by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

It’s nice to discover a new jam. And I once again have the kind folks at the Folk Music Center to thank for alerting me to some great new music in the form of Brittany Ann Tranbaugh and Joh Chase.

I enthusiastically recommend their 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 21 show at the Folk. Tickets are $20 at folkmusiccenter.com/events.

Philadelphia-based Tranbaugh, 31, began playing in bands as a teenager, and kept at it into her 20s. After a self-imposed break from music, in 2021 she began writing and recording again. One of her new songs was her “queer Americana heartbreaker,” “Kiss You,” off her 2022 EP, “Quarter Life Crisis Haircut.”

“And then [“Kiss You”] won the John Lennon songwriting contest, which was like a big boost,” Tranbaugh said. “I started a band, and started playing out again, and it just felt really good. It felt better than ever before.”

Tranbaugh quit her day job as a paralegal in 2023 to fully dedicate herself to songwriting and touring. Just off a recent run with up-and-coming firebrand Carsie Blanton, she’s released a string of catchy, affecting music over the past four years, including 2024’s a self-titled EP, produced by Grammy-winner Tyler Chester. She’s in the process of crowdfunding her first full length album. More info on that effort is at givebutter.com/BAT_album.

(L-R) Joh Chase and Brittany Ann Tranbaugh appear at the Folk Music Center in Claremont at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Photo/by Shervin Lainez

I’m anxious to hear Tranbaugh’s thoughtful, breezy country/folk at the Folk. She reminds me of early Michelle Shocked, with some Joni thrown in there too. But those are a 61-year-old’s references; better to go to the source:

“One of the things I say about myself is the two wolves inside of me are [Grammy-nominated solo artist and Big Thiefsinger/songwriter] Adrianne Lenker and Shania Twain,” Tranbaugh said with a laugh. “So I have the pretty serious folk songwriter vibes, and I also have the witty, fun, quippy country vibes. Lotsa hooks. Those are my two modes.”

Chase, 39, was raised near Seattle. “I grew up in a megachurch kind of deal,” they said, where they had access to state-of-the-art music production facilities. Chase wrote, performed, and toured into their late 20s, but their trajectory was altered though after moving to Southern California in 2004 to attend the private evangelical Azusa Pacific University.

“And when I was there I realized I was … quite a homosexual,” Chase said, “and there was going to be no bridging the gap of those two worlds. There’s no world wherein I could really be totally myself, out, and still in that evangelic world.”

Chase credits a group of Claremont Graduate University-educated political science professors at APU for helping guide them through the changes. “That’s where I got to dismount the whole Christianity thing a little bit more gracefully,” Chase said.

Chase’s latest album, “Solo,” was scheduled for release in 2020, then Covid hit, and it was delayed. It finally saw the light in 2024 on Washington-based Kill Rock Stars label, and was well worth the wait; it’s a stylistically diverse collection of soaring, hook-laden pop music. It’s moody, but still joyous, and as accessible as any big name artist American kids have on their current playlists. Want proof? Check out Chase’s LA-centric “When I Got This Place,” and revel in its updated “Tuesday Night Music Club” vibes.

Chase’s day job as an elementary school music teacher has curtailed their tour schedule as of late. And though it’s a ways off from last summer’s opening slot on veteran English songwriter, musician, activist and actor Kate Nash’s U.S. tour, they have four Southern California dates booked with Tranbaugh this month in Ojai, Los Angeles, a private house concert, and in Claremont.

I asked both of them what it meant to them to be queer artists in today’s America.

“When I was growing up, I really wanted queer artists to look up to,” Tranbaugh said. “In order to have queer artists to look up to, people need to come out and talk about it in their music and have it online. That’s important to me. I talk about being queer in my shows, and I try to reach out to the queer community, because that was so important to me coming up. But I don’t want to be pigeonholed; I make music for everybody. I want my music to have broad appeal, but I also want my shows to be a safe space for queer people, but open to everybody. So I try to do what I can in my public persona to foster that.”

Chase, at 39, has been telling the story of the pain of growing up in a “culty church environment and having to exit it” for nearly two decades. After the long gestation of “Solo,” they’re eager to begin a new chapter.

“I’ve always had a justice focus,” Chase said. “And that’s why I’m so excited to get to play the Folk Music Center,” with its historical ties to socially conscious folk music. “Brittany and I both have a through line of justice and speaking up for people, and making every place safe for everybody. I think that’s a main thing for me, a main writing point … and all the normal stuff: love, desire, and loss.”

If you’re short on time and want to get familiar with Chase and Tranbaugh simultaneously, check out both on the sultry 2024 groover, “Gossamer Thread,” which could be a “Rumours”-era Fleetwood Mac outtake.

Tickets are $20 for Joh Chase and Brittany Ann Tranbaugh’s 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 21 show at the Folk Music Center and are available at the store, 220 Yale Ave., or the door. More info is at folkmusiccenter.com.

Feeling depressed? Hopeless? Try ‘No Kings’ protest!

Are ya like me? Tired of seeing legal residents, 9-year-old elementary school students, 4-year-old cancer patients, and even folks seeking asylum at U.S. immigration courts kidnapped by masked, unidentified thugs, loaded into unmarked vans, and spirited off to God knows where? If you answered yes, then come on down and make your displeasure known at Claremont’s No Kings protest, from 2 to 4 p.m. this Saturday, June 14 at Indian Hill and Foothill boulevards.

That’s right, for the low, low price of free, you can publicly focus all that anger and despair at those responsible: the unhinged, despotic, lawless, authoritarian Trump regime, all from the comfort of your home city, Claremont.

Warning: No Kings protest is not for everyone. Participation may result in slight loss of hopelessness, increased empathy, and feelings of camaraderie with like-minded believers in the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, and due process. Do not take No Kings protest if you are allergic to democracy. Results may vary.