eTown Presents DUG with Nathaniel Riley

Doors: 6 p.m.
Show: 7 p.m.

All Ages Welcome
No Refunds or Exchanges

With every eTown ticket purchase, you're supporting the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. eTown donates $1 per ticket to Conscious Alliance, aiding hunger relief, youth programs and sustainable solutions for the Oglala Lakota Nation.

About DUG:  

There’s a natural magnetism to DUG’s folk brew. The duo, made up of Conor (Lorkin) O’Reilly and Jonny Pickett, are gearing up for the release of their debut album, having formed in 2023, but you’d be forgiven for believing that they’ve been writing together for a lifetime.

Their music stems from roots in musical traditions spanning both sides of the pond. In one breath, echoing the great American folk troubadours, and in another, comfortably channelling the elder statesmen of Irish folk.

This is no accident. DUG have a shared musical heritage, with members having been born in America and Scotland before arriving in Ireland. O’Reilly himself spent almost a decade making and releasing music in upstate New York, having picked up sticks from his native Edinburgh, (Irish mother and Scottish father) before moving to Ireland in 2022 to start a new musical chapter.

And you can hear that lived musical experience in singles like "Big Sundown" and "Jubilee" (shortlisted for two Grammy nominations). Resonator guitar and banjo, the building blocks of DUG’s arrangements, lick and spin, with intricate finger-picking patterns whirling to a compelling whole. Their music breathes, vamping in sync.

They’re damn funny too. DUG’s lyrics catch you off guard, eliciting an honest-to-goodness chuckle in a moment of levity. At their very best, as on their forthcoming album, there’s a bona fide warmth littered throughout their unique take on folk storytelling. Tracks like "Wheel of Fortune" have an easy rapport.  It’s catching up with an old friend, all mischief and smiles.

There are allusions to darker moments there too; yearning and melancholy, to lessons learnt the hard way. Taking the heavy with the light, and being able to translate it into a foot-tapping, infectious contemporary folk sound is what DUG do best. They don’t need to posture; their music is naturally playful and honest, inviting you along on their musical journey.

DUG’s love for the musicians that inspired them never steps too far into reverence. They’re an unapologetically modern band. You’ll hear plenty of Irish influence in their music, but you’ll not find any tweed coats or paddy caps here. Instead, the band opts to be themselves-completely natural and organic. It’s part of what gives the group’s work such a strong charisma and helps establish DUG as having one of the most unique takes on contemporary folk music.

In 2024, the duo signed to Claddagh Records, a label in which they find themselves in fine musical company. A subsidiary of Universal Records, Claddagh Records has spent the last few years becoming a hotbed for some of the most forward-thinking musicians in contemporary Irish folk, home to artists like Niamh Bury, Lemoncello, and ØXN, to name a few.

It should come as no surprise that a group that delights in a touch of devilment and so ardently remains true to themselves has built a thriving community of fans, both at their live shows and through their often hilarious social media.

On that note, beyond the release of their debut album, DUG will spend much of 2025 on the road with plans for an extensive international tour.

About Nathaniel Riley:

Nathaniel Riley, a folk singer/songwriter from South Dakota, put in his time working the small family farm and recording melancholic melodies in his basement. Treading with years of grief that constructed a cloud full of songs that Nathaniel lugged to Colorado began the process of his debut full length album, “Bird Songs”

Nathaniel’s songscapes lean on your heartstrings, unpacking melodies like a nostalgic lucid dream. Acoustically driven, wistful lyricism and ambient instrumentation provide the bedrock for his contemporary folktales. Compiling miles of desolation, heartache, introspection and memories of the forest and the prairie’s whistle that convey him to persist. Empowering his songs their role, to be a beacon on the hill. 

The sound and songs arrived abundantly, easily and honestly. Nathaniel began recording his album “Bird Songs”, with Aaron Youngberg at Swingfingers Recording Studios in Fort Collins, Colorado in September of 2020.

Darren Garvey came on as a producer for the record, bringing a grass-roots perspective and an experimental, contemporary ear. 

“I always loved pushing the boundaries of genres and wanted to create something familiar to myself in a couple different ways. One of which was to bring ambient ethereal sounds to the record that may not be commonly found on records claiming to be primarily folk,” says Nathaniel. 

“I love the process of recording and the almost immortal aspect it provides,” he says. “You will forever hear the person’s skin on the strings, the breath before they sing. Living proof of somebody being alive, and it remains there, like a little memory box of sound forever. Itself, never changing.”