Latest news with #SugarintheTank
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Julien Baker cancels tour with Torres citing health reasons; fans suspect a concussion: 'You can always tour again'
Julien Baker cancels tour: Julien Baker and TORRES have officially called off their 2025 Send a Prayer My Way tour. The duo shared the news in a statement posted Sunday morning, citing health concerns as the reason behind the difficult decision. The duo was scheduled to play Houston on Monday and Dallas on Tuesday. Julien Baker announce the cancellation of her tour with Torres 'Due to recent events, Julien Baker is prioritising her well-being and taking time to focus on her health,' the statement read. 'This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the disappointment this may cause for fans. We deeply appreciate your understanding.' Fans suspect Julien suffered a concussion in March While the exact nature of the health issue hasn't been disclosed, fans are speculating it may be related to a March incident in which a 'key member' of the touring team suffered a concussion. At that time, just three shows were cancelled. But as of now, all remaining 2025 headlining dates have been called off. Fans have taken to social media to express their disappointment but have largely responded with messages of support and concern for Baker's health. Many are hopeful the tour could be rescheduled once she's ready. Responding to the post announcing the cancellation of their tours shared on the Reddit subreddit r/indieheads by a fan, one Reddit user wrote, "Oh damn. Hope everything turns out okay." Another added, "Aw man. I hope everyone is okay. We were seeing them with Rilo Kiley at Red Rocks. I wonder who'll open now." A third fan added, "Damn, this reads as very serious. I hope she's ok and takes care of herself—you can always tour again, but you can't undo harm to your health," while a fourth commented, "If it's the concussion others are mentioning, this is probably for the best. Concussions are tricky, and you don't want to rush back from them. Loud music can make recovery extremely difficult or exacerbate." The cancelled tour was meant to promote Baker and TORRES' recently released collaborative country album, Send a Prayer My Way, which dropped on April 18. The project, which has been praised for its raw lyricism and unexpected sonic pairing, features standout tracks like Sugar in the Tank and Sylvia. As of now, no rescheduled dates have been announced.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Julien Baker and TORRES Cancel Spring Tour Dates
The post Julien Baker and TORRES Cancel Spring Tour Dates appeared first on Consequence. Julien Baker and TORRES have canceled their 'Send a Prayer My Way' tour dates. In a statement posted on Sunday morning, the musicians explained that the tour was canceled 'due to recent events' as 'Julien Baker is prioritizing her well-being and taking time to focus on her health.' Get Julien Baker and TORRES Tickets Here Continuing, the statement read, 'This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the disappointment this may cause for fans. We deeply appreciate your understanding.' Though the specifics are unknown at this time, it is possible that the canceled is related to an incident that occurred in March in which a 'key member' of the touring party suffered a concussion (possibly Baker, given the new statement). The duo canceled just three bookings at that time, but now, all of their 2025 headlining dates have been called off. The tour was intended to support TORRES and Baker's recently released collaborative country album, Send a Prayer My Way, which arrived on April 18th with highlight tracks 'Sugar in the Tank' and 'Sylvia.' In lieu of the headlining dates, fans who want to catch the duo live will still have opportunities to do so — beginning in late June, they are booked for nearly a dozen festival appearances across the US, . Check out the list of their remaining tour dates below. Julien Baker and TORRES 2025 Tour Dates: 06/20 – Greenfield, MA @ Green River Festival 06/21 – Highmount, NY @ Mountain Jam 06/26 – 06/28 – Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest 06/28 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Middle Waves Music Festival 07/04 – Missoula, MT @ Zootown Festival 07/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ FDR Park (Make the World Better Event w/ Lucy Dacus) 07/26 – 07/27 – Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival 07/31 – 08/03 – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon 08/08 – 08/10 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands 09/13 – Louisville, KY @ Bourbon & Beyond 09/27 – Washington, DC @ All Things Go Festival Popular Posts Phish Snubbed by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Despite Winning Fan Vote Beyoncé Hit with Cease and Desist Letter Over Video of Her Picking Up Sphere Bruno Mars Adds New Dates to His Eternal Las Vegas Residency at Park MGM Jack Black's Minecraft Song "Steve's Lava Chicken" Sets Billboard Record for Shortest Hot 100 Hit DEVO Set to Kick Off 2025 North American Tour Sheryl Crow Says Armed Intruder Came on Her Property After Selling Tesla Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
The Independent
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Julien Baker and Torres make space for their own stories on the country-influenced Send a Prayer My Way
