Jeffrey Foucault * Erik Koskinen

In two decades on the road Jeffrey Foucault has become one of the most distinctive voices in American music, refining a sound instantly recognizable for its simplicity and emotional power, a decidedly Midwestern amalgam of blues, country, rock’n’roll, and folk. He’s built a brick-and-mortar international touring career on multiple studio albums, countless miles, and general critical acclaim, being lauded for “Stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest” (The New Yorker), and described as “Quietly brilliant” (The Irish Times), while catching the ear of everyone from Van Dyke Parks to Greil Marcus, to Don Henley, who regularly covers Foucault in his live set.

NEW YORK TIMES:
“Immaculately tailored… Sometimes his songs run right up to the edge of the grandiose and hold still, and that’s when he’s best… Close to perfection”

GREIL MARCUS:
“A country plea, a blues reach for facts beyond sound, the sense of immediate doom that only a slide guitar can make in its hesitations, its sense of suspension that seems to hold everything a step behind where it ought to be… scary in the bend of the first note”

DON HENLEY:
“Jeffrey Foucault… clocks modern culture about as good as I’ve ever heard anybody clock it”

THE NEW YORKER:
“Jeffrey Foucault sings stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest”

MOJO:
“Songwriting brilliance”

THE IRISH TIMES:
“Quietly brilliant”

UNCUT:
“The music of Wisconsin native Foucault is the kind so many aspire to but never attain: beat-up troubadour folk whittled to dolorous perfection”

Erik Koskinen is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer whose music is not categorized by sub-genres. Stylistically, he is on his own while heavily influenced by American roots music. The rhythmic integrity and musical tone is as important as the lyrical content and the artistic intent. Koskinen has reverently entered the anthology of uniquely crafted wry songs with the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ry Cooder while speaking as plainly as your neighbor. The Minneapolis Star Tribune calls Koskinen “the real deal” and “The best country songwriter in Minnesota.”

GLIDE MAGAZINE:
“In the vein of his close friend, Jeffrey Foucault, Koskinen’s songs are stripped-down, breathe the Midwestern air, paint character portraits, and have a deceptively haunting quality.”

AMERICAN ROOTS UK:
“…melodies that stay with the listener long after the last notes of the final track have died away.”

“Erik is very much his own man stylistically. Sub-genres are no use at all in describing Erik’s music, and perhaps a new genre is more appropriate.”

MINNPOST:
“one of anti-country music’s up-and-coming stars.”

MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE:
“as dazzling a guitarist as he is an evocative storytelling songwriter.”