Every now and then, you get the call!
When someone gets sick, is hit by an asteroid, and driven mad by the state of the world, and a void is left where a band should be, you get the call. Our call came from our friends at Kill The Buddha. Their friends, and awesome band, The Goodbye Horses, needed us to fill in at Slim’s Downtown, the infamous Raleigh dive bar, on a holiday weekend.
So YES, we’ll be there!
Doors open: 6:30 PM
Minimum Age: 21
Wooden Rings (Raleigh, NC) performs lush, original blends of progressive folk and progressive rock – a sound recently transplanted from Chicago. We sound a little like Fleet Foxes, Yes, and Radiohead. Guitars, strings, horns, and reeds support a rock core, with poetic lyrics melted on top. Our music is like an emotional puzzle, tapping both the head and heart.
Lily Desmond is an avant-garde violinist, vocalist, and composer known for blending folk, techno, hardcore, and shoegaze into a cinematic, chamber-pop-infused art rock.
A classically trained musician, with roots in Los Angeles and now firmly established in New York City, Lily captivates audiences with performances that shift seamlessly from delicate, looping violin ballads to intense noise-rock anthems.
She is known for her emotionally charged stage presence, often juxtaposing serene musicality with raw, visceral expression, including her signature move—screaming directly into her violin.
Candiland is a 5-piece indie rock / dream pop band based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Drawing from the dreamy textures of My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins, along with the songwriting of Wednesday and Big Thief, their sound blends shoegaze, alternative rock, and indie folk into something immersive and emotionally direct.
Fronted by singer and primary lyricist Lily Mars, the band moves between intimate, reflective moments and louder, more cathartic sections. Guitarists Ace McAteer and Gabe Harmon build a colorful, dreamlike atmosphere through layered tones and interplay, while Asher de la Torre (bass) and Ayden Taylor (drums) hold things down with a steady, driving rhythm section.
The members come from across the Triangle but consider Chapel Hill home, where they’ve been steadily building a presence through live shows and a growing catalog of original songs.
https://lilydesmond.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/lilygoddamndesmond
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIdUbjTgzy9Mj9FGS2YfJdA
https://lilydesmond.bandcamp.com/
https://facebook.com/CMuthaloadmusic
Wooden Rings is a collaborative singer-songwriter project created by Ramah Jihan Malebranche, a Haitian-born songwriter whose music defies easy categorization: part progressive folk, part chamber rock, entirely its own thing. Born out of a period of personal upheaval in Chicago, Wooden Rings earned NPR features, praise from the Chicago Tribune, and a small, devoted following before Ramah brought his catalog south to North Carolina in 2023. His full-length vinyl album Heliocentric, crafted with Grammy Award-winning collaborators and backed by the 3Arts Foundation, is the kind of record that rewards deep listening, and now Triangle audiences get to hear this music live for the first time.
Don’t miss Wooden Rings and Kill the Buddha performing at Slim’s Dive Bar in Raleigh, NC on April 4th from 3:00-5:00 PM. It’s a $5 donation. This will be an intimate show, exactly the setting this music was made for. Bring your listening ears, enjoy the familiar, dive atmosphere at Slim’s.
Wooden Rings & Living Earth team up at the Rumah United Mutual Aid Hub on Friday, March 6th, 2026. Let’s use our powers for good and support mutual aid in Raleigh AND live, local, and original artistry.
The Breakdown:
Rumah is located at 415 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh, NC.
Links
https://woodenringsmusic.co
https://linktr.ee/woodenrings
https://livingearth.bandcamp.com
https://www.raleighmutualaid.info
Music By Wooden Rings, Living Earth Ensemble & Laketown Riots
Poetry by Anna Weaver
Raleigh Brewing on Neil Street
Raleigh Brewing
3709 NEIL STREET
RALEIGH, NC
$10 Donation at the door
Tags: @raleighbrewing, @woodenringsmusic, @laketownriots, @vitodito, @joshzaslowmusic
Mark your calendars, Raleigh.
