Between tours and working on a new album, Americana country band The Honeycutters will be making their second visit to Nelsonville on Friday night.
The Asheville, N.C.-based band is fronted by singer-songwriter Amanda Platt, and will be performing its brand of country roots music with tunes culled from their first two albums, 2009’s Irene, and last year’s When Bitter Met Sweet.
Those albums, Platt said, are intimately constructed songs about what she called an original spin on “more of the same,” or shared human experiences.
“(I write) about cheating, and heartache, all that kind of stuff,” Platt laughed.
More seriously, Platt said her songs are written to be simple, to avoid sounding overproduced and full of pop hooks.
“That’s what I feel comfortable with,” Platt said. “You know, I’m not trying to make top 40 records obviously, so it doesn’t make sense to be trying to go for that sound…I listen to pop country, I won’t lie about it, but most of the stuff that I really like has more of an intimate feel.”
Platt said the band is very much looking forward to returning to Nelsonville, where they had just played Nelsonville Music Festival earlier this summer and Stuart’s Opera House two years ago.
“When we (performed) before, it was an amazing listening room; it was really cool,” Platt said. “Everybody was on the stage, the audience was on the stage. It had more of a house concert feel, which was really neat.”
That time around, The Honeycutters performed as a duo, with Platt joined by guitarist Peter James. Friday’s show will feature the full five-piece ensemble, which includes mandolin, bass and drums.
“Stuart’s is the perfect place for a band like The Honeycutters,” said Brian Koscho, marketing director for Stuart’s Opera House. “Platt has an unbelievable voice and they are all such great musicians. Those things help a lot in a space that is designed for sound and for music.”
Those great performances, Koscho said, have led to growing audiences for the band.
“And that is the fun part too, having a band return to the area every couple years and watch their crowd grow and hear their new songs,” he said.
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