Indiana psych-folk collective Joshua Powell & the Great Train Robbery at The Comet on Friday, March 11th

Joshua Powell & the Great Train Robbery
Joshua Powell & the Great Train Robbery

photo credit: Jacob Powell

Joshua Powell & the Great Train Robbery
Friday, March 11th
The Comet, 4579 Hamilton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45223 / (513) 541-8900
with Royal Holland
9pm / 21+ / No Cover

Everyone knows that people go to Florida to die, but fewer people know that there are people who get born there too. Caught between the dualistic disenchanting scenes of Buffet cover bands and high school hardcore, a young Joshua Powell transplanted to the Midwest in pursuit of education and new art.

Now a loudening voice in the Indiana independent music community, Powell has carved out a niche in his new home by setting his hyper-literate lyrics to broad swaths of psych-folk and shedding the vocal affectations of a varied past.

The Great Train Robbery was born in Anderson, IN and named for a 1903 Western. The band serves as a revolving door of collaborating musicians to underscore Powell’s evolving craft and has independently released two EPs and three full-lengths since their inception in 2011. In the wake of the Appalachian-tinged folk record Man Is Born for Trouble, Joshua departed on a Kerouacian gypsy spree, touring back and forth across the country, playing six nights a week, and living in an old minivan.

When he eventually returned to the Indiana town that molded his art, he laid down fibrous roots and refocused his energies into becoming a regional staple. Here, he began funneling his collected experiences into his most ambitious record yet, the newly-released Alyosha: a deeply textural electric brand of avant-garde folk, spiritually informed by classic Russian literature and pressed to vinyl.

The album features experimentation with electric guitars, effect chains, and keyboard sounds, with Powell’s vocal delivery at its most unaffected and lucid. The lyrics, as ever, are central to the work and cover a variety of themes: from controversial drone politics and Hoosier post-industrialism, to Aesopian fables and witch trials.

As Powell and his transiently shifting backing band have extrapolated this sound, they have played over 400 shows, opened for such national acts as Mike Mains & the Branches, Seabird, and The Soil & the Sun, and played festivals like Indy Folk Fest (IN), Starry Night (IN,) Midpoint Music Fest (OH), and Lincoln Calling (NE).

http://joshuapowellmusic.com/