Fort Atlantic 7:00 pm

Indie Rock From Portland, OR with the spirit and character of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen

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Eight years into his career, Jon Black felt constrained working under his own name. His music had outgrown his singer-songwriter project, so he released an album of new material under the name FORT ATLANTIC.

The debut surpassed every expectation: over 10M streams, and more than 6M views on YouTube. Black plotted his next steps.

A cross-country move took him from Birmingham, AL to Portland, OR. He put a band together, and went on tour. Soon they had new material, bigger and bolder still.

Recorded in a secret location on the Oregon coast, SHADOW SHAKER, VOL. 1 tells of perseverance in the face of unrelenting trials. Crashing waves of cymbals and guitars frame lush forests of analog synths, mirroring the landscape of Black’s adopted home. Primal motifs in the lyrics (darkness, water, sunlight) evoke the anxieties of life in 21stcentury America, themes that presaged the storms to come.

In 2015, the band was abruptly dropped from their label, the newly-completed record still unreleased.

As old plans were scrapped and new plans hatched, Black’s pregnant wife went into emergency labor. They spent two long months in the NICU. Those songs of perseverance and hope, recorded for the rejected album just six months prior, were newly visceral.

The album was released on the band’s own Hot Garbage label in October 2017. The video for Bathed In Sunlight has received critical praise and is an Official Selection in the 2018 Raindance Film Festival (UK), Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, and a few smaller festivals around the US.