Raye Zaragoza with Aysanabee at the Tennessee Theatre January 30, 2024 at 7:30pm.

Special student price of $20!

Part of the Tennessee Theatre's Pass the Mic series, the Tennessee Theatre will feature Raye Zaragoza and Aysanabee on stage. Raye Zaragoza's Hold That Spirit is an album rooted in this realization. The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has always made political folk music that is informed by her identity as a woman of mixed Indigenous, Asian and Latina heritage. She gained recognition in 2016 with "In The River," which was written to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. When she performed a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR, she spoke and sang about making live music more economically accessible. And, she currently writes the music for Netflix's Spirit Rangers, a show featuring an all Native American writers room and cast.

A feminist undercurrent unifies these songs. Meditative folk ballad "Strong Woman" was written as a commission for a friend's daughter, but also more broadly celebrates a world led and built by women. "Not A Monster" candidly addresses Zaragoza's eating disorder. And "Garden" grapples with all the unfair expectations placed on women as they age.

In less than a year, Aysanabee has gone from releasing his debut album, the powerful interweaving of generations, memory, and storytelling of Watin, to arriving centre stage in his career. From making history as the first Indigenous artist to reach #1 on Canadian Alternative Rock Radio, to being shortlisted and performing at the Polaris Music Prize Gala, Aysanabee has travelled an impressive distance from unsigned artist to internationally touring, award-winning breakout. Among his many accomplishments, Aysanabee was nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year, won 3 Indigenous Music Awards, a Jim Beam Indie Award, and a Folk Music Ontario Award for Recording Artist of the Year.

Here and Now, Aysanabee’s new EP, shows the artist embarking on a different path. From the generational work of preserving and transforming his grandfather’s stories, Aysanabee moves in a new direction, towards his own experiences of love’s end and his process of unflinching self-examination. With high voltage production, Aysanabee shifts Watin’s finger-picked acoustic foundation into soundscape waves that carry his voice forward. With its sharper edges and towering sound, Here and Now is shot through with a feeling of decisiveness, of acceptance. It’s the sound of letting go.