With the Independence Day dustup on Fountain Square a couple of weeks ago and the madness of the recent All-Star Game festivities, worldwide media influx and fancy bunting in the rear-view mirror, it’s time for Cincy to get back into its regular groove. This Tuesday, the Portland, Ore., trio Quiet Life will be making an appearance on Fountain Square as a part of the free American Roots series.
Quiet Life is made up of brothers Ryan (drums) and Sean (vocals/guitar) Spellman, plus guitarist Thor Robert Jensen, who also performs with his own Jazz group and a Beatles/Tom Waits cover band, among many other projects. The group often gets thrown into the Americana genre tag, although that moniker is growing tiresome. Quiet Life is a cool band that makes music that is decidedly rootsy and delightfully airy, more in the vein of The Band/Levon Helm than The Avett Brothers. Quiet Life’s grooves are sweet and original, possibly informed by its geographical transition from New London, Conn., to the bustling Portland music scene. Travel is good for the musical class, as it tends to spark the imagination, fuel creativity and give one an adventure or two to actually write about.
Quiet Life’s latest album is 2014’s Housebroken Man, which was produced by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Shovels & Rope’s Cary Ann Hearst. The group’s fourth full-length features fun and well-rounded, guitar-driven music that serves the song instead of creating a shallow ruckus. The band strikes me as having a sound that could have originated here in Cincy’s rich Roots/Americana music scene, which bodes well for its upcoming local show.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2015.
