This Month's Show
Joe
Crookston
with
special guest Connor Garvey
April 19, 2014
8 pm
You’re sitting in a beautiful theatre with 160 other people waiting to hear
Joe Crookston perform….expecting to hear a guy with a guitar, fingerpick and
play some great songs. It’s true, but you are about to experience something
much more. Pulled in by the magic and musical world that he creates, you’ll
become part of the show. You’ll travel with him along mystical,
historical, and humorous roads, and twist through personal, colorful stories
along the way. At the end of the night, you’ll leave inspired, with a renewed
sense of what is possible.
From the first strum of his 1948 Gibson, through stories of ruby red dresses,
Tinian Island, Dylan Thomas, Taoist parables and drunken roosters you’ll be
drawn in and deeply moved by his music. It happens every time. Watch a YouTube
video. Check him out. It’s not the same.
His CD, “Able Baker Charlie & Dog” received the most airplay of any folk
acoustic recording and was awarded: “Album of the Year” by the International
Folk Alliance in Memphis, TN. He received a year-long songwriting grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation to travel throughout New York State, collect stories, and
write original songs.
Joe Crookston is a master storyteller. His music swirls with themes of
lightness, darkness, clocks ticking, weeping willows, cynicism, hope, and the
cycles of life and rebirth. If you love a moving song and musical madness, Joe
Crookston delivers it all, the melodies, the lyrics, the energy, and a deep
passion for exceptionally well-written songs.
Through his spirit and playfulness and his unwavering courage to be himself, you
will be moved in ways you didn’t expect. He is literate, poignant and funny as
hell, and there is no doubt that you’ll be glad you came to the show.
"With all the performers out there, an artist has to go beyond good…and
Joe does.”
Sing Out Magazine
"Joe Crookston is decidedly one of today’s standout troubadours. On
Darkling & the BlueBird Jubilee, he sings the heart pure, he sings the soul
holy, he sings the mind unshackled, and he sings the world loud and true.”
Roots Music Examiner
* * *
Opening the evening will be singer-songwriter Connor Garvey. Connor's initiation
as a modern troubadour came in 2008 by way of train; a 45 day, self booked tour
by Amtrak across the country. Now, many years of traveling later, Garvey is
finding his place as a seasoned folk-rock singer-songwriter touring around the
US in his station wagon, playing festivals, winning songwriting competitions
from Maine to Texas, wowing house concerts, and playing to full crowds at many
of the country's best acoustic venues.
Radio listeners across the US became enthralled with Garvey's sound when his
song Soul on the Line remained in extensive airplay on Sirius XM's The
Coffeehouse- garnering him a spot in their top 6 new Singer Songwriters of 2010.
"...when Connor Garvey stepped up with solid singing and playing, the
place was silent and I knew that this acoustic music tradition was in the right
hands..."
Vance Gilbert
"... proves you can be optimistic and self-aware
without being boring."
Aimsel Ponti - The Portland Press Herald
