Swallow Hill Music presents Eliza Gilkyson and Ellis Paul in a
double-bill concert filled with socially conscious and award winning
music.
Eliza Gilkyson is a politically minded, poetically gifted
singer/songwriter who has become one of the most respected musicians in
roots, folk and Americana circles. A GRAMMY-nominated artist, she has
appeared on NPR, Austin City Limits, Mountain Stage, e-Town, XM, Air
America Radio and has toured with Richard Thompson, Patty Griffin and
Mary Chapin Carpenter.
In February of 2003, she was inducted
into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. In 2006, she was recognized with
three Austin Music Awards and four Folk Alliance Music Awards, one of
which was for Song of the Year for her tune “Man of God.” A scathing
indictment of the Bush administration’s use of religion to manipulate
the public, the song has become a political anthem to many and has
received wide airplay around the world. Recently, Eliza’s meditative
tune “Requiem,” written as a prayer for those who lost lives in the
devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia, was recorded by the nationally
recognized choral group, Conspirare, and was nominated for a GRAMMY. It
was also featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
In 2008 she
released the critically acclaimed Beautiful World, an evocative
collection of songs that explore an optimism and love for the world
despite its violence and darkness. Choc full of smart, sensual lyrics,
Utne Reader proclaimed the album “one of the best folk albums of 2008”
while All Music Guide declared it her “masterpiece.”
Joining
Eliza on stage for the evening is renowned guitarist Nina Gerber, whose
melodic touch has previously contributed to performances with Nanci
Griffith, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, and most recently seen at
Swallow Hill with Karla Bonoff.
Wise, tender, brilliant and
biting, Ellis Paul is one of our best human compasses, marking in
melodies and poems where we've been and where we might go if we so
choose to. One of the leading voices in American songwriting, his
charismatic and personally authentic performance style has influenced a
generation of artists away from the artifice of pop and closer towards
the realness of folk.
Though Paul remains among the most
pop-friendly of today's singer/songwriters (his songs regularly appear
in hit movie and TV soundtracks), he has bridged the gulf between the
modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete
Seeger more successfully than perhaps any of his songwriting peers. His
skyrocketing career is still legendary in the Boston folk circles out
of which he sprang. Paul won an unprecedented 13 Boston Music Awards
between 1993 and 2004, and director Peter Farrelly ("Me, Myself, &
Irene," "Shallow Hal") has called him "a national treasure."
Tickets : Adv: $18; D/S $21. Additional $3 discount for Swallow Hill members
