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The countdown is on for fans of beguiling Californian folk song writer Jessica Pratt and her incredible band, with three very special shows happening across Aotearoa in just under a month. Lyttelton’s own songsmith Ben Woods will be joining the bill both on Monday 9 June at The Piano in Christchurch and Tuesday 10 June at Wellington’s newest venue Meow Nui, while the wonderful Tiny Ruins will perform as a duo on Wednesday 11 June at Auckland’s Bruce Mason Centre. 

Ben Woods has released two solo albums worth of acclaimed and “ornately gloomy songs” (Tony Stamp, RNZ), Put and Dispeller. He has collaborated with everyone from his Lyttelton brethren Marlon Williams to A Handful Of Dust’s Alastair Galbraith, with a uniquely sound drawing comparisons to the likes of Scott Walker, Sparklehorse, and even Tall Dwarfs. The Quietus praised Ben as being “a weirdly accessible, creaky-yet-meticulous marvel,” and we are excited to have him on the bill for the first two shows of the tour.

Performing at Jessica's Auckland show as the stripped back duo of songwriter Hollie Fullbrook and her longtime bandmate Cass Basil, this is a rare opportunity to catch Tiny Ruins during their recording phase, as they complete their follow-up to the masterful 2023 album Ceremony. The Guardian once wrote, “Fullbrook can, at times, sound more like Nick Drake than a thousand sensitive boys,” and we are pinching ourselves that this extraordinary addition to the line-up is happening.
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Travelling on the back of critically acclaimed fourth album Here In The Pitch, these will be a markedly different shows from Jessica to the ones witnessed by early adopters ten years ago when she played intimate solo shows at The Tuning Fork and The Golden Dawn. Returning with her full band to weave her wistful, timeless magic, audiences can expect to be transported back to a lost era when songs worked their way into your heart and under your skin.

‍“Retro pop with the feel of a forgotten classic” - The Guardian

‍Since her self-titled debut landed in 2012, Jessica Pratt has been steadily cultivating a devoted and adoring audience, with 2015’s On Your Own Love Again taking things to new levels, with its cult favourite “hit” Back, Baby later being sampled by Troye Sivan. 2019’s Quiet Signs was the dawn of a new era for Jessica, production wise, with last year’s Here In The Pitch following its natural trajectory, with perfectly crafted vintage studio sounds heard on the likes of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and The Walker Brothers’ records.

Yes, it’s been quite a journey, from relative obscurity to unanimous and feverish praise from the music community. Put simply, there’s nobody quite like Jessica Pratt, and we are thrilled to be presenting these three sure-to-be-extraordinary shows this June. 

‍“Pratt can conjure up a whole world with just her voice and guitar” - Tony Stamp, RNZ

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