'I'm no desert flower, I can take a little more rain,' sing indie darlings Julien Baker and Torres (aka Mackenzie Ruth Scott) on Send a Prayer My Way. This lovingly crafted outlaw country album has been on their minds for almost a decade; the two solo artists met in 2016, when a pre-Boygenius fame Baker sidled up to Scott with a bag of weed after one of her gigs. The two lesbians from Tennessee wanted to reckon with their conflicted relationship to the conservative-associated soundtrack of the American South. But their plans were put on the back burner until the pandemic (and a stoned call from Scott) got things cooking. Now, they've set up camp with elegant fiddles, sun-dappled mandolins, banjos, expansive pedal steel guitars and the occasional herd of rattling drums. Interviewed for The Independent earlier this year, the more outgoing Scott (better known for her funkier-edged indie-rock) explained that – during a period of such bewildering social upheaval – she was drawn to the structure, rules and history of country music. Baker, meanwhile, came to accept that the narrative twang of country was rooted deeper in her 'lived experience' than she'd previously allowed herself to acknowledge. So they set about making space for their own stories within that tradition, while also following in the footsteps of queer artists such as KD Lang, Brandi Carlile and The Indigo Girls. So on 'Off the Wagon' Baker, who has gone through her own struggles with addiction, sings about 'threading the needle, changing the dose' – her tentative voice picking its way through the confusion. 'Tuesday' has Scott, in her deeper, dustier vocal, unpacking a long-suppressed tale from her teen years about a girl whose mother is scandalised by their relationship. The girl 'asked me to write her mother and say sorry for the confusion/ That of course there'd been no sin', she sings. 'And to emphasise how much I loved Jesus and men…' The explicit details about queer love and Scott's confrontation of homophobia are wonderful. The duo's vocals blend with giddy joy over the sweet strum of single 'Sugar in the Tank' and with easygoing companionship over the trotting beat of 'The Only Marble I've Got Left' (on which they agree that 'there's no such thing as guilty pleasure/ As long as your pleasure's not unkind'). On 'Bottom of a Bottle', they throw sisterly lifelines as they immerse themselves in the blues tropes of ending up alone and checking 'every honky tonk in town… I lost my faith… I lost my woman'. Country music's seemingly immovable framework provides a solid structure for Scott and Baker – both restless, questing thinkers –in which to explore their own uncertainties. The acknowledged unease of open-ended questions is balanced by melodic resolutions and witty modern games with old country cliches. 'You get the hand you get and try to deal,' they sing on 'Off the Wagon'. Hooks are tossed out as smoothly as well-thumbed playing cards; Send a Prayer My Way follows the rules of old, familiar games, but invites new conversations to the table. A warm and inclusive record.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Watch Julien Baker and Torres Perform ‘Bottom of a Bottle' on ‘Daily Show'
Julien Baker and Torres stopped by The Daily Show to showcase their country ballad 'Bottom of a Bottle' and to chat with host Michael Kosta. The duo, in coordinating custom-made suits, performed the introspective song alongside a live band in front of a colorful backdrop. 'Bottom of a Bottle' comes off the duo's forthcoming album Send a Prayer My Way, out April 18. The LP spans 12 songs, including previously-released singles 'Sugar in the Tank' and 'Sylvia.' More from Rolling Stone Watch Tate McRae Showcase 'Revolving Door' on 'Fallon' Jimmy Kimmel Jokes That Adrien Brody Is Still 'Wrapping Up' His Oscars Speech Jon Stewart Agrees to Elon Musk Showdown, Tells Billionaire to Ditch the 'Bullsh-t' Ahead of the performance, Baker and Torres, whose real name is Mackenzie Scott, sat down with Kosta to discuss the album and to describe the inspiration behind their nudie suits, which were made by Union Western. 'Julien and I have been friends for a while and when the pandemic lockdown occurred I texted her, kind of out of the blue, because I'd been thinking about making a country record for while,' Scott explained of the collaboration. 'But I didn't want to do it alone. And Julien was the first person I thought of because she's from Tennessee. I'm from Georgia. It just made sense.' The pair also talked about how the album is being labeled 'queer country.' 'I'm certainly proud of that,' Scott said. 'We're queer. But if it were up to me it would just be country.' Baker and Torres will hit the road in support of Send a Prayer My Way on April 23 at the National in Richmond, Virginia. Their North American tour will continue through May 12 at the Admiral in Omaha, Nebraska. The duo also have a bunch of festival dates scheduled before and after the run, including sets at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee in late March, as well as Zootown Music Festival in Missoula, Montana in July. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The Independent
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Boygenius's Julien Baker and Torres on their queer country album: ‘We committed to the bit and here we are'
