MARYSVILLE — Before singers/songwriters Bradford Loomis and Beth Whitney set out on a tour of the East Coast this spring, the duo has a few local shows to play.
One is Friday night at the Red Curtain Arts Center in Loomis’s boyhood town of Marysville.
Loomis and Whitney, who grew up in Snohomish, have received rave reviews of their self-titled album “The Banner Days.” The CD was released this past fall.
The concert is a chance to see two Americana musicians who are on their way up, said Beckye Randall of the Red Curtain Foundation.
“We’re so pleased to present their music to a hometown audience,” Randall said.
Loomis, 36, is pleased, too.
“I am a big fan of what Red Curtain is trying to do in Marysville,” Loomis said. “When I was growing up, we had lots of music in the schools. It’s not that way anymore, so if the schools can’t offer the arts, perhaps community groups such as Red Curtain can.”
The attention he and Whitney are getting for their work together “has been a bit surreal,” Loomis said.
“We are working toward goals, but so much of the music industry is about being ready for opportunities that come out of left field,” he said. “We had plans for a tour this past November, but we cancelled when we found out we were finalists in the NewSong Showcase and Competition in New York City.”
They didn’t win the contest, but “we met a lot of really good people,” Loomis said. “And we got to play at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.”
Longtime admirers of each other, Whitney and Loomis started writing music together only about 18 months ago.
“Beth and I were solo artists first. We started playing together with her husband Aaron Fishburn and then we realized, ‘Hey, there is something here,’ ” Loomis said.
First there was the song “Banner Days,” then the album “The Banner Days” and then Loomis’s wife Kimberly suggested they use The Banner Days as the name of their band.
Banner days are ones that people remember and celebrate, he said.
“Beth and I write about real life, and everybody goes through periods when life is a struggle,” Loomis said. “You have a choice to make about how you deal with those times. Like toasting ‘Here’s to hope.’ Because banner days — good days — are not just a view of the past. Our optimism is on display. The times ahead are going to be our banner days.”
Trained as a baritone, Loomis also sings bass and tenor. Whitney is probably a mezzo soprano, he said, but “she has a really good range and one of the best voices of any who I’ve sung with. Beautiful.”
Some in the industry have encouraged The Banner Days to move to Nashville or Los Angeles, Loomis said.
They plan to play frequently in those important cities, but likely they will stay put, with both families living in Snohomish.
“We certainly write from a smalltown perspective in a timeless style,” Loomis said. “I don’t think Beth wants to lose that tight-knit feeling. She grew up on a farm here.”
Born to a poet and a painter, as she says, Whitney was exposed to verse and illustration, and she enjoys telling stories about faith, hope and love in her music.
Loomis, who loves history, tells stories that he describes as digging deep into American folklore.
Copies of their CD will be for sale at the concert, he said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
The Banner Days: Bradford Loomis and Beth Whitney will perform at 8 p.m. March 20 at the Red Curtain Arts Center, 1410 Grove St., Marysville. Call 360-322-7402 for tickets, which are $20.
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