Tour Dates

08/28 – Chicago,IL – Schuba’s
08/29 – Bloomington IN – The Bishop
08/30 – Cincinnati, OH – MOTR
08/31 – Lexington,KY – The Burl
09/01 – Nashville,TN – The Basement
10/14 – Ft. Collins,CO – Everyday Joe’s
10/15 – Denver,CO Globe Hall
11/11 – Vancouver,BC – Fox Cabaret
11/12 – Seattle,WA – The Crocodile
11/13 – Portland,OR – Mississippi Studios
11/16 – San Francisco,CA – The Chapel
11/18 – Los Angeles,CA – Zebulon
11/19 – Long Beach,CA – The Living Room
11/21 – San Diego,CA -The Casbah
12/04 – Louisville,KY -Zanzabar
12/05 – Memphis,TN Hi – Tone Café
12/08 – Mobile,AL – Merry Widow
12/09 – Gainesville,FL – High Dive
12/10 – Jacksonville,FL – Blue Jay Listening Room
12/11 – Decatur,GA – Eddie’s Attic
12/16 – Greenville, SC-Radio Room

South Carolina’s Valley Maker stopped by the 7th Street Entry on Friday, August 27, to play some songs from his latest album, When the Days Leaves (Frenchkiss Records).

Opening up the show was Chicago-based musician Tenci, on their last appearance with Valley Maker.

The band, led by Jess Shoman, features saxophone player, guitarist Curt Oren, drummer Joseph Farago (of Joey Nebulous), Isabel Reidy (of Izzy True), were both sad and grateful for being part of the tour. Sometime when we see bands near the end of their tour, you get the impression that thay’re exhausted… but not with Tenci. The band seemed like they would be forever happy if they just kept traveling town to town talking about “snakes”.

If you’re wondering about why Shoman chosed the Tenci name for her music project, it’s a tribute to her grandmother’s name Hortencia, shorted to Tenci as a nick name.

Most of their songs, such as “Joy”, on their set were taken from their album My Heart Is An Open Field, which came out in 2020 on Keeled Scales. To fill out their set, Shoman said she was working in some new, unrecorded songs on their set.

Tenci ended their 45-min set with a song called “Two Cups” (at least that’s what I heard).

Starting with “Instrument”, Valley Maker (aka Austin Crane), expressed his happiness to be back on stage. Crane is joined by backup singer Amy Godwin, who sang and harmonized many of the songs appearing on When the Days Leaves (including “Mockingbird”)… so it would make sense to have her on tour.

Crane stated the obvious, “I’m going to play some new songs and some old songs. That’s why you guys came out, right? I don’t know any other songs.”

Being back at the 7th Street Entry reminded Crane of the last time he was in town, playing the same venue, in Dec 2018. At that time, he was in the process of moving from Seattle to South Carolina, so that show held a lot of memory for Crane.

Valley Maker will continues his tour to Chicago (tonight), to support his new album When the Days Leaves.