On Thursday, August 29, 2025 at 7 PM, we’re stepping into something special—and we want you there with us.
We’re thrilled to be headlining a unique evening of Poetry, Music, and Beer at Raleigh Brewing on Neil Street. It’s a $10 donation at the door, and every bit of that goes toward supporting local art and independent expression. No middlemen. No big stages. Just real people making real things.
We’ll be joining forces with some incredible artists for a night of intentional, genre-blurring creativity:
Anna Weaver will open the evening with live poetry—raw, thoughtful, and beautifully grounded.
Living Earth Ensemble and Laketown Riots will bring their own sonic landscapes to life, each offering a distinct voice that reflects the soul of our region.
And then it’s us—Wooden Rings—bringing songs that live, combining folk intimacy, experimental sound, and emotional storytelling. This isn’t just a set for us—it’s a conversation with the room, with our fellow artists, and with you.
Considering it? Good!
Because it’s an evening of community. Of presence. Of poetry backed by melody and melody backed by meaning—all washed down with some of the best craft beer in the Triangle. But let’s be real, it’s indoors in Raleigh in the heat of August. It’s probably not safe for you to be anywhere else, lest you tempt heatstroke.
Bring your friends. Bring your mind. Drink plenty of water with your beer.
-Your mom
We’ll bring the rest.
Bullhorn Fest 2024, a home-grown microcelebration of Durham creativity featuring live music, art, and a few other things that are pretty great. This year will raise funds and awareness for a free Palestine through UNRWA!
When: 10/19/2024, 12pm-9:30pm
Where: Shadowbox Studio Bay Stage, 2000 Dominion St., Durham, North Carolina
Bullhorn Festival: https://bullhornarts.org/ bullhornarts.org, instagram.com/bullhorndurham, facebook.com/bullhornarts
Performers include:
John Sierra brings rich Americana, while Wooden Rings blends progressive folk and rock into off-kilter, harmonious songcraft.
Try and catch the full @woodenringsmusic band playing some deep original blend of progressive folk and rock. Clearing the mist is @johnsierramusic!!!
My man Vito is putting on a Songwriters showcase, and I have some juicy gems to share!
8/30 at Moon Dog Meadery
The King Teen (solo acoustic) 7-7:30
Wooden Rings (band) 7:40 – 8:20
Living Earth 8:30-9:30
10$ Suggested Donation
We are so excited to share the lush, intricate songs by Chicago transplant, Ramah Malebranche, for the Wooden Rings performing at Common Market in Durham, North Carolina on June 22nd a 7:00- 8:00 PM.
We are so excited to share the lush, intricate songs by Chicago transplant, Ramah Malebranche, for the Wooden Rings performing at Common Market in Durham, North Carolina on June 22nd a 7:00- 8:00 PM.
The chamber group is a “quieter” but in some ways more intricate version of band Wooden Rings, a progressive folk and rock group playing off-kilter sad-bastard music that is both foreign and familiar. The chamber group, composed of violinist Asa Jackson, upright bassist Gabe Sparrow, vibraphonist Andrew Munger, and Malebranche dig deeply into the mind and the heart, demanding attention and compassion from audiences in ways that leave you with more than you expected to find.
This is the first performance for the singer songwriter project in North Carolina, since it’s relocation from Chicago. Expect smart, genre bending and sad bastard beauty.
5/4/24
7:00 PM
Gatsby’s Bar Raleigh
6109 Maddry Oaks Court Raleigh, NC 27616
After a profound post-pandemic depression the winters in Chicago had finally come to a point of finality. Ramah has made the difficult decision of suspend Wooden Rings, pack up and move to be closer to family. It’s a difficult move after almost 20 years in Chicago, leaving friends, and the family he built. But the call for growth and escape for the grip of stagnancy drives him. Let’s see what the future holds.
Wooden Rings is really excited to play the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts on the main stage at 1:00 pm on 9/11.
