Ondara has announced he will return to Australia to tour in March 2024.
Following a successful run of shows this spring and summer in both Australia, Europe and North America in support of his critically acclaimed album Spanish Villager No. 3, and the release of new single Winter Depression, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ondara has announced he will return to Australia to tour in March 2024.
Anyone who missed the folk/rock troubadour’s spellbinding performances on his last visit will now have the chance to catch him live in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide & Sydney, as well as Port Fairy Folk Festival & Blue Mountains Folk Festival.
Ondara touring in March 2024:
Friday March 8
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Saturday March 9 & Sunday March 10
Port Fairy Folk Festival, Vic
Wednesday March 13
Lefty’s Music Hall, Brisbane
Thursday March 14
Trinity Sessions, Adelaide
Friday March 15
The Great Club, Sydney
Saturday March 16 & Sunday March 17
Blue Mountains Folk Festival
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Spanish Villager No: 3, was predominately produced by Ondara and Mike Viola (Jenny Lewis, Dan Wilson) with contributions from Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes, Sebastian Steinberg, Tim Kuhl and Jeremy Stacey. The new collection of songs features a much more full, electric sound.
Of the album, Ondara states, “This collection of work and the work that lies ahead in presenting it to the world, is a metaphor for my spiritual path. There is death and resurrection in it, a peeling of layers, a pursuit of the truest form of the self in the universe. Ironically, the adaptation of the Spanish Villager character has made me more acquainted with myself. By creating an obvious demarcation between the art and the artist, I have charted two paths of maturation. One path is the maturation of the Spanish Villager as a work of art, as a character in a narrative, as a commodity partaking in the mandatory sport of capitalism; The other is my own personal maturation into a spiritual, integrated, and useful member of society.”
The namesake behind the new album is The Spanish Villager: a mysterious man with a potent message who has proven to be a versatile guy: he’s the subject of a short story Ondara wrote and turned into a graphic novel, and now a new album.
Spanish Villager No: 3 follows his 2020 sophomore album, Folk N’ Roll Vol 1: Tales of Isolation, and his 2019 debut album, Tales of America, which received a nomination for Best Americana Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Ondara also received a nod for Best Emerging Act at the 2019 Americana Awards.
Ondara grew up in Nairobi, Kenya listening to American alt-rock and making up his own songs for as long as he can remember. At an early age he fell in love with the music of Bob Dylan and was granted a visa through the immigration lottery system. He chose Minneapolis as his home to pursue a career as a singer and songwriter with Dylan in mind. He began making his way in the local music scene, continually writing songs about what he saw, felt and experienced in a place far different from home.
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