Americana duo Ilika Ward celebrated the release of their CD “Many Faces” Wednesday Night at the Icehouse. Jake Ilika and Joel Ward collaborated with the Moonlight Riders a string trio.
Starting the evening were Mike Munson and Mikkel Beckmen an acoustic duo of guitar and washboard. Turns out that’s a great combination. Munson’s roots are in slide guitar blues and they delivered a soulful very interesting set.
Ilika Ward took the stage with The Moonlight Riders (Jillian Rae, Max Graham, Jeff Swanner). Home in Minneapolis and Rochester “Many Faces” is their debut album. The duo however has perfomed for quite some time as Tour Funk. They describe their music as one part modern folk, one part throwback to the sounds of the 1960’s folk revival, but they do let rock’n roll shine through with a pretty rocking upright bass player and a cover or Nirvana’s “Where did you sleep last night”. Overall their set was quiet and relaxing with the Mandolin proving some very interesting accents.
