Talks & Entertainment

This event will take place in our Downstairs venue with mostly standing room. For those that require seating, please call 202.408.3100 in advance.

Amen Dunes, the project of Damon McMahon, was born out of a collection of songs made in the fall of 2006 in upstate New York. They were personal recordings not intended for release, a cathartic answer to the music, people, and life in New York City.

Amen Dunes has always been rooted in traditional song and sound, but his full-length album Love is the  first work in which this so clearly shines through. The guiding influence of Astral Weeks, Sam Cooke, Tim Hardin, Marvin Gaye, Hector Lavoe, and the cosmic non-verbal mediations of Leon Thomas, all kept vigil over the songwriting of Love, and the spirit of late 60’s/early 70’s spiritual jazz of Pharaoh Sanders and Alice Coltrane channeled the sound. The result is simply the most substantial Amen Dunes record to date. These are elemental songs about time, love and memory, as much about the listener as they are about the writer: pure, open, and beautiful.