Forté has released several solo and collaborative projects to-date including, Music Supervisor Brooklyn D.A. (CBS/television), Created inaugural anthem for the Brooklyn Nets (NBA), The Russian Winter (feature film/documentary), Schools Not Prisons Tour.

A.M. Homes is the author of numerous books including, May We Be Forgiven, and The Mistress’s Daughter and teaches at Princeton University.

Anand Giridharadas is a former columnist and correspondent for The New York Times. Most recently, he is the author of The True America: Murder and Mercy in Texas, about a Muslim immigrant’s campaign to spare the life of the Death Row sentenced white supremacist who tried to kill him. The book has been optioned to be directed Kathryn Bigelow. In 2011, he published India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking, about returning to the India his parents left.

Maria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library of Congress archive of culturally valuable materials. She has also written for The New York Times, Wired UK, and The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Fellow.

Julia Bullock is a versatile soprano. This season, she debuts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Baltimore Symphony. She also appears as Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress at The Festival International in Aix-en-Provence and Kitty Oppenheimer in the BBC Symphony’s production and recording of Dr. Atomic, conducted by John Adams. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and San Francisco Symphony.

Ekow Yankah is a law professor whose work focuses on questions of criminal and political theory and punishment. He has written for publications spanning The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Huffington Post, among others and has been a regular commentator on criminal law issues on television and radio including MSNBC, BBC International.

Mark Warren was raised and educated in southeast Texas, where he worked in Democratic politics, until he realized how that whole situation was playing out and relocated to New York City, where he worked in magazines - first Harper's, then Esquire, where he would stay for 28 years, 19 of them as executive editor. In that time, he had the privilege to work with some of the greatest writers ever. And he wrote a little, too.

Matthieu Aikins is the Schell Fellow at the Nation Institute. He has been reporting from South Asia and the Middle East since 2008. His writing has appeared in US, Canadian, British, and French publications such as Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic among others.

Dear America artwork

 Amanda Palmer by Kambriel

 Elvis Perkins by Huger Foote

Regina Spektor by Shervin Lainez

Dear American performer bios

Regina Spector is Russian-born, American musician Regina Spektor is an internationally known, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. 

Susan Minot is the author of Monkeys, Lust & Other Stories, Folly, Evening, Rapture, a poetry collection Poems 4 A.M. and, most recently, Thirty Girls about children abducted by the LRA in Uganda and how women struggle to cope with trauma. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, O Henry Prize Stories, Granta. New York Times, McSweeney's and Vogue.  She wrote the screenplay for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” and the film "Evening" was adapted from her novel.

Amanda Palmer is a performer, songwriter, and New York Times best selling author. She first came to prominence as the piano-playing songwriting half of the internationally acclaimed punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls.

John Forte is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, filmmaker and activist. First recognized for his work with multi-platinum hip hop group The Fugees, Forté's felony conviction and eventual Presidential commutation cemented Forté's commitment to reforming America's broken criminal justice system.” Forté has released several solo and collaborative projects to-date including, Music Supervisor Brooklyn D.A. (CBS/television), Created inaugural anthem for the Brooklyn Nets (NBA), The Russian Winter (feature film/documentary), Schools Not Prisons Tour.

A.M. Homes is the author of numerous books including, May We Be Forgiven, and The Mistress’s Daughter and teaches at Princeton University.

Anand Giridharadas is a former columnist and correspondent for The New York Times. Most recently, he is the author of The True America: Murder and Mercy in Texas, about a Muslim immigrant’s campaign to spare the life of the Death Row sentenced white supremacist who tried to kill him.  The book has been optioned to be directed Kathryn Bigelow.  In 2011, he published India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking, about returning to the India his parents left.

 

Maria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library of Congress archive of culturally valuable materials. She has also written for The New York Times, Wired UK, and The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Fellow. 

 

Julia Bullock is a versatile soprano. This season, she debuts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Baltimore Symphony. She also appears as Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress at The Festival International in Aix-en-Provence and Kitty Oppenheimer in the BBC Symphony’s production and recording of Dr. Atomic, conducted by John Adams.  She has appeared​ as a soloist with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic,​ New World Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and San Francisco Symphony. 

Ekow Yankah is a law professor whose work focuses on questions of criminal and political theory and punishment.  He has written for publications spanning The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Huffington Post, among others and has been a regular commentator on criminal law issues on television and radio including MSNBC, BBC International.

