VIKESH KAPOOR

Event information

Vikesh featured in Rough Trade's Albums of the year list and is a talent that is unmissable.

This is his first Brighton show at Brighton's Premiere cabaret Folk/ Roots Venue presented by Wildwood and Brighthelmstone Promotions.

"..a series of sharply etched portraits of struggling Americans that points back along a road of socially conscious songs. Woody Guthrie is standing at the head of that road." - THE NEW YORKER

ROUGH TRADE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, No. 70 - 2014

"An impressive debut" ★★★★ -THE OBSERVER

"an incredible start to what will be a long and successful musical career" ★★★★½ -SHOUT4MUSIC

"There's real sincerity... from a talent that echoes a bygone era but for the here and now." ★★★★½ - THE SUN

"there’s more to Kapoor than just another folk artist with a conscience"
- PENNYBLACK MUSIC

Following a spur-of-the-moment cross-country trip with a pair of fiery European girls, Vikesh Kapoor left school for a brief yet inspiring stint as a mason’s apprentice. The America he had previously known resided narrowly between his childhood home in rural Pennsylvania and the New England university he left home for. Alongside his parents’ own immigrant struggles, these experiences quickly witnessed Kapoor to the scope of the American dream.

A few years later, Kapoor performed at Howard Zinn’s memorial service in Boston, in front of Zinn’s family and colleagues (including Noam Chomsky). Roused by Zinn’s lifelong battle against class/race injustice, Kapoor spent the next two years in Portland, Oregon working on his full-length debut record. The Ballad Of Willy Robbins, a concept album loosely based on a newspaper article, chronicles the brutal but hopeful story of a working class man who slowly loses everything: ambitions, health, family and shelter. It’s a worker’s tale, less specific to the blue-collar life as it is about anyone struggling to make something of themselves.

The Ballad Of Willy Robbins, out April 14th 2014 on Loose, was co-produced by Adam Selzer (M. Ward) and features Nate Query (Decemberists, Black Prairie), Jeff Ratner (Langhorne Slim) and Birger Olsen (Denver).