Last year, Daniel Knox joined Eight Forty-Eight and belted out his brooding and beautiful songs of death and destruction.

One year, and a couple of residencies later (in New York and Russia), Knox is back – this time, he’s brought a band with him (Jason Toth on percussion, Ralph Carney on horns and Paul Parts on bass)

Knox recently returned from Russia where he’d been commissioned to write music for a Russian production of the American play, The Aliens (by Annie Baker). He performed and talked about songs from his repertoire and about his time abroad.

On his blog, Knox writes about his time in Russia “I went to Moscow for two weeks to work with the actors writing music and improvising together. I also got to see a lot of theater there including two plays by Dmitry Krymov who I had the pleasure to meet in person.”

Daniel Knox performs this Thursday, July 5 at The Hideout in Chicago as part of the Lowbrow Reader Variety Hour. The event celebrates the release of The Lowbrow Reader Reader, out now on Drag City Books. The night will feature music from Daniel Knox, Ezra Furman, Charlie Bury and more.