Julien Baker and Mackenzie Scott are giggling about their new venture: country music. Baker, of course, is the indie star who makes up one-third of the supergroup boygenius, with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Scott is better known as the singer-songwriter Torres. (They're calling their collaboration, simply, Julien Baker & Torres.) The latter was listing off her favourite classic artists when Baker chimed in, admitting she enjoys 'some of that new s***, though.' Especially, the 'really ignorant' song ' Hard to Forget' by Sam Hunt. 'The first time I heard it, I was like, 'This is an offence to nature!'' Baker laughed. 'But the more I heard it on the radio, I was like, 'I love this song.'' (I listened to the truly heinous 2020 hit after our interview, and it's so catchy that it corrupted me.) But there's also genuinely good new country music, says Scott, pointing to The Highwomen, a female supergroup who released a lesbian ballad about a man hitting on your girlfriend – 'If she ever leaves me, it won't be for you,' sings Brandi Carlile, surrounded by close harmony. 'I'm glad someone wrote that song – we were all thinking it,' Scott says, shaking her head. Baker agrees, then does her best deep-voiced impression of the man: 'All the lesbians who've ever been out with their girlfriends have had some dude say, ' Hey '.' Neither of these musicians is especially known for an affiliation with country music. Twenty-nine-year-old Baker crafts gentle, heartbreaking songs that land like prayers. The lyrics are self-critical, often bleakly so, and delivered in a pure, elegiac voice that floats hauntingly above the music: a twinkling guitar, or, on her last album, a full band. More recently, she became borderline famous for making bands cool again with boygenius, picking up several Grammys along the way. At 34, Torres has been releasing music that might be loosely described as indie rock for a little longer. But they're both from Tennessee, the home of country music, so from their first single as a duo, the sweet and euphoric love song 'Sugar in the Tank,' the change felt natural. Their forthcoming album Send a Prayer My Way is all earthy but angelic Americana, each track carefully arranged around a simple story of daily romance, devotion and the work of trying to be a good person. Their friendship feels palpable through a screen – with Scott just the joker to bring out Baker's lightest, funny side – despite the fact they're video-calling in from different ends of the country. Scott is in a dark purple-lit recording studio in her basement in Brooklyn. Baker is sitting in a light, airy kitchen that backs onto a conservatory in Los Angeles, as her dog, Beans, pads around in the background. She hesitates when I ask what precipitated the move, and says that she relocated there from Tennessee two years ago with her partner. 'I really like it here, which seems like a traitor thing to say. But people are deliberate about trying to create community out here.' Baker and Torres met backstage 10 years ago at a show they played together in Chicago, when Baker was a 'really cute and sweet' 20-year-old baby, according to Scott, who approached her offering weed. 'You weren't scary but I was like, 'Oh, no, ma'am'. I was such a dork,' laughs Baker, putting on a nerdy voice. From that early stage in both of their careers, they were compared for being vaguely masc queer women with guitars from Tennessee. Their sounds were different, but their vocabularies made them artificially comparable: they both talked about God, the Devil, the South. 'I feel like that was just available imagery so of course we used it,' says Baker. 'When I was a baby, before I could speak English, my family was reading me devotionals. It's more than just an allegiance to a faith that ties you to something, it's cultural – it's like a folk tale.' Both would come to regret allowing themselves to be marketed in that way, particularly Baker, who engaged in the conversation around what it meant to be both queer and Christian. 'I took the bait and ruined it,' she says. 'I was being a contrarian and people would be like, 'Well, how's it been being a queer person in the South?' Then I was being like, 'Well, me and my family actually have complex conversations about it and there's more to theology and belief than the people from Westboro Baptist Church who stand outside Planned Parenthood.' I was just interested in the fact this cultural category is a little bit more nuanced than people from outside of it want to consider. I wanted nuance and what I got was [Christians] being like, 'You can do both!'' She was the 'queer Christian artist', a title she never wanted to hold. Where they sit with their spirituality today differs. Scott feels very curious, very open, though she's not a religious person ('I find religion to be really oppressive and limiting and dogmatic,' she says). Baker wades around in my question without answering it: I say I'm sure her relationship to her spirituality has evolved, as it typically tends to as one ages. 'One would hope. For some people that is not the case, it's really static,' she remarks, despondent for a few minutes. She has a habit of breaking away and staring off to the left while she carefully verbalises sentences like she's channelling someone else. 'As I've gotten older my interest in defending the tenets of Christianity or a specific religious dogma have gone down to zero,' she continues when prompted by Scott. 'But there are some things about religion that are inborn into civilisation that are valuable, like the need to gather and to have communal worship and to live in a community with each other.' She remembers learning about a prehistoric human skeleton found with a hip that had once been broken; it had healed together in such a way that experts know the person was alive for a long time afterwards. It's proof, she says, that this person was fed and carried and that humans do have altruistic care built into them. This country project began early on in the Covid-19 lockdown, when both of them were wasting time answering emails and getting despondent. 