Cure for Dreaming was recorded in fall 2015 in Los Angeles, CA, produced and engineered by Paul Bryan and arranged by Jenny and Paul. Featuring musicians such as Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann,) drummer Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ Raising Sand), guitarist Chris Bruce (Meshell Ndgeocello,), guitarist Gerry Leonard (David Bowie) and pedal steel player Greg Leisz (Lucinda Williams, Bon I ver), the album blends a n earnest folk sensibility with experimental flavorings of progressive jazz and sunny sixties and seventies R and B flavored pop along the likes of Minnie Riperton, Fairport Convention, and Shuggie Otis. The songs span a variety of landscapes, from the Venice boardwalk with its “chakra hucksters” to a woman’s solitary spiritual rebirth on the banks of an East Coast river in “Dhyana by the River.” Themes of motherhood, marriage, spirituality and dying enter into the music but through the medium of playful and conversational language. Characters weave in and out of the songs, such as the brooding loner drawn to the masculine expressions of his ancestry of “Part Potawatomi”, or the cheerful artist facing death in “Last Mystery Train.” The music is loose, warm, and memorable, yet pulls off an undercurrent of occasional instrumental and melodic wildness not often found in modern day pop. 

Angela James’ music brings to mind the rich, deep voices of classic country artists like Patsy Cline and Rosanne Cash with the narrative sensibility of more modern female troubadours like Neko Case and Cat Power. Traditional and hip, artful and sometimes avant-garde, her songs suggest a sweet melancholy that aches with both pleasure and pain at the wonder of our shared experience With her first full length record, Way Down Deep (out on 11/1/14), James has taken her nascent career to the next level of craftsmanship by employing some of Chicago’s finest jazz improv players and incorporating them into a bold sonic tapestry that highlights both her refined ear and wide-ranging influences. Her music speaks to new horizons in progressive Americana in a way that feels both indebted and freed from the strictures of time. Accompanied live by her collaborator and husband Jordan Martins, and drummer Charles Rumback, Angela effortlessly bridges the gaps between several genres and comes up with a sound that is both adventurous and reverential while creating a warm palette for her thoughtful lyricism. Born and raised in Eastern TN, with sojourns in Mississippi and Brazil, Angela James calls Chicago home.

All proceeds of the show benefit Heshima Kenya