Session Americana brings world-class folk & roots music to the Backspace at Nod Hill on May 11

Boston-based roots band Session Americana will perform in Nod Hill's one-of-a-kind event venue, the Backspace, on Wednesday May 11 at 7pm. Special guest Ali McGuirk will join the band with a sultry voice that combines classic soul power with folk songwriter lyricism.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/session-americana-wali-mcguirk-tickets-255196538717?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

SESSION AMERICANA is musicians’ musicians: a cast of top-shelf players, singers, and writers who tour internationally, taking their own songs, plus hundreds more from the American songbook, on the road. Whether you catch Session Americana in a rock hall or on a festival stage, you’ll be a part of the intimate, raucous scene these players built years ago at Toad, the neighborhood bar where it all began in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"It's right there in the name for this ultra-gifted, rotating collective of singers and multi-instrumentalists. And sprawl is a good word when it comes to the Boston-based group's raucous live shows, which were initially built around the community concept of traditional Irish seisiúns. The group, whose members have played with a variety of acts including Patty Griffin, Josh Ritter and the J. Geils Band, expertly blends vintage American roots music styles — from country to jazz to rock — in a rowdy but deft fashion." - Rolling Stone

"Session Americana has developed into a traveling medicine show which eschews snake oil in favour of an ongoing grail quest for the perfect collaborative experience." - Hot Press Ireland

“What started as a modest Sunday-night residency at Toad, a tiny nightspot in Cambridge's Porter Square, has exploded into a ritual … This ensemble elevate the format by dint of their skills as players. Their own songs, as well as those they cover, are at the center of the endeavor, but they also know how to trust the underlying foundation of the song and turn their attentions to one another, listening and playing off whatever transpires ... “— Metroland

ALI MCGUIRK

Blending classic soul power with a folk songwriter lyricism, Ali McGuirk has the rare ability to silence a room with just a few words of a song. With a voice that is raw and sultry and a style rooted in improvisation, her sets are a hypnotic and intimate journey. McGuirk’s debut album, Slow Burn, made rock critic Steve Morse’s “Top Ten albums of 2017” in the Boston Globe and earned her recognition as one of New England’s most compelling artists. Her latest single “That’s the Way I Feel About You” by Bobby Womack is out now on Signature Sounds, to benefit the Sweet Relief Musicians’ Fund. Signature Sounds will release McGuirk’s sophomore album in summer 2022.