After a long absence the Treehouse Café will welcome back Amy LaVere, performing “country music with teeth,” at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 23.
Tickets, $15 for reserved table seating, are one sale at www.treehousebainbridge.com. The show is for those 21-and-older only.
LaVere is, as Spin Magazine said, “Part winsome alt-country gal, and part avenging angel.” She keeps going deeper, and getting better. Crossing genres like Americana, country, folk, swing and jazz, the vocalist puts her sultry soulful stamp on everything she does with relentless integrity and her exquisite voice and musicianship.
She was born Amy Fant in a small town near the border of Texas and Louisiana, to parents who were part-time musicians. Her family’s nomadic life led LaVere to live in 13 different places before she finished high school, and when her folks finally settled in Detroit, she rejected the classic country sounds in favor of punk rock.
LaVere played drums and sang in a Motor City punk band, but after graduating she grew restless and headed back to Louisiana, wound up in Nashville and met Gabe Kudela, who played with the country-punk band The Legendary Shack Shakers.
The two married and LaVere learned to play upright bass, and the couple began playing nightclubs. They pulled up stakes and relocated to Memphis in 1999.
Four years later they divorced, but she had developed a belated appreciation for classic country, blues and jazz sounds that by then influenced her performing style.
With the help of friends Paul Buchignani and Jason Freeman, LaVere began performing as a solo act, and extensive gigging in the South caught the attention of Memphis-based independent label Archer Records. The record company released her striking debut album, “This World Is Not My Home.”
When not busy with her musical career, LaVere has also dabbled in acting, playing rockabilly filly Wanda Jackson in the film “Walk the Line,” and later appearing in Craig Brewer’s “Black Snake Moan.”
Her music has been featured on diverse media outlets that include Conan O’Brien, NPR, KBCS and KEXP.