'I'm 90 per cent [certain] I smoked a massive joint and got a wild hair and thought, 'What if I texted Julian to ask if she wanted to make a country record with me,'' hoots Scott. Baker grins and says, 'I committed to that bit and here we are.' What initially attracted Scott to the idea was that country music came with structures, rules and a history – and its production certainty doesn't allow for anything less than solid narrative storytelling. That strict creative container promised a freedom that wasn't provided by their solo projects. I wanted nothing to do with country music, but no matter what I did, I couldn't escape it Julien Baker Before their collaboration, Baker had been living in Nashville for a while and had started exploring songwriting for others – what's known as 'pitch' writing. This involves writing songs directly for other artists to perform or pitching them to industry professionals on Music Row, Nashville's hub for country music. It was here that an early version of 'Sugar in the Tank' was born. Both Baker and Scott were fans of country music, especially Scott, but it wasn't until they began writing together that they took a closer look at how deeply their personal connections to country music ran. Baker revisited her dad's favourite songs and had a realisation: ''OK, this is actually deeply within me as a person and my lived experience,' but I had distanced myself from it when I got into punk and hardcore as a teenager. I wanted nothing to do with country music, but no matter what I did, I couldn't escape it because I lived in Tennessee.' People will imagine that Baker must've loved collaborating with boygenius on The Record so much that she decided to do another collaboration immediately. In fact, this album got temporarily shelved because of the non-existent (at that point) boygenius' album; if the country project was put out first, its release and promotion would've had to be rushed before The Record. 'It sucked because we were both chomping at the bit to get it out,' says Baker of Send a Prayer My Way. 'It would've felt really bad to start something and have an end date already in the future and to truncate it [because] it had to be done by the time I started doing boygenius stuff. I'm glad we waited. I think it served the songs too.' It must've been frustrating for Scott, then, I suggest, who had to sit on the sidelines while country music had its moment over the past couple of years with musicians from Post Malone to Zayn trying their hand at cowboy content. Baker and Scott could've been an early contender, leading the trend, if they'd released in 2020 or 2021. At this point, Baker looks a little guilty, Scott looks a little awkward. 'It's been tough for me. I can't pretend like it hasn't,' says Scott and chuckles uncomfortably. 'There's certainly been a bit of a sensation of waiting in the wings while these huge artists released their country albums one by one and like, 'OK, cool.'' She comedically salutes hello to the Beyoncé country album as it comes along. 'Well, yeah, hope I live up to the Beyoncé album!!!' Baker laughs along with their misfortune but adds the salient point that pop and rock music in the Nineties had its flirtation with the country sound and fashion too – and the popularity of the genre is the point, it's what attracted them to it. 'I agree, JB,' Scott says to Baker. 'We're not doing anything that hasn't happened thousands of times before. We're doing something within a well-worn tradition.' I'm so f***ing glad I'm not making a solo record Julien Baker While there could have been immense pressure on Baker to match the phenomenal success of boygenius, she says she doesn't feel that way at all – in fact, quite the opposite. 'I'm grateful for having timed things out the way they did because hopefully whatever attention I got [for boygenius] or whatever my profile is now, hopefully that just benefits the project,' she says. This is, she explains, very different in sound from boygenius (though I'd argue there's a little of that heartbreaking and bending euphoria on 'Sugar in the Tank' as on boygenius's 'Not Strong Enough'), but it was made with the exact same ethos, which is why she thinks it works. This is Baker's magic formula: make music that is highly thoughtful, with people she already knows, and keep it very close to her chest until it's fully created. That's how you get intimate songs like the delightful harmonic ballad 'Goodbye Baby' about how much they love their girlfriends. Or lyrics that hold a full world in their simplicity, like those on the wistful 'Tuesday,' when Scott sings of a friend's mother who suspected their queerness at 18: 'Instead of backing me up Tuesday melted right down/ Asked me to write her mother and say sorry for the confusion/ But of course there'd been no sin/ And to emphasise how much I loved Jesus and men.' 'That's the other thing too… I'm so f***ing glad I'm not making a solo record,' Baker adds. 'It sounds like no fun to go back to being in this solipsistic space where I'm telling a story about myself and I'm making all the decisions and every decision I make is representative of my world and my identity. It's so much more fun to be in a project with someone else that we can be creative with and it not have to be essentially representative of who we are as people because it's already inside of an established genre.' In another timeline, they might have found themselves in the 'so bad it's good' new country s*** category they were laughing about just half an hour ago. 'I imagined the finished record to be a bunch of Hardy tracks, just really highly produced hooky bangers,' Baker laughs, referencing the Mississippi-born singer, whose pop country songs about redneck partying, drinking and small-town values have been streamed hundreds of millions of times and frequently hit the No 1 spot on the country charts. The fact that Baker and Torres's songs turned out to be more tender, traditional Lucinda Williams-style tracks, with a bit of 'outlaw country', is a relief, Baker thinks, because 'there's something in that really commercial timbre that's in all the pop country music that didn't get on us'. The music, just like the idea for this project, might been lightly worn at the beginning but it's accidentally better, fortuitously truer to their experience than they'd ever intended it to be.
