ISSUE is pleased to host an evening with three extraordinary singer songwriters: Josephine Foster, Victor Herrero and Ed Askew. Askew plays new songs with his trio, joined at times by Foster and Herrero, who each perform solo sets.
Esteemed for her timeless and arresting voice, Josephine Foster’s rock and folk veiled work has reimagined a disparate spectrum of references, notably German Lieder, children’s music, Tin Pan alley, and the poetry of Emily Dickinson. After relocating to the remote Spanish city of Cádiz, Foster’s attentions turned to the country’s rich musical traditions in two Spanish-language releases with The Victor Herrero Band— Anda Jaleo, a resetting of Garcia Lorca´s songbook (2010) and Perlas (2012). Foster’s most recent solo release, 2013’s I’m a Dreamer (Fire Records) draws on early jazz, bringing vaudevillian piano and tinges of Nashville into the mix.
Victor Herrero was introduced to music in his childhood while living in the famous monastery Franco erected in a mountain valley west of Madrid (El Valle de los Caídos). There he learned to sing Gregorian and Mozarabic chant under the guidance of Benedictine monks. Following his first solo album, Connotaciones para Piano (Sello Autor - SGAE, 2006) as“Victor Cicely”, Herrero met his wife Josephine Foster. He plays lead guitar on her albums This Coming Gladness (Bo’Weavil Recordings, 2008) as well as on her two albums Blood Rushing (Fire Records, 2012) and I´m a Dreamer (Fire Records, 2013). In 2013, Herrero released his third solo album, Estampida, a collection of original songs written in Spanish, on Foehn Records and Windbell Records Japan.
Ed Askew Band has just returned from a enthusiastically received three-week European tour which included sold out shows at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen and the Le Guess Who festival in Utrecht. Best-known for his 1969 album Ask the Unicorn (ESP-Disk) on which he played the 10-stringed tiple— Askew has been making new music in New York for over two decades. Following Little Eyes (DeStijl), Imperfiction (Drag City), and a tour in support of Bill Callahan, Askew released For the World in 2013 on Tin Angel Records. The album was produced by Jerry DeCicca (The Black Swans) and features Marc Ribot, Sharon van Etten, and Mary Lattimore.