By then, we’ll have some stirring new songs to share and will come pregnant with vinyl. We played the festival years ago and I have nothing but fond memories of the event.
You can also hear one of our songs, “A Bell”, on WHCM 88.3 FM in the northwest suburbs on the Local Music Show on Harper Radio. Play rotation will begin on 8/2.
https://lakevieweastfestivalofthearts.com/
We are beyond excited to play outside at dusk at The Farm in East Garfield Park, a true Chicago gem known for its DYI garden.
Wooden Rings takes the stage at 7 PM but there will be a variety of great bands who traveled to perform, a bonfire, and even a goat that it still living, to fill your heart with mush.
The show will be on Thursday, August 4th at 7:00PM.
The Farm is located at 3236 W Carroll Ave in Chicago and there will be donations collected, so bring some cheddar.
Montrose Saloon is an easygoing Albany Park neighborhood watering hole offering local craft brews & spirits, plus regular live music. It’s roots and boozy, so come have fun!
Date: Thursday, July 14th
Time: We take the stage at 7:00 PM but music continue well into the night
Address: 2933 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
Cost: Suggested Donation
We rescheduled this show to a time when we didn’t have COVID
We are very excited to share some of the music we have been working on and have only attempted to perform in a garden over the summer. We have a sleek new in-ear system we want to try out and some lovely harmonies to tickle your ear.
Werewolf Coffee Bar is at 1765 Elston Ave. in Chicago
The music starts at 7:00 PM and end before 8:00 PM
At this free show, there will be alcohol and of course … coffee!
It’s February, the darkest, coldest, shortest month of the year. And like many we have been working hard, stressing, trying to grow in a place that doesn’t want to see growth. We’ve been working from home, sitting around, pacing our minds. But you know what, we’ve been together.
Wooden Rings has been practicing at our East Garfield space, writing new songs, gestating, and spending quite a bit of time on our sounds and equipment. We’d like to grow by incorporating some technology that has the premise to make us freer, more consistent, more efficient, and maybe with enough practice, more creative.
We’ve been thinking about how to pandemic swept our previous record right from under up. Many didn’t get a chance to hear it or never heard it live. Heliocentric was a vinyl endeavor and particularly sensitive to isolation. If we don’t play rooms, audiences never hear our work or consider supporting us. We could have scrambled to play online. But I just couldn’t do that to myself or my bandmates.
We all just needed time.
But now I think we are on the cusp of a new set, considering some starter shows, and eager to try some of our testy new gear. Will it fit? Will it completely fail? Or will it be so satisfying, we’ll forget how we were before?
We all work harder than ever outside of this project and we all want some new things out of life since the pandemic. May 2022 be a vehicle for us to express ourselves in this music, to grow closer together and wiser as individuals.
I love my bandmates, Nathan, Alex, and Liz. We appreciate anyone and everyone who will stop for a moment to listen to what we’ve constructed, not to tear us down but to hear the truths we share and be edified.
So, I want us to play out again soon.
-Ramah
Big thank you to every single person who has purchased or reserved our new record, Heliocentric. We put some bone marrow into this record and years of throwing lyrics at the wall and listening for echos back. Though I tend to write from my own personal experience I also hear my lyrics opening up more to feelings we all have. The lyrics are becoming less a study of my singular life and more a study on my friends, family, and society around me. So, lyrics matter to me a they are a vehicle of clarity, placing the emotion of the music in the right space in the mind to tell a story.
To avoid this kind of miscommunication, I have uploaded all of lyrics to Bandcamp next to each song. Make sure you heard what you thought you heard and check back at the title of the song for hints as to which memories to access on which songs.
1.In June 05:35
2.Streaming 04:53
3.Sunrise 05:57
4.Strangers 05:15
5.Shine 04:24
6.We Are Doves 04:57
7.A Bell 04:47
8.Just Read To Me 03:33
9.Flashing Gold 03:50
10.Before We Collapse 04:58
