Matt Lorenz has spent more than two decades building music out of damaged things. He salvages broken instruments, fashions new ones from found objects, and layers them into what critics have called a “junkyard symphony” — a one-man band that sounds, depending on the song, like doom folk, or “gutsy, fuzzed-out, groove-laden psych rock” (NPR), or the “punk-folk-gothic-busker-at-the-end-of-the-world” (Boston Herald), or simply like something you cannot quite name. His new record, To Go On, follows that same salvaging logic, except what Lorenz is putting back together here is not a broken instrument. It is a dialogue with his late sister Kate, who died unexpectedly at 42 in 2022.
About the Show
The Suitcase Junket brings To Go On to Waterhole Music Lounge in Saranac Lake on Saturday, November 14, with opener Gene Baritot. The album, Lorenz’s seventh studio release, arrives October 2, 2026 via Bad Chef Records/Symphonic; this North Country stop falls just weeks into its life. Kate Lorenz — a singer-songwriter who performed with her brother in the band Rusty Belle — died unexpectedly at 42 in July 2022, and the record Lorenz built from that grief carries the weight you would expect alongside the balance he insisted on. “I could have made the saddest record ever,” he told Americana-UK, “but I like a well-balanced piece of art, where you can tap your toe, or dance even, and still think about death.” Lead singles “One More Mile” (July 2026) and “Put Your Phone Down” (August 2026) hold that line.
Lorenz, a Cavendish, Vermont native, has been performing as The Suitcase Junket for over two decades. His 2020 album, The End Is New, was produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. To Go On follows it into harder terrain. NPR’s World Café Live called him “a master of musical imagination”; the Rochester City Newspaper described his voice as “a cross between Hound Dog Taylor and a Tuvan throat singer who has swallowed a bird.” American Songwriter called the work “swampy, stompy, epic and soaring.” The Boston Globe heard something “somewhere between Avett Brothers and early, dirty Black Keys.” None of those frames quite contains him, which is the point.
Venue & Logistics
Waterhole Music Lounge occupies an upstairs space at 48 Main St. in Saranac Lake, an Adirondack bar and music venue where national touring acts play at close range. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; show starts at 8:30 p.m. This is a 21+ event.
Tickets
Advance tickets are $16; the price rises to $20 at the door. Buy tickets