New York, NY (Top40 Charts) In support of her new LP Cosmic Wink (Mexican Summer), Jess Williamson has confirmed a tour of the U.S. The dates kick off July 22 in Los Angeles, CA at Zebulon and conclude August 13 at the Soda Bar in San Diego, CA. Along the way the tour hits Dallas,
Boston and
Chicago - the full list of dates is below and you can purchase tickets here.
Jess Williamson was recently included in Rolling Stone's "10 Artists You Need to Know Now" feature. Cosmic Wink as written in the midst of a series of transitions in Jess' personal life. In 2016, after living in Austin on and off for a decade, she left her home state of
Texas for California. Deeply inspired by the move to LA and the bliss of a new love, she rented a backhouse from a friend and started writing the songs that eventually became the LP. As she wrote, her beloved dog Frankie began going gray with old age.
All three of these seemingly dissimilar streams intersected to give Cosmic Wink a unified sound and feel. The openness of L.A. - and confronting the downbeat nature of her older songs while performing to hushed European crowds - challenged her supposition that "heartache, depression, and sadness" were "the only way to make interesting music," as she puts it. Throughout the album's nine songs, Williamson's love spills out of her easily, readily, in poetic exhalations.
"Jess Williamson, a songwriter from Austin, wafts her voice into a hypnotic waltz that floats on slow guitar picking and a lingering drone, eventually gathering a ghostly choir around her, never puncturing the enigma." The New York Times on "Mama Proud"
"Free of sappiness or the numbing effect of anything trite, Williamson's words are the real deal." Paste (8.2)
"a stunning and transcendent composition." Uproxx on "Mama Proud"
"a lowkey gorgeous composition" Stereogum on "I See The White"
"('Wild Rain' is a ) haunting, affectingly visceral gothic-folk jewel." Blackbook Magazine
"Sultry, compelling and ever so slightly spooked, Cosmic Wink flickers and flashes like a series of time-lapse landscape photographs, but the place it documents is the heart." Uncut
Jess Williamson on tour:
July 22 - Los Angeles - Zebulon
July 23 - Phoenix, AZ - LBX*
July 24 - El Paso, TX - Monarch
July 26 - Dallas, TX - Ruins
July 27 - Austin, TX - TBD
July 28 - Lafayette, LA - Artmosphere
July 30 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
July 31 - Raleigh, NC - Neptune's Parlour
August 2 - Boston, MA -
Middle East Upstairs
August 4 - New York, NY - Baby's All Right
August 6 - Detroit, MI - El Club
August 8 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
August 11 - Albuquerque, NM - Sister Bar
August 13 - San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
*Supporting Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick
