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FocusMusic and Unity of Charlottesville present James Keelaghan and David Woodhead at Unity of Charlottesville. 2825 Hydraulic Circle, Charlottesville, VA 22901 | 7pm | $25 James Keelaghan is poet laureate of the folk and roots music world and Canada’s finest singer-songwriter.
Contemporary folk songs, at their very best, offer an insight into the hardships, attitudes, and resolve of characters and events that shape our day-to-day lives. You can dress these songs up in inspired arrangements and intricate instrumentation but, at their very essence, the archetypal folk song is all about stories. Stories and people. Something such compelling songwriters as Eric Bogle, Si Kahn, Ewan MacColl, and Stan Rogers … all understood and mined so effectively.
James Keelaghan, too, burrows into that same rich seam with equal ability and comparable conviction. To quote Eric Bibb, the award-winning American acoustic bluesman, after listening to Keelaghan perform: “[You're] a joy to hear, just beautiful. Reminded me of the best of the best of another time ‐ Liam Clancy, Tom Paxton etcetera.” Less colourful but more succinct, Dave Marsh, the eminent Rolling Stone critic, simply described Keelaghan as “Canada's finest songwriter.”
Truly, throughout a career that now spans almost four decades, the Juno and Canadian Folk Music Award winner has created a repertoire of incalculable importance ‐ a unique body of work, either inspired by or drawn from the folk tradition. Ten solo albums flush with enduring lyrical relevance. Take the beautiful but heartbreaking ballad, “Jenny Bryce,” for example. From any point of view, it's indistinguishable from the numerous traditional tracks covered on his disc A Few Simple Verses.
What's more, various other originals from the Keelaghan cannon must surely enter the domain of traditional folklore. Most notably, “Small Rebellion” (highlighting the 1931 slaughter of peaceful striking miners in Bienfait, SK); “Hillcrest Mine” (a prelude to the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history); “Kiri's Piano” (a triumph over adversity amidst the shameful, racist treatment of Japanese-Canadians during WW II); “Cold Missouri Waters” (a harrowing portrait of the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire in the mountains of Montana).
For this concert James will be accompanied by David Woodhead:
picture of David Woodhead
You've probably seen David's name listed on the backs of recordings in your collection and, yes, he's on some 300 projects and worked with many influential artists including Perth County Conspiracy, Stan Rogers, Oliver Schroer, Gil Scott-Heron, and David Sanborn. His own music draws from the intimacy of the folk world, the harmonic sensibilites of jazz, and a sense of precision from classical arranging, with room for freedom in individual expression and improvisation.
“Was that you playing the bass up there? Oh, you're delicious!” ~ Odetta.
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Event Venue
Unity Charlottesville, 2825 Hydraulic Cir,Charlottesville,VA,United States
Tickets
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