Blue Ranger celebrates the release of their new LP Close Your Eyes with special guests Southern Star and Will Stratton

$15 ADV // $20 DOS

Blue Ranger

The moments when we stop, close our eyes, and strive to process the minutiae that makes up our lives, peripheral images come into sharp focus. The ripple of memory, and the quietude of reflection urges a blossoming of connection––with ourselves and the people around us––that oscillates between who we are and who we hope to be. Blue Ranger captures these small moments and branches them off into fiction, piecing together stories of early infatuation, nonverbal familial communication, and the frustrations of making art in an overly demanding and critical world. On their new album Close Your Eyes, these stories urge us to seek collaboration, to merge experience with imagination and to lean into an intentional, gradual existence.

Close Your Eyes marks the Upstate New York band’s first album in five years. Their debut, Actual Food (2016) presented front person Josh Marré’s tenacity for relatable lyrics and the band’s bold DIY production, with 2018’s Saving a Beauty cementing their ability to blend personal narrative and imaginary characters. The band, made up of Marré (guitar/vocals), Marré’s twin brother Evan (bass, synthesizer, clavier, piano), Matt Griffin (drums/percussion) and Connor Armbruster (violin/bouzouki), have continued to solidify their musical bond, and it’s on Close Your Eyes––their most collaborative record to date––that their seamless sonic conversations coalesce and flourish.

Will Stratton

Will Stratton is a songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist living in Beacon, New York. His eighth album is a narrative concept album about California wildfires called Points of Origin, and is scheduled to be released in early 2025. His last album, 2021's The Changing Wilderness, was praised by Elton John and included in The Guardian's best 50 releases of the year.