Tre Burt at The Social - London Live Music & Concerts

Sacramento based singer / songwriter Tré Burt - Traffic Fiction Tour live at The Social, London Tickets https://shorturl.at/msBGL

19:00 // £15 adv

treburt.com
https://youtu.be/CSpW4vRakhY

Presented by dmpuk.com

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Tré Burt was standing on a stage in Philadelphia in early 2023 when the latest bit of bad news arrived: His grandfather, a native of that very city, was deadIt wasn’t entirely unexpectedFor years, Tommy Burt had struggled with early-onset dementia, slipping away a bit more each time Burt saw himBurt even began recording his grandfather, letting his tape recorder roll as they had some of their final conversationsHe wanted to preserve those moments, however repetitious or fragmented they might be, before the opportunity vanished foreverIn fact, Traffic Fiction—Burt’s third album on Oh Boy Records and an unexpected musical reinvention rooted in his new and idiosyncratic version of classic soul—also preserves their relationship by committing another key piece of it to tapeThe soul that animates so many of these 14 tracks? That was the music shared by grandfather and grandson

Burt’s California childhood was not easyHis parents split when he was young, so he would often shuttle between their houses in Sacramento and the Bay AreaHe was a bit of a wild child, tooFrom time to time, though, he would accompany his father to work at a plant nursery, riding shotgun in a 1975 Cadillac Seville as they listened to The Delfonics and Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and The TemptationsThose drives were his sanctuary, that music their blessed score

But as Burt became a musician himself, he was a peripatetic troubadour, tapping into American folk and blues partly as a matter of necessity—it’s not sensible to busk, after all, with some sophisticated band at your backBits of those other roots and compositional ambitions finally emerged on 2021’s You, Yeah, You, the vivid result of Burt’s first proper studio sessionsOn Traffic Fiction, they are in full bloom, from the sweet country-soul surrealism of the title track to the skywriting rock of “2 For Tha Show,” Burt as urgent and commanding as he’s ever beenTraffic Fiction is the sound of Burt confidently bending a sentimental past to his present will

To get to this new alchemy of soul, dub, and more than a little punk, Burt returned to the basics—self-recording in sequestered silenceDuring a Canadian tour, he set aside a few days to stay in a friend’s spare apartment and write, renting enough instruments from the affordable gear emporium Long and McQuade to build a makeshift studio for his GarageBand demosThe title track soon emerged, its effortless magnetism prompted by a poem he’d written about stupid city congestion and a piece by saxophonist and singer Gary Bartz

Burt recognized he had found the sound of the next album, so he booked another rural cabin in Canada for 9 days and rented more guitars, basses, and the same keyboard he’d bought during the You, Yeah, You sessionsFor the better part of a lifetime, Burt had told himself he didn’t have the chops to sing like those childhood heroes from the Cadillac daysBut now, as he built his one-man-band demos before returning to Nashville’s The Bomb Shelter to work with a trusted band of pals and esteemed producer Andrija Tokic, his versions of those sounds poured out in circumspect love songs and joyous tunes of existential reckoningHis grandfather was dyingThe world was struggling with a pandemic and the specter of a third world warBut Burt gave himself permission to have fun and be funny, to let these songs lift him and, eventually, maybe others, too

Traffic Fiction indeed feels like a buoy amid these turbulent times, something that pulls us above the wreckageThe love-or-something-like-it songs are crucialWith its rocksteady motion, rainbow keys, and slippery riff, “Wings for a Butterfly” is Burt’s honeyed plea to at least try a relationship outLike The Beatles rebottled in Muscle Shoals, the brilliant “To Be a River” crescendos in a litany of all the things Burt knows he can be for someone—“your favorite word, a letter you read.” It is pure infatuation

Even ostensible breakup songs luxuriate in the wonder of existence“Santiago” recounts an overseas tryst that ended too soon, Burt jubilantly narrating moments of mirth and lust over go-go keyboards and a beat so simple and propulsive The Ramones would have loved itAnd during “Piece of Me,” Burt turns the sting of ending it into an anthem of wishful thinking alongside sashaying organs and rail-grinding guitarMaybe one more chance is all he needs? “You like me better when I’m in pain,” he sings slyly“Well, baby, just look at me now.” Amid these warped jewels of psychedelic soul, you’ll find yourself pulling for Burt, hoping the world can come to its senses on his behalf

Burt first earned notice for his imaginative and trenchant social protest songs, where he’d capture some corrosi

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Artist: Tré Burt

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