PLEASE NOTE: All Saturday events, workshops and performances have been moved to the Swallow Hill Building.
Featuring live performances from: Jay Farrar (of Son Volt), Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Tao Seeger, The Atomic Duo (feat. Mark Rubin of Bad Livers), Seth Bernard & Daisy May Erlewine, Café Nuba featuring Ashara Ekundayo, Jennifer Johns & Erwin Thomas, and Master of Ceremonies Aaron Keim.
Honoring the legacy of an American icon, the Woody Guthrie Festival: Weaving The Threads is Denver's first official festival to celebrate the many facets of Woody Guthrie's creative life: musician, artist, technologist, political activist and writer. For two days the festival will offer a gallery of rare art and artifacts, film screenings, instrumental workshops, presentations from the Woody Guthrie Foundation & Archives and panel discussions with Woody's granddaughter and performer Sarah Lee Guthrie and Pete Seeger's grandson and performer Tao Seeger. For more details or for a complete schedule of events, please click here to visit the festival website.
Co-presented by:
Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas
Continuing to pursue their resurrection and reinvention of the classic musical marriage between big and small fiddles (a familiar feature of 18th century Scottish music), Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas display near-telepathic interplay, breathtaking technical prowess and boundless dynamism, be it in tunes from that same golden era, the age of Burns and Gow, or Fraser’s own memorable compositions.
$22 Advance; $24 Day of Show. $2 discount for Swallow Hill members
An Evening with Jeff Daniels
The versatility of actor/comedian Jeff Daniels is apparent in films like Terms of Endearment, the hilarious Dumb and Dumber and the cult hit The Lookout; but have you ever seen Jeff Daniels the singer/songwriter? After 30-years in film, he is making a foray into music."I've been writing songs for over thirty years," Says Jeff, "they're my diaries. I had everything I've ever written in this big, black notebook...someone had suggested [for a benefit concert] if I were pushed out onstage with a guitar, people might actually pay money to see what happened." So while finishing a film, Jeff was transcribing three decades of music into his computer when (Sound Engineer) Steve Curran inquired as to what he was doing. "Organizing my songs," Jeff said. Steve suggested Jeff record his concert, Jeff quickly replied "turn around and finish tweaking the fart scene...I make my living as an actor, not an actor who sings...If I put out a CD there's a...chance I'd be compared to William Shatner," to which Steve said, "Sounds like a song to me," then turned around and went about adding "more bass to that flatulence."
Austin Lounge Lizards have honed their music into a wicked-funny art form. They’ve delighted audiences from Texas to Trafalgar Square with their inventive style of satirical folk, country and bluegrass. Trademarks of a Lizards song are highly literate, sharply pointed lyrics that poke fun at politics, love, religion and the culture in general. Combined with superb musicianship that features precise four and five-part vocal harmonies and instrumental mastery, the band’s songs are as melodically infectious as they are lyrically prescient. The group counts Frank Zappa, George Jones, Spike Jones, Flatt & Scruggs, Tom Lehrer and Steve Goodman among its influences.
The Austin Lounge Lizards have delighted audiences from Texas to California, from Canada to the U.K., with their inventive style of satirical folk, country and bluegrass. Based in Austin, Texas, since they formed in 1980, the Lizards have honed their music into a knife-sharp art form. Trademarks of a Lizards song are highly literate, sharply pointed lyrics that poke fun at politics, love, religion and the culture in general. For example, among the songs on their latest CD, Strange Noises In The Dark, are the title song—a darkly funny tale of a jilted lover obsessed with his ex; "Phil and Jesse," a sweet ode to retired Senators Phil Gramm and Jesse Helms; the self-explanatory "Why Couldn't We Blow Up Saddam?" and "We Always Fight When We Drink Gin," a touching duet with guest vocals by Kelly Willis. The Lizards musical style features precise four- and five-part vocal harmonies and instrumental mastery, particularly from Conrad Deisler on guitar, Korey Simeone on fiddle and mandolin, and Tom Pittman on banjo, dobro, and pedal steel guitar. Rounding out the group are Hank Card on rhythm guitar and Boo Resnick on bass. Lizard arrangements often include harmonies and instrumental parts that are themselves a spoof of the conventions of bluegrass, country, rock, and pop music. So it's no surprise that the group counts among its influences Frank Zappa, George Jones, Flatt & Scruggs and Steve Goodman.
Beth Nielsen Chapman'slatest album, Back To Love, brings the acclaimed, Nashville-based singer/songwriter full circle, back to the soul-deep songwriting style that made her famous and provided big hits for herself and covers by an impressive and eclectic group of artists including Faith Hill, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, Patty Griffin and Emmylou Harris, to name a few.
