M. Ward to Appear at Napa's Uptown Theatre on 2/6/13

One half of Grammy-nominated duo She & Him as well as one with the talented group of friends collectively know as Monsters Of Folk, M. Ward is a self-effacing artist who has created most of his recorded work in or near his Portland, Oregon home. His latest release, A Wasteland Companion, forms a diary of sorts, of the singer and guitarist's journeys here and abroad.

I can trace all my songs to a specific moment: M. Ward told a New York Times writer. "Sometimes it's as insignificant as a friend of yours saying something, a turn of a phrase. Other times it's like an epiphany moment or just something beautiful that you see."

This latest release was a unique and ambitious undertaking, designed to take him away from his comfort zone. As Ward admits, "Between now and when I made Hold Time there has been a lot of traveling which requires a lot of reckoning with what to leave behind and what to carry - material and otherwise - and thinking about what I want versus what I need, creatively and otherwise. I wanted to get a reflection of that on the album. It was a process of stripping away my security blanket, which is the same four walls I always record in.

Tickets for M. Ward plus Alela Diane are $27. They are on sale now and can be purchased through the theatre website at http://www.uptowntheatrenapa.com, at Ticketmaster (http://www.ticketmaster.com) or at the theatre box office (please call 707.259.0123 ext. 6 for hours). To find out more, please visithttp://www.uptowntheatrenapa.com.