Little Hopes at the Raccoon Motel -- September 3.
Thursday, September 3, 6 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Currently traveling the Midwest in support of their debut album Georgia, the Atlanta-based Little headline a September 3 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the nascent Americana and country-rock outfit composed of musicians Sydney Rhame and Brock Shanks.
As stated at LittleHopesMusic.com: “Every song from Little Hopes is a secret passage into their wildly charmed corner of the American South – a timeworn wonderland of honeysuckles and kudzu, porch swings and boxed wine, grandiose thunderstorms and glittering night skies. Since forming the Atlanta-based duo in 2022, singer/songwriters Sydney Rhame and Brock Shanks have created their own enchanted take on Americana/country-rock, suffusing their storytelling with the kind of lived-in detail that lights up all the senses and pulls the listener deep into their lavish world. Mainly recorded in their former home (a hundred-year-old bungalow possibly on the verge of being condemned), Little Hopes’ debut album Georgia bottles up the ragged beauty of their surroundings, ultimately bringing a much-needed magic to songs of loss, longing, and the often-heartbreaking work of chasing your dreams.
“Both Georgia natives (Rhame grew up in Atlanta, Shanks hails from the small town of Rockmart), the two lifelong musicians linked up through a mutual friend back in 2020, when Rhame hired Shanks to film a video for her former solo project. As their relationship evolved from friends to romantic partners, they began writing songs together and discovered an ineffable chemistry – an element that quickly undid the disillusionment they’d endured in past musical experiences. To that end, Rhame got her start writing songs and playing guitar at age seven, later landing a record deal that left her with virtually no artistic control. Meanwhile, Shanks learned to play guitar from his older brother (esteemed session player and Blackberry Smoke member Benji Shanks) and spent years working as a guitar tech in Nashville, then abandoned his musical dreams and moved to Atlanta to focus on photography. 'For a long time I thought the goal was to be incredibly technically proficient so I could jump onto any stage and impress everyone with my playing, but eventually I realized that’s not my purpose,' says Shanks. 'When Sydney and I started playing together, it somehow reignited what we’d both always wanted to do. Right away it felt like coming home.'
“Produced by Little Hopes, mixed by Paul Voran (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Hurray for the Riff Raff), and mastered by Tim Smiley (The Head and The Heart, Houndmouth), Georgia fully harnesses the warm and free-flowing energy they’ve brought to the stage in opening for the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show, John Paul White, and Blackberry Smoke frontman Charlie Starr. In dreaming up the album’s harmony-drenched sound, the duo tapped into their eclectic sensibilities (e.g., Shanks’ affinity for country legends like Hank Williams and Merle Haggard, Rhame’s passion for classic soul and Motown), achieving a certain nostalgic quality even as their songs wander into sonically daring directions. Made with a close-knit lineup of musicians including pedal-steel player Scotty Murray (Stephen Wilson Jr., Kameron Marlowe), drummer Darren Dodd (Anderson East, Maddie Medley), and Benji Shanks on dobro, the 13-song LP opens on its luminous title track: a lovely introduction to their delicately layered songwriting, doubling as a valentine to each other and to their cherished homeland. 'Especially in the summer, Georgia is so lush and beautiful and swampy and vibrant,' says Rhame. 'With the album overall, we wanted to recreate that feeling of being in love in the hot, sweaty South in the absolute peak of summertime.”
Little Hopes perform their Davenport engagement on September 3, admission to the 6 p.m. concert is $13.22, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
