VICTOR, IDAHO — Reflecting on the time since their origin, Midnight North is ready to tell the world its story and hit the stage at this week’s Music on Main. A group of multi-instrumentalists with songwriting roots in folk and Americana, Midnight North is a mainstay on the stages of the national touring circuit.
Rolling Stone hailed Midnight North as the “Best New Act” in its review of 2018’s Peach Music Festival saying the band “takes the best parts of roots music and weaves them into a tapestry of rock and Americana.”
Grahame Lesh, Elliott Peck, and Connor O’Sullivan began playing together in San Francisco. In early 2012 they played their first show as Grahame Lesh & Friends. Grahame and Elliott both brought a repertoire of original music to this new project that was a perfect marriage once the band began performing in earnest.
In late 2012 the band went into the studio for the first time, tracking the entirety of their debut album End of the Night in just two days. End of the Night (mixed and produced by Connor) was released in June 2013 as they officially debuted the name Midnight North.
With the release of their second album, Scarlet Skies in 2015, the band began a five-year run as a touring band, playing in thirty-six states in front of thousands of people across the country. They released Under the Lights, their most successful studio album to date, in summer of 2017.
“Across all of the tracks, when you think you have the band pegged for a style or a genre, all of a sudden a chorus, or a new solo or new instrument altogether, diverts the music boldly but smartly to a new sound and feel,” said The Poke Around in their review of Under the Lights.
They also released two live albums including 2018’s Selections From the Great American Music Hall which featured Bob Weir & Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead plus members of Twiddle as special guests.
A pivotal moment for the band came when Grahame met drummer Nathan Graham at a benefit show in Philadelphia in 2016. A month later Nathan sat in with the band for a show, eventually joining the band for their longest tour to date in the Spring of 2017.
Bringing on the well-seasoned drummer as a full-time member of the band (and learning about his banjo playing, singing, and song-writing skills) represented the next step forward as plans were made to record their fourth studio album.
2022 and beyond is a new beginning, and while Midnight North longingly looks ahead, hand-in-hand with the rest of the world, There’s Always a Story will serve as a collective and reflective narrative representing a new chapter for Midnight North. Ten stories told through song on their most polished album to date.
Ticket To Space will open this Thursday with their mountain groove rock and roll for the masses.
Four months out from first chair and you still don’t have your ski pass settled for next season? Enter this week’s raffle for a chance to win a ’23-’24 season pass from Grand Targhee Resort.
