Emily and Christian began playing together as The Light Upstairs in 2010. Since the release of their sophomore album “The Hour of the Pearl” in 2012, they have enjoyed a great run in and around their hometown of Austin, TX. They gleefully opened for Grammy-award winner Eric Johnson at a benefit concert in Bastrop, TX and shared the stage with the critically acclaimed “Y La Bamba” of Portland, OR when the dynamic, Latin-inspired septet came to Austin to play at the legendary Cactus Café.
The warm, wonderful staff at the Cactus Café became strong supporters of the band after that show. The club welcomed TLU back several times in the following months and named TLU the Lonestar Beer Artist in Residence in the fall of 2012. Humbled and honored by this recognition, Emily and Christian reveled in their weekly residency gigs at the iconic Austin venue (and the accompanying, complimentary Lonestar Beers).
The band also earned accolades from local radio station KUT, which played several tracks from “The Hour of the Pearl” and became another source of encouraging support for the duo. The NPR affiliate selected the band’s single “Taxi” as the “Song of the Day”, and the station also invited TLU to perform live in Studio 1A, where the band performed their songs “July”, “Taxi” and “The Sun My Heart”. In response to seeing and hearing the band live for the first time, longtime KUT deejay John Aielli described the band as sounding, “like stained glass in a quiet church.”
Following the success of that album, the band began writing and arranging songs for their follow-up effort, “Breathing Out & In”. Recorded at EAR Studio with veteran Austin musician and producer James Stevens (Moonlight Towers), the nine-song album shows the band building on their foundation of acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies to explore a fuller sound and a wider range of musical styles. The crisp rhythmic structures provided by Kevin Lance (drums) and Jimmy McFeeley (bass) run from classic country to “Rumours”-era Fleetwood Mac, while the brief flashes of Wurlitzer from Gavin Tabone would make Jimmy Cliff smile.
The album is available to stream from the “Music” page, and will be available for purchase in fall 2014. The band is thrilled and thankful to be releasing the album with a show at the Cactus Café in September.
We are ecstatic to report that our good friends at the Cactus Cafe have invited us to release our new record, "Breathing Out & In", at their legendary establishment later this summer. We couldn't be more excited, and we hope to see all of you there. The fantastically talented Brian Kremer will open the show, and we are thrilled to share such a historic stage with such a wonderful musician. More news to follow on tickets, vinyl, and other magnificent odds and ends. Yeah!!!
The new TLU album, "Breathing Out & In" is tracked, mixed, mastered, and ready to stream from the music page of our website! It will be officially released and available for purchase in LP, CD and MP3 formats later this summer. YES!!!!
The TLU front lady finally quit being pregnant today, giving birth to a happy, healthy, boisterous shock of curly black hair with a tiny child attached underneath. According to the latest genetic modeling techniques, the hair is expected to grow to a height of 5'11" and graduate Magna Cum Laude from Vassar College before pursuing a successful career in emerging-market analysis for Goldman Sachs. The child is predicted to play the washboard and complete at least six non-consecutive years of formal schooling before dropping out to join the New Riders of the Purple Sage and tour intermittently in several counties of west Texas. For Mama Em, the birth completes an extraordinary run of recent adult life events. Since this time last year, the TLU singer and guitar picker has entered a new decade of life, gotten married, finished grad school, gotten a new job, bought a new house, finished a new record and become a mother. Never one to rest on her laurels, Em has declared that in the next calendar year she will have another six children, become Surgeon General, end sectarian conflict in the Middle East, halt climate change, and reduce bullying by at least 40% across all levels of public education. Against this backdrop of current and future greatness, Christian has woven his own tapestry of achievements in recent months, watching nearly every NBA playoff game and drinking approximately 1,000 beers since early May. Go Spurs! Kawhi Leonard for Lt. Governor!! Or maybe Land Commissioner!!
Breathing Out & In Album Release Party!!!