Kitchen Dwellers at the Raccoon Motel -- April 12.

Wednesday, April 12, 7 p.m.

Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA

With Grateful Web praising their 2022 studio album Wise River and the musicians' "heavy hitting and hard driving style," the progressive bluegrass artists of Kitchen Dwellers headline an April 12 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artists inspiring Holler Country to rave, "Wise River drives home just how powerful a band they've become, with songs like 'Smokestack', 'Paradise Alley' and the title track showcasing their fluency with traditional arrangements."

Composed of Torrin Daniels on banjo, Shawn Swain on mandolin, Joe Funk on upright bass, and Max Davies on acoustic guitar, Kitchen Dwellers formed in the fall of 2010 when its original members were attending Montana State University and embarked on a series of jam sessions held in the kitchen of Swain's house - hence their band moniker. By year's end, these kitchen jam sessions expanded into the group playing open mics at local bars and booking gigs elsewhere in Montana and the mountain states of the Western U.S. In the early stages of the band, original member Kyle Shelstad served as the group's primary songwriter, with a handful of contributions from Daniels and Swain. These songs were eventually compiled into the band's self-titled studio-album debut in 2013, though Shelstad subsequently left the group to form the Minneapolis-based folk ensemble Barbaro. He was soon replaced with Davies, and employing songs written by Daniels and Swain along with contributions from Funk and Kitchen Dwellers' new member, the quartet began to create and arrange a new catalogue of music for the band to perform live.

The band subsequently signed to Madison House Inc. as their booking agent and began extensive touring on a national level. This rebuilding phase of the band culminated in the release of the band's second record, 2017's Ghost In the Bottle, which featured a slew of special guests on a number of tracks, among them Twiddle's Mihali Savoulidis on electric guitar, Little Feat’s Bill Payne on piano, Railroad Earth's Tim Carbone on fiddle, and Greensky Bluegrass’ Anders Beck on dobro. Ghost In the Bottle reached number 17 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts, and its success led to the band touring nationally, playing shows at historic venues such as the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York and the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. The band continued to write songs during the course of these national tours which culminated in third studio album Muir Maid, a 2019 release that reached number nine on the Billboard Bluegrass charts. Since then, Kitchen Dwellers have also released a trio of live recordings and last year's Wise River, a work that Goldmine said "might be their most personal expression of 'home' to date."

Kitchen Dwellers perform their Davenport engagement on April 12 with an opening set by Sicard Hollow, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $25, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.

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