The Ballroom Thieves Go Full Political Americana With New Song 'Tenebrist'

The Ballroom Thieves - made up of lead singer and guitarist Martin Earley, cellist Calin Peters and percussionist Devin Mauch - offer the first peek into their socially - and politically-driven collection of songs that will be released in 2020 (details TBA, album out via Nettwerk Records). The Thieves work a special concoction of powerful and harmonious music by combining blues, folk, and rock and roll, while never shying away from topics and ideas they are passionate about.

"We write about the things that are important to us and right now, it's impossible to ignore the inadequate state of the world," says Earley. "We just wrote the songs that came out of us and they happened to be largely political." He continues, "In an ideal world, we would never write a political record-there'd be nothing extreme enough to warrant it."

Peters recently spoke with DittyTV about the new song saying: "The only hope and positivity found in this song is the upbeat music that supports important statements from a white man's perspective such as 'I am the color of forgiveness, I am the shape of what is wrong.' Tenebrism refers to a painting technique using chiaroscuro, where dark and light are in extreme contrast with one another. While the illuminated part of the painting is clearly the subject, it's the darkness that becomes the overwhelming focus of the entire picture. Today in this country, knowing what we know, and having the money and power we have, we are all 'tenebrists'. We muddy the water to make it seem less shallow when we actually need to look at our current state for what it really is and make the changes we so desperately need to make."

The Ballroom Thieves will perform at the prestigious Americana Music Festival in Nashville on Thursday, Sept 12 at Exit/In at 9 pm and again on Saturday, Sept 14 at Little Harpeth Brewing for the Berklee Party (exact set time TBA). The Thieves will head to the West Coast this fall for several tour dates with Caamp.

Listen to "Tenebrist" below.

Tour Dates

8.31 || Killington, VT || Cooler in the Mountains Concert Series

9.05 || Concord, NH || Bank of New Hampshire Stage

9.12 || Nashville, TN || Americana Conference at EXIT/IN

9.14 || Nashville, TN || Americana Conference at Little Harpeth Brewing

10.12 || Marshfield, MA || Levitate's Flannel Jam ^

10.13 || Portland, ME || Levitate's Flannel Jam ^

10.14 || Nantucket, MA || Levitate's Flannel Jam ^

10.15 || Phoenix, AZ || Crescent Ballroom *

10.16 || Los Angeles, CA || The Fonda *

10.18 || Santa Ana, CA || The Observatory *

10.19 || Solana Beach, CA || Belly Up Tavern *

10.21 || San Francisco, CA || The Fillmore *

10.23 || Portland, OR || Wonder Ballroom *

10.24 || Seattle, WA || The Showbox *

^ w/ Trampled By Turtles, Liz Cooper & The Stampede

* w/ Caamp

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