When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 16 February 2011
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

** Read our exclusive interview with Ryan on the Hey! Manchester blog **

We’re excited to present our first show at the impressively renovated Castle Hotel on Oldham Street – featuring Ryan Francesconi, who was last in town performing with Joanna Newsom at the Palace Theatre, and Birdengine.

Portland-based Ryan Francesconi‘s stock has soared of late as the main man on Joanna Newsom‘s remarkable triple album Have One On Me. He arranged and played all over that stunning opus, as well as figuring centrally in its live incarnation and the Ys Street Band of Newsom’s previous record. But Francesconi does his own thing too: he is an incredible composer for acoustic guitar, and a recent London show with James Blackshaw confirmed he has that special talent for sitting down and spellbinding any given room with just a six-string.

Parables, the first album under his own name and out in Europe via Drag City distribution, is intended as a deeply personal attempt to realise all compositional potential he could using just the one simple instrument: Ryan recorded the album live and using no overdubs, and his solo acoustic guitar creates an impossibly rich sound that hints at his extensive musical interests – American bluegrass, Baroque lute music, traditional Bulgarian folk (he is a Balkan music scholar) and jazz improvisation. He does it all live.

‘One of the most awe-inspiring musicians I’ve known … This is solo music that sounds like an ensemble … it is nearly impossible to believe he’s picking those strings with one hand’ – Joanna Newsom

‘Recorded live, the music is graceful and green with nods of kinship to everyone from Nick Drake to Herman Hesse to the forests of the Pacific Northwest’ – Coilhouse

Support comes in the form of Birdengine, an artist who recently moved from Brighton to Toulouse, France. Birdengine – aka Lawry Tilbury – has recently supported the likes of Josephine Foster, Herman Dune, Danielson and Shearwater. His new album, The Crooked Mile, is out in early 2011.

Tickets are available from the bar, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm