Rupert Wates & Jeremy Facknitz Song Trade

Rupert Wates was born in London. He signed an exclusive publishing deal with Eaton Music in the late 1990’s and has been a full-time songwriter ever since. He moved to the USA in fall 2006. Since 2007 he has won over 50 songwriting awards.

He has released eleven full-length CDs. Each has received outstandingly good reviews, and has been played regularly by radio stations in the USA, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Israel and Australia. In 2015-2016 alone, over twenty of his songs were recorded by other performers, and 2 tribute albums to his material have been recorded by independent artists in Nashville and Los Angeles (see COVERS page of this website).

Rupert Wates averages 120 live shows per year, for audiences totaling around 3,500 annually, in every state in America, in Canada and in Europe. Everyone who hears him responds to his brand of acoustic, melodic art/folk: haunting songs that ring true.

Jeremy Facknitz’s new album is titled Smilin’ At The Future, a caption from his high school graduation photo in the hometown newspaper. If the songs smile at the future, it’s not idealism but a need to transcend the struggle of the present and the wounds of the past. This is the sixth record by the two-time Kerrville Grassy Hill New Folk Songwriting Competition and 2023 Posi Award Finalist, and it’s his strongest songwriting and most imaginative music yet. Facknitz describes his music as “indie rock with a made-for-the-theatre twist. I’m a singer-songwriter, but I’m not 3 chords and the truth – I’m 8 to 15 chords and cryptic cynicism. Less like John Prine and Townes Van Zandt – more like Elvis Costello and Lin Manuel Miranda.”

Surprisingly, these lively descriptors make sense. Like Costello and Miranda, Facknitz is a gifted storyteller open to finding new forms and new sounds. Writing about his album From These Sweet Ashes, Collin Estes writes that Facknitz’s “emphasis on song-craft is immediately apparent, and the album an artistic triumph.” Loring Wirbel writes “The next instantiation of Nick Lowe and other power-pop barons already exists, and From Those Sweet Ashes is his defining work to date.” Wirbel goes on to compare Facknitz’s music to Andrew Bird and John Darnielle.

“This is all far above the ordinary… A good time is guaranteed for all.” – John Apice, Americana Highways

“Jeremy Facknitz is, indeed, a major talent. Packed with tunes that manage to sound both familiar and refreshingly new, Smilin’ at the Future is an excellent album – and, I can guarantee, like nothing you’ll have ever heard before.” – John Barliss, At The Barrier

“…soulfully-hued, and wholly heartfelt, organic…” – Exclusive Magazine

Rupert and Jeremy will trade songs and stories throughout the night.