“Koza is a rare talent… the band around him occupies similar rarefied air.” –No Depression
Rogue Valley is an Americana band based in the Twin Cities. Here, the blend of urban development and natural landscape converge along the shores of the Mississippi River. The band raced onto the local scene a little over a decade ago, with four full-length albums in a single year. Then, in 2016 the band followed up with the anthemic, twangy surf-rock collection radiate/dissolve. However, since then it’s been mostly sporadic social media posts claiming, “Coming Soon.”
Individually, the band members have all remained occupied. Vocalist Linnea Mohn shares the stage with singer-songwriters Aby Wolf and Jonatha Brooke. Drummer Luke Anderson and guitarist Peter Sieve have joined up with the Iowa-based Lissie. Also, bassist Cody McKinney continues to push boundaries with his compositions and collaborations. Since Rogue Valley’s last release, songwriter-vocalist Chris Koza has released three solo albums (Sleepwalkers Part 1 & 2, and the instrumental On Horseshoe Lake). Additionally, in 2022 he joined the legendary Gordon Lightfoot on a run that would become his final Midwest tour.
Now the hum of optimism surrounding new music is beginning its tangible crescendo. The new album, 2023’s Shell Game, is a nod to natural and created structures that both contain and obscure.
A cocoon yields a butterfly; a riverbed holds a story; a body houses a soul. A shell mirrors the meditative drone of an ocean crashing onto itself. For every journey, there are moments and minutiae in between as bright or dark as any greater narrative. Shell Game roams familiar territory and also furthers the idea of Americana and the Rogue Valley aesthetic.
Recommended for fans of Lissie, Jeremy Messersmith, Jenny Lewis and Birds of Chicago.
