The cross country summer tour of The Wild Hearts: Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, and Julien Baker playing with their respective bands, hit the sold-out Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on July 29, 2022 to highlight their latest releases and support A New Way of Life Reentry Project.
Baker was the first to take the stage, following the opener Quinn Christopherson where she rocked tracks from her recent EP “B-Sides” and from“Little Oblivions”. Van Etten came on at 8:30 PST and Olsen took the stage at 9:50 PST, where they too sang off of their recents; “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong” and “Big Time”. They each shared their gratitude onstage to the sold out venue, and Van Ettten paid special tribute to her five year old son and partner Zeke Hutchins.
“This is pretty special I mean, it’s an honor to be here sharing the bill with the best songwriters of our generation. I’ve admired Angel Olsen for a very long time and I’ve gotten to see Julian Baker grow over the years from having solo shows in New York City before I ever had a baby! It’s been nice to get to know Quinn Christopherson. I hope I get to know them all better because we are a separate camp right now. My son has been traveling with me for the first leg of the tour and he ends tonight because he starts kindergarten very soon. I just wanted to give a special shout out to my partner Zeke and my little guy for being so patient with their mama and their partner because life on the road is hard. There’s a lot of emotions returned to it trying to figure it out again, but when they see what we do, why we do it, and who shows up for it they get it, so thank you all,” Van Etten said.
A dollar from each ticket purchased to “The Wild Hearts Tour” is being donated to A New Way of Life which is a South Los Angeles based organization that helps support women after being formerly incarcerated. The Co Director, Pamela Marshall spotlighted the non profit’s mission to, “empower communities with opportunity where justice impacts women to heal, excel, and lead while disrupting systems of oppression and harm”. For the past twenty years A New Way of Life has provided services for women re-entering the community, and hope they can help break cycles of incarceration.
“We have helped over 1,450 women safely return home to the community, gain employment, gain housing, reunify with their children, and never go back,” Marshall said. “We know that addressing the needs of the women in our homes does not solve the problem, and advocacy and policy change are so important.”
In partnership with the 501(C)(3) non-profit organization PLUS1, the tour has already helped raise over $50,000 for A New Way of Life. “The Wild Hearts Tour” will be playing 16 more shows, including the McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre in Oregon on August 2.