Mark Warren was raised and educated in southeast Texas, where he worked in Democratic politics, until he realized how that whole situation was playing out and relocated to New York City, where he worked in magazines - first Harper's, then Esquire, where he would stay for 28 years, 19 of them as executive editor. In that time, he had the privilege to work with some of the greatest writers ever. And he wrote a little, too.

Matthieu Aikins is the Schell Fellow at the Nation Institute. He has been reporting from South Asia and the Middle East since 2008. His writing has appeared in US, Canadian, British, and French publications such as Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic among others.

Jake La Botz "How I Wish She Was Mine" single

Jake La Botz Melds a Colorful Lifetime Into Gritty, Grooving Early Rock 'n Roll Gold on New Album "Sunnyside"

DRIFTER, ACTOR, BUSKER, FORMER PUNK, DEEP WELLED AMERICANA ARTIST JAKE LA BOTZ READIES FIRST ALBUM IN FOUR YEARS
 

PRODUCER JIMMY SUTTON (POKEY LAFARGE, JD MCPHERSON) HELMED NEW ALBUM 'SUNNYSIDE', OUT MAY 12 ON HI-STYLE RECORDS

 

FROM TATTOO TOURS TO ‘TRUE DETECTIVE’ PART, NASHVILLE-VIA-LA-FROM-CHICAGO ARTIST MELDS COLORFUL LIFETIME INTO GRITTY, GROOVING EARLY ROCK 'N ROLL GOLD

 

"From the first time I heard him playing guitar and singing his songs in a smoky bar on La Brea and Sunset, I became a devoted fan of Jake La Botz. Effortlessly blending authentic blues, rock, country, and gospel, he's created a sound and style that is original and yet instantly familiar. Soulful, personal, painfully funny and sad, he's a true American classic, a gift, and a musical resource that is a joy to be discovered time and time again.”  - Steve Buscemi

 

Cats have nine lives, they say. If that’s true, Jake La Botz must be a cat. A teenage punk, a juvenile delinquent, an actor ( including a part in the classic ‘Ghost World’), a drifter, an apprentice to blues elders growing up in Chicago, self-educated reader, an addict in Los Angeles, a musician in a gospel church, a Buddhist, a meditation teacher, a songwriter touring a circuit of tattoo parlors nationwide. Now, he’s taken all of those experiences and synthesized them with producer Jimmy Sutton (Pokey LaFarge, JD McPherson) for ‘Sunnyside,’ coming May 12 on Hi-Style Records. It’s his first album in four years and finds the new Nashville transplant recounting his past and present atop an irresistible, driving groove. Jimmy Sutton recorded La Botz in his original hometown of Chicago at an all-analog studio, teasing dynamite performances out of the heavily tattoo’d artist.

 

A master storyteller from time spent at the feet of his grandfather and other elders, La Botz infuses his songs with gritty, deeply imagined characters. The album runs along an axis of spirituality on one side and materialism on the other, with La Botz spinning metaphors and subtle dual meanings throughout. Stories include the absurdity of filling one's life with"positivity" (the title track), a portrait of a decrepit hotel with addicts seeking fixes (“The Hotel [Fix Me Now]”), a prisoner searching for a way out (“The Trees in Cali”), a mystical hobo’s description of freedom (“Hobo On a Passenger Train”), a street musician trading art for spare change in the subway (“For Nickels & Dimes”), and the carefree feeling that comes with the arrival of summer (“Feel No Pain”). La Botz has opened for greats like Ray Charles, Dr. John, Mavis Staples, JD McPherson, Etta James, The Blasters, and Tony Joe White.

 

Let some of his peers and media tell it:

 

"Jake La Botz is a creator of dark poetry and haunting song, the kind of music that gets in your bones and rides you for days, a sound and vision only those who've been to the bottom and clawed their way back up can generate. Not everybody will get this music - because not everybody is ready for the truth." -Jerry Stahl (author of Permanent Midnight)

 

“Music from a deep well, a blues with country, folk and sharply observed lyrics... as affecting as a shot of overproof rum on a hot day." -Tattoo Magazine

 

LA Weekly said, “Jake La Botz came up the right-proper, fucking hard way: a teen renegade on the streets of Chicago, dabbling in a mixture of antisocial activities (from car theft to jabbing up his own rudimentary tattoos) and exploring the rich, deep blues tradition as a street singer (with Chi-town legend Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis) and beside Delta-blues originator “Honeyboy” Edwards. That lovely, lurid background forged a musical power that… demonstrates not only an innate mastery of the blues, but also displays what he calls a ‘condensed rock & roll mythology.’