Marty O'Reilly at the Raccoon Motel -- May 1.
Wednesday, May 1, 6 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Praised by Bainbridge Island Review as a singer/songwriter whose "voice is beautiful and distinctive" and whose lyrics are "stark yet lush over gritty electrified guitar," Marty O'Reilly headlines a May 1 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist also lauded by Glide magazine for crafting "music you’ve never heard before, music you can’t compare to anything, music that is its own genre that has only been defined, in sound, by those who play it."
With his touring outfit Marty O'Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra acclaimed for recordings including Pray for Rain, Stereoscope, and 2021's Signal Fires, the bandleader's biography at MartyOReilly.com, states that “"Explaining Marty O’Reilly’s music is like describing a dream. It feels familiar, but at the same time unchartered. His songs sound bluesy but not blues, folk but not folk, soulful but not soul. Marty’s voice is beautiful and unique, his lyrics stark yet lush over gritty electrified guitar, melding beautifully into genre-defying music within the vast definitions of Americana. One can hear an urgency and complexity in the songs, expressing something elemental and perhaps contradictory: love and anger, joy and pain, real and imagined.
"The live performance is at the core of Marty’s projects. On stage, whether accompanied by a band, or alone, he enters a trance and the music is born again as something new every night. It’s what his followers call 'magic.' He goes from raw gospel blues to cinematic epics, from heavy driving grooves to delicately arranged folk songs. Marty leaves the stage out of breath and sweaty, his audience in awe. It's hard to describe, impossible to categorize. Yet people who know the music will try to explain it to you, just as you might struggle to explain a dream in the morning. The details might slip away as you recount them, but the feeling remains.
“'I started playing music as medicine for myself to feel good and digest some melancholy,' Marty leaves off. 'Over time, I realized if music makes me feel good, the people around me who become a part of it will feel good, too. It connects us on the same wavelength. I hope to give the world something real and refreshing.'"
Marty O'Reilly headlines his Davenport engagement on May 1 with additional sets by Daisychain and Todd Day Wait, admission to the 6 p.m. concert is $19.84, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
