Tuesday, April 24, 7 p.m.
Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel, 304 East Third Street, Davenport IA
With AllMusic.com calling him “a singer/songwriter with a robust, full-throated wail and knack for pairing Stones-ian hooks and Dylan-esque wordplay,” pop, Americana, and alt-country musician Kyle Craft appears as the Moeller Nights headliner on April 24, his signature sound described by Rolling Stone as a “poetic gumbo of Southern roots, electric folk, and preening glam rock.”
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the 29-year-old Craft was first drawn to music through the Baptist church choir in his early childhood, and was introduced to rock music through a David Bowie compilation that he found in a Kmart. At 15, he started playing the acoustic guitar his grandmother gave him for Christmas, and eventually began recording songs on a laptop he bought in 2007. Craft relocated to Austin, Texas, and then to Portland, and after years of local gigs, he released his first album Dolls of Highland in 2016. Called “a brilliant, rollicking debut” by The Guardian and “a noteworthy, potentially groundbreaking debut” by Paste magazine, the recording's success led to Craft assembling a live band following its release and embarked as the opening act for Drive-by Truckers.
Craft followed Dolls of Highland with the five-track EP Girl Crazy, a collection of singles covering some of his favorite female singers, among them Patti Smith, Patsy Cline, and St. Vincent. And on February 2 of this year, the singer/songwriter released his second album Full Circle Nightmare, a work, as described by NPR, “full of unabashed odes to courtship, confusion, and the timeless power of storytelling in song.” This sophomore outing has generated praise surpassing even Craft's 2016 debut; TheNationWired.net described it as “an incredibly melodic and catchy album,” and PopMatters.com wrote that “Craft manages to accomplish the nearly impossible: It blows away a debut album that was already damn near perfect.”
Kyle Craft plays Davenport's Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel at 7 p.m. on April 24, tickets are $10-15, and more information on the concert is available by visiting MoellerNights.com.
