Songwriter Vienna Teng re-emerges this fall with her mashup song pair We’ve Got Youher first new music in over a decade- but her fans have been here the whole time. They’ve packed concert venues even in years between releases, crowdfunded an ambitious music video in hours, and joined by the hundreds when she launched her “music x climate action” Patreon in 2022.
That kind of devotion has poured forth since 2002’s Waking Hour, which landed her on NPR’s Weekend Edition, The Late Show with David Letterman, and the top of Amazon’s music charts. Across four more studio albums that followed- the chamber folk of Warm Strangers, the jazz-inflected Dreaming Through the Noise, the indie epic Inland Territory, the bright electro-pop in Aims- Vienna has paid homage to her genre-bending heroes like Paul Simon and Tori Amos, while carving a path all her own. Together with her captivating live performances and thoughtful online presence, her work has built a loyal following across generations and continents.
Vienna’s new mini-EP We’ve Got You reflects the complexity of her life over the past decade: climate change work, community building, parenthood. Two songs, each titled “We’ve Got You,” act like fraternal twins: one an indie-pop tribute to inspiring leaders, the other a chamber-folk paean to unsung caregivers. Played simultaneously, they reveal a new intricate whole: a mashup by design, and a love letter to social movements.
Appropriately, Vienna now also hosts climate action workshops on tour and online, which participants have described as “rocket fuel” and “the perfect antidote to despair.” It’s an exciting new chapter in the ever-evolving love story between an artist and her audience.
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Fresh off the release of their critically acclaimed new album, All is Song, Northern California-based unclassifiable duo Misner & Smith return to Sweetwater. With All is Song they turn in their finest work to date–an album of inspired declarations to the power of music, song, and collaboration. Co-produced with multi-instrumentalist Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club, David Byrne, The Black Crowes), the album is full of technically precise songwriting mirrored with an improvisatory spirit and their live shows are no different. The beauty of their vocal harmonies combined with truly inventive songwriting has made the band one of the most acclaimed acts in the Americana world. Blending elements of that genre with rock, traditional folk, and more pop-leaning ideas, Misner & Smith makes music gloriously nonconforming.
