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LAMPLIGHTER w/ PETER MULVEY/ JOHNSMITH/ BEN BEDFORD/ MARK DVORAK
December 7, 2017 @ 8:00 pm - 10:30 pm
$20
PETER MULVEY’s Lamplighter Sessions are here from December 7th the 15th, minus Monday and Tuesday. Mulvey has been transported by music suspiciously (should we suspect foul play?) often in his life, and from the beginning, he sensed a pattern: most of these moments were impromptu, they happened offstage, and they involved people communicating something sublime in this elusive yet utterly reliable language we all share. The music-ness of moments is at its best when two or more players don’t quite know where it’s all going, and yet have enough of a common idea of the map at hand that they’re all going together. The Lamplighter Sessions is Mulvey’s dogged attempt to set up, year after year, lightning rods in a field, to coax these offstage moments into being onstage.
Who is this doggedy dog in this dog-eat-dog world?
To PETER MULVEY, there is no such thing as a straight and narrow path. At least, not one that he has any interest in taking.
A live-wire on any stage, Peter is an acoustic singer/songwriter/guitarist who, in fact, defies this categorization. His ferocious guitar playing whisks him through more tunings than he has fingers in the course of an evening, as he winds his way from full-throated rockers to deceptively plain-spoken musings. Whether solo or accompanied, Mulvey is someone who just naturally commands a stage:
“Peter Mulvey is one of the most accomplished guitarists you’re ever likely to hear… utterly original… it is nigh on impossible to explain him to the uninitiated… his intelligent and sometimes complex songs engage both hemispheres of the listener’s brain… one of the finest, most complete entertainers… stunning.” – The Irish Examiner
Trempeleau wordsmith JOHNSMITH
With his faded jeans, his twinkly blue eyes, and his infectious smile, John immediately connects with audiences. You get the sense of a man who loves his life, his family and friends, and who loves nothing more than sharing that love in song and stories all across this land.
“Johnsmith’s songs always move me. They make me laugh, cry, dance or just sing along. He is one of the most consistent writers of quality songs that I’ve ever met.” – Lydia Hutchinson, Editor, Performing Songwriter Magazine
“[Johnsmith] is one of those really pure hearted people that isn’t wasting any time on the cool factor, he gets there by virtue of his integrity.” – Frank Goodman
In July of 2010, Bedford was named one of the “50 most significant Folk singer-songwriters of the past 50 years” by Rich Warren of WFMT-Chicago. The list also included such stalwarts as Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Anais Mitchell and John Prine. Bedford recently finished work on his fourth album, The Pilot and the Flying Machine, which features Diederik van Wassenaer (The Underhills, Dietrich Jon) on violin, Ethan Jodziewicz (Sierra Hull, Darol Anger) on double bass, Kari Bedford on harmonies and was engineered by Dave Sinko (Punch Brothers, YoYo Ma, Edgar Meyer).
“The Illinois songwriter is a masterful storyteller who can turn what seem like obscure historical references into engaging tales rife with vivid, stark imagery.”– Erik Ernst The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MARK DVORAK plays folk and blues on banjo and guitar. “Mark is a charismatic performer with a spark of gentle passion that lights every concert hall and every greenway where he lifts his voice in celebration of the old songs. He has been called “a folk singer’s folk singer who follows unerringly in the footsteps of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie,” and his song writing has been called “wondrous” and “profound.”
Mark has given concerts in almost all of the United States and has made visits to Finland, Canada and Ireland. To date he has released seventeen albums of traditional and original music. He has won awards for children’s music, journalism, and was honored in 2008 with the Woodstock Folk Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2013 he received the FARM Lantern Bearer Award from Folk Alliance International.