Archive for January, 2009
Next Up…Andrew McKnight
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 | House Concerts | No Comments
Our next concert is scheduled for March 14 and we are proud to be hosting Virginia-based award-winning folk and Americana singer/songwriter Andrew McKnight.
Since permanently leaving his corporate environmental engineering career in 1996, Andrew’s musical journey has traced nearly half-a-million miles of blue highways and small towns nationwide, and earned him a wealth of critical acclaim and enthusiastic fan response for his five CDs and captivating performances.
Wherever and however Andrew takes the stage, audiences are at once spellbound and relaxed by his entertaining stories delivered with just the right touches of down home humor, causing one concertgoer to label him “equal parts Robert Frost, William Least Half-Moon and Jeff Foxworthy.
As always, the suggested donation is $15/person and you can RSVP to Lou AT BoroHouseConcerts.com.
Oh, What A Night!
Sunday, January 18th, 2009 | House Concerts | No Comments
I hate to say I told you so…but I told you so. I said that Jack Williams is one of the best singer/songwriters on the planet. I said he is a fantastic guitar player and a phenomenal performer. And for the people who came to last night’s Jack Williams concert, you found out that everything I said was true.
When Jack and Judy (Jack’s wife) arrived at the house, I was a little concerned. I knew Jack has been having some problems with his voice as of late, but when he got to the house, his voice was worse than I had anticipated. I needn’t have worried. With the help of some hot tea and honey, Jack fought through his voice problems and sounded just fine.
Of course, Jack’s guitar picking was not affected. As usual, Jack jumped from playing folk, blues, jazz, R&B, bluegrass, soul, and pop licks effortlessly. I can’t do justice describing Jack’s ability on the guitar, but if you were at the concert last night, you know what I mean.
Jack played several cuts off his new CD, “Don’t Let Go.” Jack was very focused on two upcoming events: the inauguration of Barack Obama and the celebration of Martin Luther King Day. Because Jack is southern born and bred (a product of South Carolina), he has a strong sense of relations between the races and it comes through in much of his music. Of course, the highlight of the evening was Jack’s finale; a 20 minute rambling, stream of consciousness song that spans genres, artists, eras, and often defies logic. The finale, and the entire evening for that matter, was a ton of fun.
Thanks to everyone who came to the show and a special thanks to everyone who brought food and/or drink to share. Thanks also to Jack and Judy for including Boro House Concerts on your schedule. You are both an absolute joy.
First Impressions of Jack Williams
Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | 5 Comments
Jack Williams
The first time I saw Jack Williams play live, I was somewhat awestruck. I wrote my thoughts down after the show on a now defunct blog I was writing at the time. Here’s what I thought after my first encounter with Jack Williams:
Kim and I were lucky enough to see Jack Williams in concert last night. He was playing at the Blake Library in Stuart, FL.
In case you’re not familiar with Jack, he is a singer-songwriter who plays “acoustic music.” I guess you’d call him a folk singer (if you felt the need to label him), but he is also a storyteller, a comedian, and a traveling philosopher.
The concert was a lot of fun and Jack was great. His voice was weathered and bluesy, and his guitar playing was phenomenal.
Several years ago, I got to see Michael Jordan play basketball. Each time I would see him play I would come away wishing that I could do something, anything, in my life as well as Michael Jordan plays basketball. After seeing Jack Williams in concert, I am left with the desire to be able to do something, anything, as well as he plays guitar.
It’s a little funny that Jack is such a virtuoso on the guitar because when he walked on stage, my first thought was, “Jeez, that guitar is sure beat up.” And it’s true. Jack’s guitar has seen better days. The top of the guitar is faded and delaminated, and the pickguard is so old and worn that it is falling off the guitar. Even so, the sweet, soulful music Jack created with that old guitar was amazing.
On stage, Jack told stories, cracked jokes, and talked about his beloved south, all the while strumming and picking his guitar. The sound of the guitar was omnipresent. I got the feeling that at home, Jack sits and play his guitar while he talks to his wife Judy (who was also at the concert). It’s somewhat comical to think of Jack and Judy sitting at home in Arkansas, talking about the weather, a neighbor, the bills, or anything else while Jack provides background music for their lives. I don’t think there is ever a time when Jack isn’t playing his guitar. It must make it hard to drive and play guitar at the same time, but somehow Jack manages.
During the concert, Jack did several of his own songs (Eternity & Main, Mama Lou, A Natural Man, Frog in the Kitchen) as well as a couple of other people’s songs (Buckets of Rain by Bob Dylan), but the highlight (at least for me) was the last song he did.
Jack has a way of ending a concert that is truly unique. It is to music what stream of consciousness writing is to literature. For about twenty minutes, Jack played and sang anything that came into his head. During the course of his finale I remember hearing such diverse songs as “Young at Heart,” “Girl from Ipanema,” “Misty,” “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” “The Weight,” and several other songs, both strange and familiar. Jack also made up a couple of mini-songs during the finale.
Jack Williams is a great performer and his concert provided one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had in quite some time. If you ever get the chance to see Jack in person, I would highly recommend it.
More About “Suggested Donations”
Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | House Concerts | No Comments
I’ve gotten a couple of questions about our “suggested donation” policy and I’d like to clarify a couple of things:
- A house concert is not a “party with a cover charge.” It is an opportunity to hear great music from a terrific musician in the comfort of someone’s living room. The host provides the space (and some food/drinks) and the guests chip in to pay for the musician.
- For our first two house concerts, I paid the musicians out of my own pocket in order to attract great performers while we built our audience. I also wanted to give our audience a feel for what a house concert is all about before asking for money.
- All of the money collected goes to the performer. The host doesn’t get any of the money.
- In my mind, a suggested donation is just that: suggested. My main goal in hosting house concerts is to share great music with friends (both old and new) in a comfortable environment. I’ll put out a can to collect donations. If you choose to donate, great. If you chose to donate more or less than the suggested donation, that’s okay too. Pay what you can afford and what you feel the concert is worth. To me, the most import thing is that you join us and share the evening with us.
- We love kids and if they are under 16, they are free. All we ask is that they are well behaved. We’d prefer that they listen to the music, but understand that some kids just aren’t interested. That’s okay. They can spend time up in our bonus room playing video games or watching a movie.
- Give it a try. If you haven’t been to a house concert yet, give it a try and see what you think. Don’t feel any pressure to donate until you’ve seen what the concert is all about.
If you have any questions, just let me know.