The Black Lillies are going on hiatus, according to an email sent to their subscription list on Thursday, Dec. 26. Based in Knoxville, Tennessee, the band was formed by Cruz Contreras in 2009 and has changed lineups multiple times over the years. Their newest album, Stranger to Me, was issued in 2018. (Read the BGS interview.)
The email reads as follows:
Friends,
After eleven years, five albums, approximately 2000 shows, and countless relationships built along the way, the time has come for us to take a step back from The Black Lillies. This isn’t goodbye – it’s just farewell for now.
Touring at the pace we have makes it difficult to attend to anything else, and we each have things we’ve put on the back burner in order to focus on the band. We’ll be taking an indefinite hiatus in order to nurture those other projects and relationships for a while.
We can’t thank you enough for being the very best fans and friends a band could ask for. More than that – you’ve been our extended family. Having you in our lives has been the most important outcome of being in this band. You’ve impacted our lives in countless ways, and we are so grateful.
We’ve got four shows this weekend and in the coming weeks we’ll announce one more hometown celebration that will take place this spring. If you can, please join us this weekend at one of the following venues:
Saturday 12/28 – Johnson City, TN @ The Willow Tree
Sunday, 12/29 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall (presented by WYEP)
Monday 12/30 – Thomas, WV @ The Purple Fiddle (unplugged)
Tuesday, 12/31 – Thomas, WV @ The Purple Fiddle (New Year’s Eve)
We hope that if you’re near any of this weekend’s shows, you can make it out to see us. And if you aren’t, we hope that you’ll make the trip to Knoxville this spring so that we can properly celebrate together. Stay tuned for details about that show.
If you haven’t already, please take a moment to follow the Cruz Contreras and Sam Quinn fan pages in order to keep up with their solo work.
Thank you. We love you.
Farewell for now.
Cruz, Sam, Bowman and Graham
Photo credit: Nicole Wickens
