Session Americana is a group of musicians’ musicians : a cast of top-shelf players, singers, and writers who tour internationally, taking their own songs, plus hundreds more from the American songbook, on the road. Get ready to be part of the intimate, raucous scene these players built years ago at Toad, the neighborhood bar where it all began in Cambridge, MA. Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jon Bistline, Jim Fitting.
Cilla Bonnie is a working bass player, singer and songwriter located in Portland, Maine. Over the past 15 years she’s played, toured and recorded in numerous projects in Maine, Boston and Los Angeles. In 2020 she released her fourth recording project, ‘August’ with her bandmates Emmett Harrity on keys, Chris Sweet on drums and Peter Herman on guitar. Cilla's music is a blend of R&B-inspired grooves and structure similar to Radiohead. In addition to her solo project, Cilla currently plays bass for Boston-based soul artist Ali McGuirk and various bands across New England. Check out Cilla’s most recent recording project 'August' and follow her on Instagram @cillabonniemusic to keep up with her performances.
On stage is a collapsible bar table wired with microphones, a vintage suitcase recast as a kick drum, an old Estey field organ, a pre-war parlor guitar, a mandocello and all of its smaller siblings, a harmonica case, and an assortment of other instruments that get passed around in this freewheelin’ modern hootenanny.
“For the uninitiated, Session Americana is a stalwart Boston band grown up in the model of an Irish session, with a bunch of players around a table in a bar, holding acoustic instruments and nipping at various drinks, sharing the tunes everyone knows. From there the band evolved around a rotating cast of writers and players with complimentary voices and skill sets: suitcase kit, harp, guitars, various other stringed instruments, sometimes a pump organ or squeeze box. They write great songs and sing them, and if there’s a better, sweeter, more genuinely fun live show, I don’t know about it. Go find them, and buy a round for the band. Then buy another. Then hide.” Jeffrey Foucault
This band delivers a musical experience unlike any other. Buy your tickets early as we always sell out!
Doors open at 5:00. Show starts at 8:00.
And when you’re here, buy a round for the band. Then buy another…