Tight and gritty Americana quartet The Empty Pockets play a soulful, 70’s-inspired blend of exploratory grooves, shifting time signatures and distinctive vocals. This unassuming Chicago-based indie powerhouse is quietly conquering the Billboard charts, connecting with fans, filling venues across America, and doing it all on their own terms. The Empty Pockets isn't just a band name, it's an ethos.
When married couple Erika Brett and Josh Solomon come together - her soaring voice joining his expressive Fender Stratocaster - sparks fly. The pair leads with love but their music digs deeper through lyrics that revolve around breaking out of the routines and perspectives that dominate our modern world. Their songs feel like untold stories, brought to life by a road-ready band who have historically advocated for income equality, women's rights, and the LGBTQIA community.
Recording at the studio they built by hand, The Empty Pockets released The Ten Cent Tour in 2015. It was their first Billboard charting album, peaking at #10 Americana/Folk Albums and #9 on Heatseekers. 2016 was a watershed year for The Empty Pockets, seeing them serve as backing band for Al Stewart, Gary Wright, and Simon Kirke, dueting with Kenny Loggins on PBS Soundstage, and opening for acts as varied as comedian George Lopez and Portugal. The Man. Four Billboard charting albums followed - Voices (2017) peaked at #9 in Americana/Folk, their holliday album Snow Day (2018) hit #6 on Heatseekers, Tanglewoods (2019) landed at #12 on American/Folk and their subsequent live album, Live in Seattle, clinching the #6 spot on Heatseekers.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the band made a quick pivot to livestream. They approached this new avenue with just as much enthusiasm as they did touring in years past, cultivating such a substantial new audience that Pollstar named them #75 in International Livestreamers 2020. “We played in different rooms, without being able to see each other,’ Josh reflects. “When we came back together in the same space, it felt like we had acquired magic powers of communication.”
The band’s new LP, Outside Spectrum, explodes with blistering performances and oozes with characteristic industrious spirit, imagination and heart. The album delivers carefully crafted songs soaked in technicolor tones, stripped of 21st century technology while still brimming with innovation. Not to mention an amazing guitar contribution from Grammy Award Winning former Wings member, Laurence Juber.
After earning their first #1 rank with Outside Spectrum (topping the Billboard Blues Albums Chart in August) Chicago Roots Rock band The Empty Pockets kick it up a notch with their next full length studio album. Gotta Find the Moon is twelve new original songs and two outstanding covers recorded in London, England at the best recording studio in the world… the one and only Abbey Road Studios.