When: 7pm on Friday 3 March 2023
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re delighted to be working with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff – plus special guest Julie Odell!

After nine critically acclaimed albums, after twenty bandmates, after countless bars and clubs and theatres and festivals, after two full decades, Will Sheff is letting Okkervil River drift out to sea with Nothing Special, a rich and cinematic collection that marks the acclaimed indie songwriter’s first release under his own name. Written through a period of painful loss and deep transformation and recorded with a mix of old friends and new collaborators (including singer/songwriter Christian Lee Hutson, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and Death Cab For Cutie pianist Zac Rae), the record represents more than just a change in name; it’s an act of liberation and self-determination, an emotionally raw reckoning with grief, identity, and hope that blurs the lines between fiction and autobiography, surrealism and humour, stoicism and a deepening spirituality.

Formed in Austin, TX, Okkervil River embraced both frenetic rock and cerebral complexity as bandmates came and went over its twenty year run, but the group’s north star always remained firmly fixed in Sheff’s emotional vocals and striking lyrics, which could turn even the most seemingly mundane observations into profound philosophical revelations. NPR hailed the New Hampshire native’s ‘dazzling’ way with words, while Pitchfork declared him ‘one of indie rock’s most ambitious thinkers,’ and The New York Times raved that he ‘writes like a novelist’.

With Nothing Special, Sheff begins his next and most compelling chapter yet.

Tour support comes from Julie Odell. New Orleans singer-songwriter Julie Odell weaves her visions of folk, poetry, and colourful melodies into a warm and brilliant tapestry. Odell began writing and performing in 2000 while living in Ruston, Louisiana, where she learned to write on an old upright piano. She later moved to New Orleans, where she carved out a space for her song writing and performance within the city’s thriving arts communities and evolved her sound into a dynamic force of nature as a bandleader.

Odell’s songs balance chaotic, stampeding highs with quiet lows, each moment burrowing into uncharted corners of her sonic map. Her anxious bursts reach widescreen climaxes, with lyrics brimming with honesty and imagination, carried by her endlessly versatile and often-haunting voice dancing on the rhythms of every note.

During lockdown she signed to FrenchKiss Records – home of artists such as Les Savy Fav, The Hold Steady and Diet Cig. Julie Odell’s debut album Autumn Eve was released in 2022.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook