Sunny War w/ Laamar at Turf Club

“I feel like there are two sides of me,” says the Nashville-based singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso known as Sunny War. “One of them is very self-destructive, and the other is trying to work with that other half to keep things balanced.” That’s the central conflict on her fourth album, the eclectic and innovative Anarchist Gospel, which documents a time when it looked like the self-destructive side might win out. “Everybody is a beast just trying their hardest to be good. That’s what it is to be human. You’re not really good or bad. You’re just trying to stay in the middle of those two things all the time, and you’re probably doing a shitty job of it. That’s okay, because we’re all just monsters.”

Laamar is the latest project led by Minneapolis-based singer, songwriter, saxophonist, and composer Geoffrey Lamar Wilson. Former frontman of Brooklyn-based Jus Post Bellum, also known for his multilayered looped saxophone performances and catchy podcast ditties. This latest project blends his idiomatic inspirations bridging Folk, Soul, R&B, and Country with a constant ear towards issues of racial and social justice, and the shared human experience. Laamar includes Megan Mahoney on bass and James Taylor on drums, with more collaborators tba.