Union Stage Presents
Apr 13

Seth Glier + Sam Robbins

Seth Glier,

Sam Robbins,

Jammin Java All Ages
Doors 5:30PM | Show 7PM

About the event

Seth Glier

The earth speaks to us in a myriad of ways — through ice cores, through uplift and erosion, through tree rings — languages we have the potential to restore our literacy in. Reconnecting with these quiet messages has set Seth Glier, an avid mushroom forager and a Grammy-nominated artist from Western Massachusetts, on a path of channeling nature’s longing for communion with humanity into song. His new album Everything is a collection of eight songs inviting us to imagine a future in which humans and the planet are re-aligned into mutual restoration.

Each song presents a practical climate solution with concrete optimism.“What if this is the beginning, not the beginning of the end,” the album opens with bristling energy and hope on “Rise,” an anthem about rewilding. “Finally Home” is a celebration of regenerative farming with driving doo wop vocal harmony. “Mammoth,” written from the perspective of a wooly mammoth being brought back to life from frozen DNA, invites us to consider the blip of human history against billions of years of evolution. The album’s guest stars Crys Matthews, Hayley Reardon, and Windborne elevate the record with surprise from the stark choir arrangement of “Birches” recorded a capella in an old church to “My Body Remembers,” a flowing meditation on the transmission of healing, EMDR & The Language of Trees. The album’s title track was inspired by an experience Seth had while foraging. “When I picked up the chantarelle mushroom and brought it towards my nose I first smelled sweet apricot and then my spine straightened suddenly. The feeling was like déjà vu. It was a first time, yet somewhere inside of me I had done this once before. I was reconnecting to a knowledge I had already known.” The album is an acknowledgement of the sacred connections that exist between all living things and is an active questioning of what might be possible collectively. Everything is a reminder that the future is something we always have an influence over.

Seth’s gifts are an innate curiosity and a fierce desire to connect with other people. His musical acumen provides him with a vehicle for both. He was worked as a cultural diplomat for the US State Department and collaborated with musicians in Ukraine, Mongolia, China, and Mexico. Seth has shared the bill with a diverse list of artists ranging from the likes of Ronnie Spector, James Taylor, Ani DiFranco, & Glen Campbell. As a producer, music director, or studio musician he has collaborated with Sophie B. Hawkins, Tom Rush, Antje Duvekot, Richard Shindell, Doctora Qingona, Dar Williams, Nick Carter, & Cyndi Lauper. Seth is a five-time Independent Music Award winner and received a Grammy nomination for his album The Next Right Thing. With a commitment to using songwriting as a tool for positive change, he has written with the students in Parkland, FL for the “Parkland Project,” cowritten with soldiers at Walter Reed, and is an advocate for autism awareness citing his autistic brother Jamie as his greatest non-musical-musical influence.

Sam Robbins

Sam Robbins is often described as an “old soul singer songwriter.” A Nashville based musician whose music evokes classic 70’s singer songwriters like James Taylor and Neil Young, Sam adds a modern, upbeat edge to the storyteller troubadour persona. An avid performer, he has gained recognition from extensive touring and as one of the six 2021 winners in the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk competition, one of the largest and most prestigious songwriting competitions in the country.

Sam released his debut album, Finally Feeling Young, on May 14th, 2021. The album is reminiscent of his 70’s singer-songwriter heroes, with a modern perspective. On the heels of the award winning opening single, ‘Remind Me”, Finally Feeling Young has already garnered radio airplay and critical acclaim. Two album tracks, Remind Me and Saying Amen, won him a place as one of the six Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk winners. Americana Highways writes: “He writes of subjects that others don’t explore. Saying Amen has Robbins touching that special place Leonard Cohen went. This is brilliance.” Fateau Magazine in the UK writes “One of the most promising new songwriters of his generation”.

A multi-instrumentalist from a young age, Sam began learning drums and piano, falling in love with guitar at age 13. He then started writing original music, recording his first CD during his sophomore year of high school, while playing open mics in his hometown of Portsmouth, NH.

Over his career, Sam has performed countless shows across the country, in theaters, house concerts, biker bars, weddings, proposals, frat parties, and everything in between. Sam is able to tour full time, and feels at home in both intimate listening rooms and larger venues. Wherever he is performing, Sam builds an intimate, easy connection with the listener, naturally creating a feeling of closeness throughout the performance.

Sam is a full time troubadour, playing over 150 shows a year across the country, including the MainStage at the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Dripping Springs Songwriter’s Festival, and as one of the “‘Most Wanted to Return” artists in the 2023 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.

Since moving to Nashville in September 2019 following his graduation from Berklee College of Music, Sam has made a splash in music city – performing at the Bluebird Cafe within a month of moving, and sitting in again at the legendary venue with Liz Longley in February, and was a winner at the Eddie’s Attic Songwriter’s shootout competition in Atlanta in early March 2020.

In 2018, Sam was able to audition on NBC’s The Voice for Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and Jennifer Hudson as the first artist to perform a Jim Croce song on the show.

Sam considers himself a student of songwriting, constantly searching and learning about why songs have the impact they do. A 2019 graduate of Berklee College of Music’s songwriting department, he has hosted many songwriting workshops and masterclasses, including at the Harvard Music Department and the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. In his performances and workshops, Sam explores the magic behind the craft of songwriting, and tries to help others express themselves through the unique and powerful medium of songwriting.

Sam’s second album, Bigger Than in Between, was released in August 2022 to critical acclaim.

This show is at Jammin Java

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227 Maple Ave East
Vienna, VA 22180
(703) 255-1566