Kill Henry Sugar profile picture

Kill Henry Sugar

Folk music from the roots of Gotham

About Me

"Effortlessly beguiling." - TimeOut NY
"Exquisite compositions, stunningly performed without a net." - Joan Baez
"Masterful low-fi storytelling." - Washington Post

Born and bred in New York City, Erik Della Penna and Dean Sharenow perform as the drum/dobro duo Kill Henry Sugar, creating modern folk music from the roots of Gotham. The two met playing around town and discovered a shared fascination with the city's corrupt beginnings and the frenzied ambition of its inhabitants. Kill Henry Sugar became the minimalist, streamlined vehicle for this ongoing discourse; think "Gangs Of New York" (book, not movie) meets "Metropolis" (movie, not book).

Much of the material for their latest release was inspired by the epic timeline of life in the boroughs. Recording took place in the basement of Della Penna's grandmother's Bronx apartment, among gelatin silver prints of generations past. The songs are snapshots of New York life painted in stark, vivid tones: the cunning corruption of Tammany Hall politics; the muted spirit of the huddled masses; the power and paranoia of the modern metropolis.

An early copy of the CD impressed folk icon Joan Baez, and she was inspired to add two of the songs to her distinguished repertoire. Soon after, Ms. Baez saw the pair perform, and Kill Henry Sugar was asked to be the backing band for her 2007 summer tour. They will join her again in spring 2008 for a series of US dates.

SWING BACK AND DOWN is Kill Henry Sugar's fourth full-length recording.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/8/2007
Band Website: killhenrysugar.com
Band Members: Erik Della Penna, Dean Sharenow
Influences: CLICK HERE to buy the new CD from Amazon!
Record Label: Surprise Truck
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

New pics and summer dates

Just uploaded a few new pics from the spring tour. The entire slideshow is available at http://killhenrysugar.com.Also starting to post summer dates for us and Joan B. Lots of eastern Europe afoot...B...
Posted by Kill Henry Sugar on Thu, 08 May 2008 02:32:00 PST

KHS spring tour dates with Joan Baez...

Just got a fresh spring tour schedule for our dates with JB; they're on our page and the website. We'll also try to stick in a few small shows on our off nights, so keep your eyes peeled. First one is...
Posted by Kill Henry Sugar on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:00:00 PST

History Channel spots on the air

Just started seeing the ads for Tom Brokaw's new History Channel show with the KHS version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash". They really mixed us up nice, and the video is compelling. Kudos to them.
Posted by Kill Henry Sugar on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:00:00 PST

KHS with Joan Baez on WEEDS

KHS produced Joan B's version of "Little Boxes" for this week's episode of the Showtime series WEEDS. We struck and strummed it, too. There's a link to the tune at http://killhenrysugar.com.
Posted by Kill Henry Sugar on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:10:00 PST