The Welcome Wagon (Reverend Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique) will be performing an extremely rare live show at Shoreditch Church (St Leonards), Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JN on September 1st and it's £8/£6 on the door. The previous day they're playing Greenbelt Festival, Cheltenham and very unlikely to be in the UK again for a long, long, long time!
Here is the map location - St Leonards Shoreditch
And a bit of history about St Leonards from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Leonard's,_Shoreditch
Taken from 'Welcome To The Welcome Wagon' their debut for Asthmatic Kitty Records and recorded, arranged and produced by Sufjan Stevens has the track 'Sold! To The Nice Rich Man' released here digitally on Sept 14th. You can hear this here.
'Welcome To The Welcome Wagon' unveils a ramshackle sing-a-long enterprise of a Presbyterian pastor (the Rev. Vito Aiuto) and his wife (Monique) wrestling out the influences of folk music, religion, popular culture, and church tradition in a collection of songs that is as soulful as it is good-humored. This gorgeous brew is reflected in the group's repertoire, which unflinchingly consolidates a vast history of "sacred" song traditions: from old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground), to charismatic catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and even into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths). Armed with a particleboard parlor guitar and a plastic glockenspiel, the Rev. Vito and his wife Monique stumble their way through an arresting catalogue of hymns—hallowed and unholy—with the simple desire to know their Maker—and to know each other—more intimately.
The Welcome Wagon observe a musical tradition conjoined with marriage that pays tribute to a long line of iconic couples—Johnny Cash and June Carter, Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina, Captain and Tennille, and more recently, The White Stripes. The Welcome Wagon also reside in the fussy category called "church music," where family and theology have long accompanied the musical deeds of married part ners: the original Carter Family, Bill and Gloria Gaither, and Mom and Pop Winans are a few examples. You'd be hard pressed to call The Welcome Wagon a groundbreaking supplement to the genre of gospel duos. They are not flashy performers. Their hymns are modest, understated, and idiosyncratic shrugs compared to the furious pathos of Blind Willie Johnson and his wife Willie B., or the bluesy emotion of The Consolers. But the apparent lack of hyperbole and didacticism, the absence of rhetorical drama and religious fervor are what make the music of The Welcome Wagon so fascinating. it doesn't impose its religious pitch on the listener with hyped up garnishes of sound; it merely conveys the deepest of convictions with the deadpan verdict of a surgeon.
—Sufjan Stevens
Artist page for more information here - The Welcome Wagon
Myspace site -The Welcome Wagon on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
Here is the map location - St Leonards Shoreditch
And a bit of history about St Leonards from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Leonard's,_Shoreditch
Taken from 'Welcome To The Welcome Wagon' their debut for Asthmatic Kitty Records and recorded, arranged and produced by Sufjan Stevens has the track 'Sold! To The Nice Rich Man' released here digitally on Sept 14th. You can hear this here.
'Welcome To The Welcome Wagon' unveils a ramshackle sing-a-long enterprise of a Presbyterian pastor (the Rev. Vito Aiuto) and his wife (Monique) wrestling out the influences of folk music, religion, popular culture, and church tradition in a collection of songs that is as soulful as it is good-humored. This gorgeous brew is reflected in the group's repertoire, which unflinchingly consolidates a vast history of "sacred" song traditions: from old Testament psalms, to Presbyterian Psalters of the 17th century, to iconoclastic pop innovators of the 1960s (The Velvet Underground), to charismatic catholics of the 1970s (Lenny Smith), and even into the melancholy lovelorn pop of the 1980s (The Smiths). Armed with a particleboard parlor guitar and a plastic glockenspiel, the Rev. Vito and his wife Monique stumble their way through an arresting catalogue of hymns—hallowed and unholy—with the simple desire to know their Maker—and to know each other—more intimately.
The Welcome Wagon observe a musical tradition conjoined with marriage that pays tribute to a long line of iconic couples—Johnny Cash and June Carter, Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina, Captain and Tennille, and more recently, The White Stripes. The Welcome Wagon also reside in the fussy category called "church music," where family and theology have long accompanied the musical deeds of married part ners: the original Carter Family, Bill and Gloria Gaither, and Mom and Pop Winans are a few examples. You'd be hard pressed to call The Welcome Wagon a groundbreaking supplement to the genre of gospel duos. They are not flashy performers. Their hymns are modest, understated, and idiosyncratic shrugs compared to the furious pathos of Blind Willie Johnson and his wife Willie B., or the bluesy emotion of The Consolers. But the apparent lack of hyperbole and didacticism, the absence of rhetorical drama and religious fervor are what make the music of The Welcome Wagon so fascinating. it doesn't impose its religious pitch on the listener with hyped up garnishes of sound; it merely conveys the deepest of convictions with the deadpan verdict of a surgeon.
—Sufjan Stevens
Artist page for more information here - The Welcome Wagon
Myspace site -The Welcome Wagon on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
