Callers

Ryan and Sara met Don at a show at Melvin's, a bar on St. Claude in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. Ryan and Sara had just begun writing and recording songs together on an old 4-track with a mic hanging from the blade of a ceiling fan in the middle of that stifling sweaty summer, but they would soon part ways and leave New Orleans. Over the next couple of years they relocated to Providence together and later settled in Brooklyn where Don had also settled after Katrina.

Selected Press

...I actually had to shut it off because it got to be too much. And of course, that's meant as high praise.

  • Pitchfork
  • Brooklyn's Callers make an indescribable, codeine-ready micro-ruckus that straddles some downtown-via-Bedford line between grandiose indie rock gestures, art-jazz slither, dusty folk, and swooning soul.

  • Village Voice
  • Callers' mix of jazz guitar, pop hooks, and art-rock rhythms suggest a willful perversity designed to ambush curious listeners…

  • Q Magazine
  • ...Fortune moves effortlessly from start to finish, and is only made more complex and appealing given the diversity of its songs.

  • NPR
  • evokes the dusty intimacy of Mazzy Star, albeit with a stronger predilection for country, blues, and folk rock...a powerful, yet brief statement that seems to linger just long enough to make a great impression.

  • Foxy Digitalis
  • rooklyn’s Callers have an unstoppable combination going for them: the pairing of Sara Lucas’ hauntingly rich and ambient vocals with Ryan Seaton’s virtuoso guitar playing.

  • Pop Matters
  • A textural/experimental streak runs through Seaton's guitar playing, showing influences of Ben Monder when in jazz mode, Loren Mazzacane Connors in bluesier settings. Lucas' octave-jumping and sudden shifts from sweetness to sorrow evoke the young Joni Mitchell, although she has her own personality. Folk singers-songwriters aficionados need to pay attention: either Callers will be the next big thing on the scene, or Fortune will become a sought-after rarity. Highly recommended.

  • All Msuci Guide
  • Fortune is a real breath of fresh air, particularly notable for vocalist Sara Lucas' arresting delivery; in the quiet acoustic numbers she sounds like a reined in Josephine Foster, while the harder-edged, sprawling rock sounds of the title track and 'The Upper Lands' find her effortlessly inhabiting a persona that's like a cross between Patti Smith and Karen Dalton. Equally commendable are the supporting players, whose instrumental skills are rarefied and expertly performed, never more so than on the shuffling, electric blues number 'More Than Right', which proves that the band are as adept at tackling loose, freewheeling song structures as they are the more finely worked compositions, such as the exquisitely refined 'Rone'. Highly recommended.

  • Boomkat