The Suitcase Junket And Carsie Blanton Bring Indie-Blues And Jazz To Club Helsinki Hudson

Matt Lorenz, the Northampton, Mass.-based indie-blues singer-songwriter who performs under the name The Suitcase Junket, and Carsie Blanton, whose erotically-charged songs find the musical link between vintage jazz and rap, perform at Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, December 28, at 9pm.

The Suitcase Junket is Matt Lorenz: a one-man salvage specialist singing into the hollow of a dumpster guitar, railing on a box of twisted forks and bones, and belting out mountain ballads till the house sings back. Artist, tinkerer, swamp Yankee, one-man band - his is the road-worn voice rising over the grind of a tube-amped dumpster guitar, with wild double pitches of throat singing.

The latest album from The Suitcase Junket, "Mean Dog, Trampoline," is populated by characters in various states of reverie: leaning on jukeboxes, loitering on dance floors, lying on the bottoms of empty swimming pools in the sun. Produced by Steve Berlin (Jackie Greene, Rickie Lee Jones, Leo Kottke) of Los Lobos, "Mean Dog, Trampoline" marks a deliberate departure from the self-recorded, homespun approach of The Suitcase Junket's previous efforts. In creating the album, Lorenz pulled from a fantastically patchwork sonic palette, shaping his songs with elements of jangly folk, fuzzed-out blues, and oddly textured psych-rock. "Mean Dog, Trampoline" rightly preserves The Suitcase Junket's unkempt vitality but ultimately emerges as his most powerfully direct album so far.

As NPR said, "With 1950s amps and his guitar salvaged from a Dumpster - plus an old oversize suitcase he plays with his heel as a bass drum, a baby shoe (his baby shoe) hitting a gas can, a cooking pot, a circular saw blade, and a box of bones and silverware for added percussion - Lorenz creates a sound like no other. All that, and he writes clever, memorable songs, too."

Currently making her home in New Orleans, Carsie Blanton has always been a little unorthodox. Raised on a commune near Luray, Va., Blanton was unschooled until she left home for Oregon at the age of sixteen when she began songwriting. Her lifelong love of jazz, Motown, and classic songwriting led to a strict code for what makes a good song: hooks, humor, sex and soul.

If Soul Coughing and Regina Spektor had a baby, it might Carsie Blanton. With an eclectic range of influences and inspiration that includes Fats Waller, Nina Simone, Dolly Parton, Chance the Rapper and Courtney Barnett, Blanton has created a genre-defying sound that matches her singular style. A prolific creator, Blanton has also gained popularity for her blog, which tackles questions of love, the creative process and sexuality, and her captivating music videos, which celebrate women, dance, and the city of New Orleans.

Blanton's latest album, "Buck Up," is a collection of narratives flecked with grief but told through Carsie's infectious swagger and razor-sharp wit, buoyed by her silvery vocals and propelled by her always swinging, funky rhythms.