The talented members of Low Lily draw from deep musical traditions when they write and perform their songs. You can hear that depth of commitment and their delight in sharing it when you join us in Pasadena on Saturday evening, March 2.
Low Lily is a Vermont-based American roots trio with some pop flair and thoughtful observations. Compare these two cuts from their latest album for a sense of their range: One Wild World and Could We Ever Be Great.
Two of the musicians who started Low Lily in 2015, Liz Simmons and Flynn Cohen (center and left in the photo above by Zinnia Slegel), recruited Natalie Padilla to join them before making last year’s album. That album, Angels in the Wreckage, has won high praise. “These are musicians at the top of their game…” said Bob Leslie for Fatea Magazine. “The material hooks the listener with its variety while the trademark harmonies and superb playing stamp it definitively with the Low Lily brand. It’s a winner!”
Liz Simmons’ parents were West Coast itinerant musicians who sang traditional songs as her lullabies. Once settled in New England, she studied classical music and then American vernacular music of a century ago. She has been writing and recording songs — solo and with others — for many years, including her climate-change inspired When the Waters Rise.
Flynn Cohen, as a teen, yearned to play guitar like John Renbourne of Pentangle. He moved to England for three years and studied with Renbourne and Davey Graham. That influence still shines in Low Lily’s Bastard Plantagenet Blues and others. Ironically, while in England Cohen became enthralled by American bluegrass. He now plays mandolin, as well as guitar.
Natalie Padilla plays fiddle and banjo. Her mom, a fiddler, got her started early. Padilla was winning Texas swing fiddle contests by age six and keeps getting better. Her sweet, clear voice blends well with the voices of Cohen and Simmons in tight harmonies.
These three together, as Low Lily, blend the drive of bluegrass traditions with the passions of contemporary folk.
Their March 2 concert will be in our cozy Beckman Institute Auditorium on the Caltech campus. That’s inside the rectangular Beckman Institute building at 400 S. Wilson Ave., Pasadena, just west of the larger, round Beckman Auditorium. Free parking is nearby.
Tickets are $25 each, or $10 for Caltech students and anyone age 16 or younger. A $4 service charge per ticket applies to orders online (this link) and by phone (626-395-4652) through the Caltech Ticket Office, which is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. There is no service charge for tickets purchased in person at the ticket office during those hours. It’s in the Keith Spalding Building at 1200 California Blvd.
On March 2, available tickets will be for sale at the door for purchase by cash or check only, without a service charge.
The tickets are all general admission; all 200 seats in Beckman Institute Auditorium put you near the musicians.
On our Pasadena Folk Music Society website, the “Events” section always has information about our upcoming concerts and links to purchase tickets.