Singular Voices: John Grant with Bonny Light Horseman

John Grant’s lush and unflinchingly honest take on pop meets Bonny Light Horseman’s contemporary spin on folk’s traditions for one night of songcraft laid bare. 

Each present brand new works that deeply reflect on the chiaroscuro of humanity; shaped by moments of joy and sorrow, clarity and confusion, goodness and flaw

The Art of The Lie is John Grant’s most opulent, cinematic, luxurious album yet. As the title suggests, the lyrical ingenuity counterweighted under all this considered musical largesse is as dark as its production is epic and bold. Ivor Guest and his cast-list of storied musicians have brought the drama, flecks of intrigue as beguiling as Laurie Anderson or The Art of Noise. John Grant has earthed it in deeply felt humanity and pitch-black realism.

Bonny Light Horseman’s new album, Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free, on the other hand is an ode to the blessed mess of our humanity. Confident and generous, it is an unvarnished offering that puts every feeling and supposed flaw out in the open.

John Grant is an American singer, musician, and songwriter who holds both American and Icelandic citizenship. He first became known as the co-founder, lead singer, pianist, and primary songwriter for The Czars, and has collaborated with musical and artistic acts from Elton John and Tracey Thorn to the BBC's Philharmonic Orchestra. John Grant is the recipient of many awards and accolades, most recently a 5 star live review in The Guardian, who wrote: “John Grant’s songwriting feeds on radical contrasts. He anatomises the ugliest depressive episodes and the bitterest break-ups with exquisite melodies and a chocolatey baritone. He likes his beauty to have jagged edges”.

Over the years, Bonny Light Horseman has accumulated many miles on the collective odometer of life. The band’s core trio – Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman – has amassed an incomparable collected resume. Mitchell is a celebrated solo artist as well as the playwright and songwriter behind the hit Broadway musical Hadestown, which notched eight Tony Awards and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Johnson is best known as the mind behind beloved indie mainstays Fruit Bats, as a longtime collaborator with The Shins, and as a film score composer. And Kaufman is a multi-hyphenate extraordinaire: songwriter, producer, and position player, having recorded and performed with artists ranging from Bob Weir to The War on Drugs to Taylor Swift, Hiss Golden Messenger and The Hold Steady. As a group, Bonny Light Horseman’s debut album received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, and the track "Deep in Love" was nominated for Best American Roots Performance.