Rachel Baiman + Pony Bradshaw

Since meeting at an OurVinyl session in 2021, Rachel Baiman and Pony Bradshaw have been close musical collaborators, bonding over their love of literature, roots music, and the crossovers within. In 2023, Baiman joined Bradshaw’s touring band for the greater part of the year, culminating in her roll as fiddle and banjo player and harmony singer on his bluegrass-inspired 2024 album, “Thus Spoke the Fool.” That same year, Baiman launched her A sides and B sides project with the song “Dominoes”, a stunning duet featuring Bradshaw which was streamed 100,000 in it’s first month of release, followed quickly by “Equine Elvis,” on which Bradshaw also sings harmonies.

Now, the two will play a select run of European dates in a stripped-down, duo format reimagining songs from both of their latest albums, as well as older tunes that first inspired their collaboration.

Press for Dominoes:

https://www.wideopencountry.com/rachel-baiman-dominoes-premiere/

About Pony Bradshaw:

On his debut album Sudden Opera, 38-year-old Pony offers a convincing argument in favor of art made by adults who have had time to live, screw up, try again, and find their voice. The record’s title is an apt description: its sound hits abruptly then steadily, like a flood––swells of moody strings, thundering low ends, and dramatic keys, led by Pony’s swinging soul vocals yearning, consoling, and questioning. “I’m a big questioner, for sure,” Pony says. “Flannery O’Connor said she doesn’t know what she believes until she writes it. It’s a way of figuring out your own belief system, there for everybody to see as you work through it. Writing tells me about myself.” He pauses. “It helps a lot.”

These days, Pony reads novels and poetry more than he listens to songs, although heroes such as Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark still loom large. The 19th century French authors, poets, and painters have a hold on him, especially Flaubert. He’s interested in the creative process––that grind that conditions the brain to know how to recognize inspiration and run with it. “I ask myself every day why I want to be good at this,” he says. “It’s hard. I wrestle with the ego, and this whole thing. But I just know that writing, singing, and playing makes me happy, so I continue to do it.”

About Rachel Baiman:

Raised in Chicago, Baiman made her way to Nashville at 18 with the dream of being a professional fiddle player and has since released three solo records and an EP, alongside session and side-person work with Kacey Musgraves, Kevin Morby, and Molly Tuttle among many others. As a songwriter, she has garnered a reputation for her specific brand of political and personal lyricism, which Vice’s Noisey described as ‘Flipping off Authority one note at a time”. 

In contrast with her previous work, (Watchouse’s Andrew Marlin produced her debut album, Shame), Baiman was the sole producer of Common Nation of Sorrow. After recording for twelve days in Nashville with Grammy-Award-winning engineer Sean Sullivan, Baiman traveled to Portland, OR, where she spent two weeks mixing the record with famed engineer and producer Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket/The Decemberists/First Aid Kit). For her new collaborative singles, she turned to friend and indie-pop writer and producer Clare Reynolds, known professionally as Lollies.  “One thing I learned from producing my own record is that I love producing, as long as it’s not my own parts”, she laughs.  “I thought it would be great to have another kind of collaboration included in these new songs, on the production side.