Loma + Shearwater

Loma and Shearwater share a bill at The Deaf Institute in Manchester, with Any Kind also on the programme. The two acts have several links, from a shared songwriter to a shared home city.

Loma and Shearwater have several connections. Both feature the songwriter Jonathan Meiburg and the engineer and producer Dan Duszynski, both have roots in Austin, Texas, and both are released by the Seattle label Sub Pop. Each group also has a member called Emily: Emily Cross in Loma and Emily Lee in Shearwater.

Loma centres on Emily Cross's calm, enveloping voice. Its self-titled debut appeared in 2018, followed by Don't Shy Away in 2020 and How Will I Live Without A Body? in 2023. Shearwater, an American folk group formed in Austin in 2000, released Jet Plane and Oxbow in 2017, The Great Awakening in 2022 and The New World in 2026. Its debut album, The Dissolving Room, came out in 2001 on Misra.

Neither group has played live since 2018. Meiburg attributes the gap to the pandemic, when members of both groups left the country and putting a tour together became difficult. The Deaf Institute is a Manchester venue that hosts concerts and shows, and Any Kind completes the line-up for this evening.