100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 46: Tobias The Owl
Please check out Verity Credit Union, our great partner in the 100 Bands in 100 Days local music showcase.
Music fans of the Pacific Northwest, get ready for our fifth annual year-end daily local music showcase, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’re showcasing a new band or artist you have to know about, once again presented by Verity Credit Union.
Make sure you are checking the #100Bands100Days hashtag on Twitter on a daily basis to stay on top of all the bands featured and be sure to follow Verity and NW_Music_Scene there. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored northwest-based musician and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the spotlight yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s featured band is Tobias The Owl.
About the band:
Tobias the Owl is an award winning musical collective in the Pacific Northwest, with an exciting new journey on the heels of their new album, A Safe Harbor for Wayward Echoes, their most acclaimed and widely shared effort to date.
The new album features Ben Harper, Laura Veirs, Inara George of the Bird and the Bee, and many other Grammy-winning artists, including producer, Sheldon Gomberg. The album has already been streamed and downloaded over 25,000 times. And on the Billboard AAA chart, the album currently sits at #106 in the nation.
A Safe Harbor for Wayward Echoes is a concept album based on singer songwriter Elijah Dhavvan’s journey as a cancer survivor, but the album’s themes of being lost and finding your way have resonated with a wide audience.
We’ve grown quite fond of the band over the last few years and in our review of the new album here’s some of what we had to say:
Album opener, “All the Way Home” is carried by a whirl of organ, stretched electric guitar, and dampened percussion. Follow up “Let Go” is a winning pop jingle, ripened sweet by a generous chorus, sticky drumming, and green light guitars. Guest, Laura Veirs’s spot on harmonies bathe “Deep River City” in a gentle pass through the skyline’s glow, but “Open Sea” brings a wandering, Dhavvan into focus. The sustained guitar, parallel organ, and percussive snare stride own a chugging, black smoke call. When Dhavvan sings out, “soooouul” it feels like the train crests the foothills and is staring ocean deep.
Of the 10 songs presented on Echoes, Dhavvan wrote 160 more. Lyrically, Dhavvan toes the line between humble, journalistic murmurings and cryptic authenticity. His soft-rock troubadour edge may get lumped into an adult-contemporary imprint, but Echoes succeeds not in what’s being said, but how aerodynamically charged the surrounding music engulfs Dhavvan. The atmospheric ambience and rolling snare on “Spirals of the Dawn” and flourished strings on “Our Katie Waits” tell as much as the words themselves.
If Dhavvan sets the album in motion, its presence is reciprocated by Jonah Tolchin’s electric guitar and Andrew Joslyn’s violin. Tolchin serves an appetizer of reckless abandonment on “Holy Man” with Joslyn’s violin elevating Dhavvan’s lived in sound. Certain to be a crowd pleaser, the song’s scaffold vocals, lifting percussion, and communal character bust the rafters.
Don’t take our word for it though, have a listen to them HERE but we are nearly 100% sure you’ll become a huge fan like we are after listening.
Listen:
Catch them live:
Tobias The Owl will be playing Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle on November 10, 2018. Get more details and ticket info HERE.
Watch:
Find the band at:
To view all of the wonderful northwest artists we have featured this year, click HERE.
A huge shoutout to Verity Credit Union for doing so much for the music community and for being such a great partner.
