The Black Swans - free live performance

Sat 1/28 4 PM

Jerry DeCicca and The Black Swans have been winning hearts with their highly unique and beautiful folk sound since the early 2000s. Critically acclaimed by Pitchfork, Dusted, and many others, The Swans are on the road full-time these days — touring over 200 dates a year.

In 2004, the band formed in Columbus, Ohio, where frontman Jerry DeCicca developed his sound and built up a capacious knowledge of popular music. The Black Swans have five records, and their latest, Don’t Blame the Stars, is their 4th LP; their previous records have received high marks from a wide range of music reviewers for Pitchfork, Popmatters, Stylus, the Onion A/V Club, Dusted, Harp and Spin.

Don’t Blame the Stars was recorded live in a garage in Columbus, Ohio in May of 2008. It is a batch of songs about being agnostic and finding meaning in friendships, identity, and music instead of a higher power. Often with spoken word introductions, the album models itself after Willie Nelson’s Yesterday’s Wine, but whereas Willie is speaking to God, Black Swans’ frontman Jerry DeCicca is talking to the listener, or himself, or no one. The making of the album stalled out when Noel Sayre, founding member and violinist, died that July in a swimming accident. The Black Swans returned to this recording several years later with the subjects of the songs taking on a more profound resonance.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is folk rock from the existential capital of the world.

http://blackswansband.tumblr.com/