BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:151850@kingstonhappenings.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250919T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250919T190000 DTSTAMP:20250922T150142Z URL:https://kingstonhappenings.org/events/mikaela-davis-assembly/ SUMMARY:Mikaela Davis @ Assembly DESCRIPTION:Five years since her debut album Delivery\, Mikaela Davis has moved away from her hometown of Rochester\, shared the stage with the like s of Bob Weir\, Phil Lesh\, Christian McBride\, Bon Iver\, Lake Street Div e and Circles Around the Sun and entered a new decade. But it’s the ev er-evolving relationships between her closest friends and bandmates that h as propelled the Hudson Valley-based artist onto her new album And Southe rn Star––a truly collaborative effort that ruminates on the choices we make\, and the people we always come back to.\n\nDavis earned her degree in harp performance at the Crane School of Music\, and has molded her clas sical music training to create an original and genre-bending catalog that weaves together 60s pop-soaked melodies\, psychedelia and driving folk roc k. She met her bandmates at pivotal moments in her life––drummer Alex Coté in childhood\, guitarist Cian McCarthy and bassist Shane McCarthy in college\, and steel guitarist Kurt Johnson in her early twenties. It’s the band’s collective step into adulthood that has informed much of And Southern Star’s thematic landscape.\n\nNavigating the periphery of past selves\, the coexistence of isolation and excitement in a new environment and the tension of growing away from what we thought we wanted is tackled with a luscious\, kaleidoscopic grace. And Southern Star picks apart th e reflection we used to recognise\, while trying to build a new one. “I finally feel like this album is more me than anything else that’s been released\,” Davis says\, adding that producing the album along with her four bandmates allowed them to carve out their own ideas\, rather than so meone else’s. Despite playing together for over a decade\, it’s the fi rst time the five-piece have appeared on a full length album together.\n\n The bones of And Southern Star was recorded at Old Soul Studios with Ken ny Siegal\, a person who was an integral part of Davis’ move to the area . The rest was recorded by Cian McCarthy at Horehound Mansion\, adding to the album’s intimate nature. The album was mixed by Mike Fridmann at Tar box Road Studios\, who is lovingly nicknamed as the ‘silent sixth member of the band.’\n\nDavis describes the band’s bond as “meditative and telepathic\,” adding that although many of the songs were written indiv idually across the past few years\, something instantly clicked once they were together. Opener “Cinderella\,” written by Coté and Davis\, begi ns with Davis’ distinctive harp plucks and ethereal vocals. It’s a son ic choice that directly points to Davis’ solo beginnings\, before blosso ming into the textural patchwork of the band’s contributions. The fairyt ale wanderings of the song peel back in the album’s dream-like canopy\, where tracks offer an otherworldly escape from the constraints of reality. \n\nThe album\, however\, doesn’t shy away from the very real\, lingerin g fog of solitude and uncertainty that comes with entering new chapters. “Far From You\,” written by brothers Cian and Shane McCarthy\, introdu ces a stark spotlight\, with ghostly vocals and gentle piano accompanying the weight of loss. “Oh but if I was to meet you in the moonlight\,” D avis laments before the song offers a tentative optimism through a stirrin g\, psychedelic instrumental outro\, written by Davis\, that’s full of b right percussion and driving harp and guitar. This optimism lingers on “ Home in the Country\,” also written by Cian McCarthy\, where rousing har monies and honky-tonk frills encourage us to seek out the blue skies beyon d the heavy clouds.\n\n“Promise” was crafted by Davis and Coté years ago as she was illustrating the pains of a close friend\, but soon found h erself relating it to her own life. Like the evolutionary tint of the albu m’s scenery\, And Southern Star reckons with the changes that creep in to a hairpin bend. “The Pearl” is there to anchor these dizzying shift s\, as steel guitar and glittering harp creates a frame around the core-me mories that shaped us. “You will always feel like that inner child\,” Davis explains. “Sometimes you’ll forget about them but then it hits y ou.”\n\nAnd Southern Star is an album that toes the liminal space of gr owing into ourselves\, while tugging at parts of the past that we’re des perate to keep. Moving forward\, and accepting change\, is one of the most painful parts of renewal and we can often find ourselves stuck in the dif ficulty of it all. Davis\, along with her band\, understands that while th ese bumps may hurt at first\, they’re not forever and just like the mess age of album track “Saturday Morning”:  sometimes “the illusion o f darkness breaks its spell.” ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://kingstonhappenings.org/wp-content/upload s/2025/09/509441162_122169278162562532_2914712796906328391_n.jpg CATEGORIES:@Featured,@Newsletter,Music,Nightlife and entertainment LOCATION:Assembly\, 236 Wall St. 3rd Floor\, KINGSTON\, NY\, 12401\, United States GEO:41.931738;-74.018648 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=236 Wall St. 3rd Floor\, KI NGSTON\, NY\, 12401\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Assembly:ge o:41.931738,-74.018648 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR