Eleri Ward at the Raccoon Motel -- February 15.
Wednesday, February 15, 7 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Praised by Broadway World as a performer whose “voice is crystalline pure, inhabiting the same effortless soprano world as Judy Collins” alternative-folk and musical-theatre chanteuse Eleri Ward headlines a February 15 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's latest album – the Stephen Sondheim celebration Keep a Tender Distance – inspiring the New York Times to rave, "Ward plumbs this deep well in a way that feels so intuitively right, it's remarkable no one has done it before."
A Chicago native, Ward attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts, and went on to study songwriting for a year at the Berklee College of Music before transferring to the Boston Conservatory, where she majored in musical theater. With the soprano's educational-theatre training including roles in the musicals The Threepenny Opera, Catch Me If You Cam, On the Town, and The Wild Party, Ward went on to appear regionally in The Wizard of Oz and off-Broadway as an understudy in Only Gold, and she also performed as the opening artist for Josh Groban's Harmony Tour. Ward also released a pair of EPs I – 2020's Prism and 2021's Friction – before she found her recent calling: interpreting the music of legendary composer Stephen Sondheim in folk-acoustic arrangements. This led to the release of a pair of critically hailed albums: 2021's A Perfect Little Death and 2022's Keep a Tender Distance, the latter of which was actually recorded in the walk-in closet of Ward's New York City dwelling.
Raving about last year's recording in the New York Times, Rob Weinert-Kendt stated, "The 14 songs on Keep a Tender Distance don’t constitute a cast or concept album, exactly, but there is a kind of emotional logic to their order, from the questioning opener, 'Merrily We Roll Along,' to the resolute closer, 'Move On.' Among the album’s high points is a subtly reimagined 'Another Hundred People' that suggests the original’s vertiginous pace, but is more heartbroken than breakneck, and a stark, haunting take on 'Marry Me a Little,' the song from Company that gives the album its title and may be Sondheim’s quintessential push-me-pull-you expression of unfulfilled desire. While many singers tend to lean into the song’s delusional hope that an easy-to-handle relationship might be just around the corner ('I’m ready now!'), Ward’s voice ... conveys crushing need more than sunny optimism."
Eleri Ward performs her Davenport engagement on February 15, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $15, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
