Chastity Signs With RED HOUSE RECORDS!
Red House is proud to announce that CHASTITY BROWN has joined their roster. Now based in Minnesota but with roots in the Deep South, Chastity has the "ability to distill Southern blues and plaintive North Country prairie influences into expansive, alluring folk songs" (The Current). She is a powerful new voice with the ability to warm, comfort and challenge. She's been hailed by NPR, CMT, American Songwriter, The London Times, and Paste Magazine as a songwriter to watch and has appeared on UK television on Later... with Jools Holland. With an early 2017 album release in the works, Chastity is joining Ani DiFranco for fall dates through October (scroll down for complete dates); she'll both be opening these shows and also joining DiFranco on stage. Chastity will also perform at the DiFranco's inaugural “BabeFest,” a festival of music, comedy and social activism taking place August 26 at Babeville in Buffalo, New York.
For the tour, Chastity is offering fans a free song, "Man & Gun" - which you can stream or download here (feel free to share): https://soundcloud.com/red-house-records/chastity-brown-man-and-gun
"I wrote "Man & Gun" a few years ago but have only ever shared it live," she says. "It ached when I wrote it. The song has a story that I tried to run away from."
"We were blown away by Chastity's passion and honesty," says Beth Friend, owner of Red House. "We feel she's a unique new voice that will touch a lot of people."
Brown says, "Red House is a label that sees me as an artist and all of their artists as family, which is rare in the music industry. They are as passionate about storytelling as am I. They are brave enough to come on this journey with me."
Chastity, whose mother grew up in a large Irish family in Boston and whose father was an African-American jazz/blues musician, was born in the north-easterly state of New Hampshire, and moved down to Union City in Tennessee when she was seven years old. Growing up near Memphis, she became transfixed by roots music from an early age. When she first began writing music, she struggled with this influence as she was not exposed to many soul musicians writing "folk" music. Growing up in a full Gospel church was where Chastity found her voice and passion, but after being kicked out of seminary college for having a same-sex relationship -- she was studying to be a worship leader -- she found her voice as a songwriter.
As a woman of color, she's as influenced by authors as musicians. she says, "I have always memorialized the civil rights movement, the heroines and heroes that arose to sing the songs, write the rousing speeches, sit at the counters, mobilize in the streets. That with their actions and simply just the way they lived they would declare that black lives are sacred, are beautiful, that they matter."
“It's because of these reasons that I write for and from the marginalized experience,” Chastity says. "For the truly triumphant spirit that's been through some shit, and has fought her/his way through itto maintain a sense of dignity and peace of mind. I write from the cultural influence and the perspective of being a bi-racial woman; of being just as much one thing as I am the other. I write from the feeling of being within yet apart.”
For more information go to http://chastitybrownmusic.com
Praise for Chastity Brown:
"Brown is not just a folk artist, she is a poet, one who pours every ounce of her life and feeling into her music, one who is impossible to ignore.” - CITY PAGES
"Chastity Brown is not a blaxploitation film, but rather a mesmerizing Minnesota-based singer-songwriter whose softly powerful song is about gonna-come changes." - THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"She’s definitely a songwriter and performer to watch.” - CMT
"Classy Country-Soul with a hefty dash of the Blues to send a shiver down your spine." - NO DEPRESSION
“Even on Brown’s glossiest countrypolitan tunes, her voice aches with raw emotion, while her forays into gospel and blues possess a surprisingly accessible melodic sensibility.” - THE ONION
CHASTITY BROWN tour dates
- all dates are supporting Ani DiFranco
Aug 22 Annapolis, MD - Rams Head Tavern
Aug 23 Newton, NJ - Newton Theatre
Aug 24 Provincetown, MA - Provincetown Town Hall
Aug 26 Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall at Babeville
Aug 27 Marietta, NY - Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards
Aug 29 Bethlehem, NH - Colonial Theatre
Aug 30 Brownfield, ME - Stone Mountain Arts Center
Sep 01 Rockport, MA - Shalin Liu Performance Center
Sep 02 Rockport, MA - Shalin Liu Performance Center
Oct 01 Tucson, AZ - The Rialto Theatre
Oct 02 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
Oct 04 Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
Oct 05 Napa, CA - The Uptown Theatre
Oct 07 Berkeley, CA - The UC Theatre Taube Family Music Hall
Oct 08 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
Oct 09 Arcata, CA - John Van Duzer Theatre
Oct 11 Redding, CA - Cascade Theatre
Oct 12 Sacramento, CA - Crest Theatre
Oct 14 Garden City, ID - Revolution Concert House and Event Center
Oct 15 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
Media Contact:
Company:
Red House Records
Contact Name:
Angie Carlson
publicity@redhouserecords.com or 651-644-4161