Life Like Water, featuring Matt Smith on pedal steel, dobro and electric guitar is set to perform at Hawk & Hawthorne on Saturday, August 24. Richmond, Virginia’s Høly River will also perform.
Life Like Water is the creation of multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, David Matters. It was initially started as a way for him to process his turbulent past and navigate an uncertain future, but it has since evolved into a communal effort to celebrate the human experience.
With a focus on hypnotic rhythms, heartfelt lyrics, and melodies that contain flavors of Africa, Ireland and the Middle East, the music of this eclectic ensemble is sure to uplift and inspire.
The concert will also feature the music of Høly River. The music of Høly River carries the message of humanity’s need for reconnection with the earth. Mystically political and wholeheartedly grassroots, this DIY band finds themselves playing on large festival stages as well as backyard fire pits of intentional communities around the world.
Høly River was founded by multi-instrumentalists Laney Sullivan and Jameson Price. Fusing together the pulse of drone pop, worldly instrumentation, this experimental music would best be described as a landscape, as a biome all its own. This musical phenomenon has come to be known as “Earth folk,” a type of music inspired thematically by the natural environment: flora, fauna, soil, stars, and the human experience. From harmonium engulfed melodies to mouth-harp stomp grass, Høly River taps into an embodied and innate celebration of internal and external worlds, attempting to bring them closer together with each beat. On record or in-person, a listener is entranced in the soaring vocal ballads bathed in the moonlight of dance beats and folk-inspired roots.
Before the evening performance, David Matters and Valerie Scott will also present The Creative Body: Legs and Feet, an embodied anatomy journey accompanied by multi-instrumental, live-looped melodies and rhythms.
“Come explore the form and function of our legs and feet, the symbolic meaning of these body parts, and how creative play can deepen our connection to our physical and expressive selves.”