WYOmericana Caravan Tour

Described as “a traveling concert circus of sorts” by The New York Times, the award-winning WYOmericana Caravan Tour is a rolling representation of Wyoming’s burgeoning songwriter scene with multiple musical acts “caravanning” down the road together. The idea is to propel Wyoming’s original music scene as an artist collective, exhibiting to the world that there’s a creative spark in the USA’s least populated state.

• Aaron Davis & the Mystery Machine (Hoback) Chiefly known as co-founder of longtime alt-folkrock band Screen Door Porch, Aaron Davis is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, vocalist and producer that works the lesser-worn corners of the American musical fabric through an unconventional lens. Slide banjo? Detuned guitar made of metal? You bet. From "searing slide guitar" (Country Weekly) echoing gritty Southern blues à la Duane Allman, to a patchwork of story folk and acoustic roots, pensive alt-country, and improvisational 70s-influenced rock, Aaron has been described as a “truly phenomenal songwriter” (Americana UK) with “a particularly interesting approach that mixes poetry, groove and roughness” (Lonestar Time). Davis was awarded a Performing Arts Music Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts and Wyoming Arts Council in 2020—a merit-based honor for an artist’s work in their field. The texture experts of The Mystery Machine—alternating drummers Jason Baggett and Liam O’Neill with 3-part harmony sung by bassist David Bundy and pianist/organist/trombonist Mike Patton—combine for a dynamic stage show and the foundation of Davis’ ninth album, The Meander.
  
  
• Jason Tyler Burton (Pinedale) writes songs for rural people and rural communities. And he does so with humor and a deft yet delicate hand. He is careful with the places and people he writes about, telling complicated truths in straightforward folk story telling. His album, Kentuckian (2019), uses his upbringing in the Bluegrass State as the setting for stories that deal in universal themes. The album has been called “working class country roots from a gifted songwriter” (Americana UK), “a combination of Jason Isbell and Bob Dylan” (If It’s Too Loud) and “music paired with the songwriting is nothing short of an artistic masterpiece” (The Oklahoma Reviews). His most recent albums of rural Americana—Lost Behind the Ranges (2017) and Headwaters (2014)—reflect his journey from Kentucky to Wyoming. Burton is also known for his work with bands The Union City All-Stars and 6 Foot 2. Burton (vocals/guitar/mandolin/fiddle) will predominantly be performing solo.
  
  
• Shawn Hess (Laramie) crawled out of a western noir film and into your heart with songs that stand firmly with one foot in the oldest roots of western music and folk and the other in a modern sensibility for narrative and rhyme. His debut solo album, World Away (2019), was explained as “treasures like this…a pretty broken-hearted collection of songs for sure, but still so damn enjoyable…excellent country songwriting” (One Chord or Another). Hess is known over the last decade in the Laramie area as a member of Beatgrass, Elk Tongue, 10 Cent Stranger, and his new project The Country Skillet. Hess (vocals/guitar/bass) will be performing solo on this tour.