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Betty Soo is as Texan as they come. Raised outside Houston by first-generation Korean immigrant parents, educated at UT, she grew up listening to the Great American songbook and country radio. Older sisters led her to the world of singer/songwriters, and nights spent at The Cactus Café and Hole In The Wall turned her on to the legacy of Texas song.
Her 2007 solo disc, Little Tiny Secrets, garnered heavy regional airplay; 2009’s Heat Sin Water Sin produced by Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard), provided building blocks to a national (and international) audience. In 2014, When We’re Gone, co-produced with cellist Brian Standefer (Alejandro Escovedo, Terry Allen) placed her firmly in the first rank of songwriters working today.
She’s won the requisite awards: New Folk at Kerrville, Songwriter of the Year at Big Top Chautauqua, The Dave Carter Songwriting Award at Sisters Folk Festival, Mountain Stage's New Song.
She’s played the festivals – multiple South by Southwests, Kerrville, Calgary and more. And the radio shows – E-Town, Mountain Stage, WoodSongs, BBC 2 with Bob Harris.
Her singing has been heard on Riverdale and Girl Boss, and her songs formed the musical backbone to Christine Hoang’s 2017 play A Girl Named Sue, singled out by Austin360.com in their review as “gorgeous, moving ballads comment(ing) on the themes of the scenes they punctuate.”
The future looks auspicious for BettySoo.
Until the novel corona-virus shutdown, the Nobody’s Girl project was touring nonstop, and their intelligent lyrics and tightly-woven harmonies keep their audiences entranced. The trio recorded a full-length album featuring players such as Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan), J.J. Johnson (Tedeschi Trucks), Glenn Fukunaga (The Chicks), David Grissom (Buddy Guy, Allman Brothers, Ringo Starr), and Michael Ramos (John Mellencamp, BoDeans), who reprised his role as producer. She hit the road as dedicated support for songwriting heroes James McMurtry and Chris Smither. You’ll likely see her onstage singing harmonies at shows for artists such as Eliza Gilkyson, James Hyland, Kim Richey, and more. Music programmers have an embarrassment of riches to choose from, and listeners still have the opportunity to re-familiarize – or hear for the first time – the extraordinary talent that is BettySoo.
In the Time of COVID-19, BettySoo cut a unique path through the broad streaming landscape -- and as with everything she does, she approached it in a way that invites authentic connection, encourages compassion, and merits listening. Her weekly Nobody's Happy Hour via Zoom fostered an intimate and meaningful community and were hailed by many as one of the most creative streamed residencies anywhere.
Awards, music and more at:
bettysoo.com
What a treat to have Hank Woji opening the show. A self-described “Jersey Shore Ex-Pat turned West Texas Desert Rat,” Hank Woji cut his musical teeth as a bassist in the vibrant Asbury Park, NJ music scene of the 1980s & 90s. In March of 2001 Hank moved to Houston, TX and found his new musical voice as an Americana Singer Songwriter. But destiny turned a page and it was his chance move, in 2009, to the far West Texas desert town of Terlingua that has most reshaped his life and his music.
Critics have described Hank’s music as “acoustic-wielding, sharply observed, Americana all the way” and being “in the best tradition of the Texas troubadours like Guy Clarke, Townes Van Zandt and Butch Hancock” and that “His troubadour style also comes very close to the style of Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger, or as we heard on ‘Nebraska’ from Bruce Springsteen.”
Of his recently released 6th CD, Tony Award winning songwriter, Anaïs Mitchell says: “Highways, Gamblers, Devils and Dreams is a sprawling meditation on mythic American themes. Hank is a warm-hearted and precise troubadour of the old school.” The CD debuted in September 2023 at #5 on the Euro Americana chart and #3 on the U.S. FAI Folk Music chart, and his recording of “Terlingua Blues” was listed on Texas Monthly’s “Going To Big Bend Ultimate Playlist” in January of that year.
Over his 25+ year songwriter career, Hank has performed with such notable artists as: Jonathan Byrd, Spook Handy, Jaimee Harris, Joe Jenks, Bob Livingston, Grant Peeples, Sarah Lee Guthrie, David Amram, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Pete Seeger.
Hank tours nationally, performing regularly at festivals, coffeehouses, theaters, clubs and house concerts as a solo singer songwriter, in various duo and trio configurations, and with his full TexAmericana Jam Band – The Hank Woji Conspiracy.
hankwoji.com
Tickets for this show are available at the door.
Door Donations:
$15/Members
$20/General Admission
The doors to the ACMA listening room open at 6:30 PM and the show begins at 7:00 PM
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Event Venue
2756 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers, FL, United States, Florida 33901
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
