bromberg, rowan, rice join forces for acoustic evening

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

October 15, 2007

Coming together on one Paramount acoustic evening:three virtuosic players whose tastes are as eclectic as their talents are superb. A rare opportunity to hear some of the greatest musicians of American traditional music, An Evening of American Acoustic Music will feature singer-songwriter virtuoso David Bromberg backed by the red-hot playing and rich harmonic textures of the Angel Band, and the influential, groundbreaking, bluegrass icons of the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet.

The eclectic musical journey that ensues will take listeners from early works of Stephen Foster and Bob Wills' Texas swing to Cajun fiddle tunes and Delta and Chicago blues, bluegrass, folk, and much more. An Evening of American Acoustic Music will play Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater on Friday, October 26 at 7:30 pm.

This performance is sponsored by Ferguson, Andrews Investment Advisors, Inc. Special Media Sponsor is WHTJ Charlottesville PBS.

After spending several years off the road, David Bromberg -- and his extraordinary guitar picking and exceptional stylistic range -- are back on the live concert scene. Unique as ever, Bromberg’s concerts follow no set pattern of selection. Give and take between performer and audience is complete, spontaneous, and totally sincere.  As The New York Times has noted, “he has such control of his audience that he can, at one moment, hold it in his hand with a tender, touching yet funny anecdotal song, and then set it romping and stomping with a raucous bit of raunch.  He is electrifying.”

Inspired by the music of Pete Seeger and the Weavers, among others, Bromberg began studying the guitar at age 13. Intent on a career as a musicologist, Bromberg enrolled at Columbia university, but was drawn to Greenwich Village's flourishing coffeehouse folk music scene in the mid-1960’s. He opted for performance combined with his studies, and left school in the middle of his second year -- a decision that soon brought his extraordinary guitar picking and exceptional stylistic range to the attention of many other musicians: Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, John Hurt, the Reverend Gary Davis, Tom Paxton, and Chubby Checker to name a few.

In 1970 Bromberg decided to go it on his own.  Following a spectacular, unscheduled performance at England’s Isle of Wight Festival that year, he was signed to his first recording contract, which resulted in the release of four albums: David Bromberg, Demon in Disguise, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Midnight on the Water. Two compilation albums have subsequently been released. In the spring of 1977, Bromberg moved to the San Francisco Bay where he recorded several albums for Fantasy, including the double album How Late’ll Ya Play ‘Til?.

A singular performer/writer/arranger, Bromberg’s remarkable musical versatility and innovative resourcefulness have earned vast critical and popular acclaim. He is also impossible to classify: As one critic perceptively wrote, “David Bromberg fits no pigeonholes. He is part of everything contemporarily musical. He is a product of blues, country, jazz, folk, and classical music. From his early success as a guitar virtuoso, Mr. Bromberg has developed into a brilliant entertainer.”\

Playing with Bromberg, Angel Band is the result of area musicians getting together to jam on a weekly basis at a small café in Wilmington, Delaware. The group originally came together because David Bromberg wanted to explore the possibility of bringing live, creative music back to a downtown that had once been thriving musically. Members are Nancy Josephson, Jen Schonwald, and Kathleen Weber.

Initially inspired by the possibilities and flexibility inherent in classic bluegrass, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice have helped reinvent American roots music over the course of their respective solo careers. When they joined forces for their first duo release, 2004’s You Were There for Me, these two established masters began a bold new chapter in their continuing artistic journey. Rowan’s aching vocals and poignant, poetic songs were elevated by Rice’s elegantly fleet flat-picking, resulting in an album that bore distinct traces of each man’s prior accomplishments, yet achieved a synthesis all its own. the history of Peter Rowan and Tony Rice is the history of the continuing evolution of bluegrass and its blossoming into a wider range of progressive acoustic music.

Peter Rowan began his career as guitarist and lead singer in a particularly potent ’60s incarnation of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, and then lent his soulful vocals and rich, spiritually-informed songwriting to a series of ground-breaking progressive roots-music outfits, including Earth Opera (with David Grisman), Sea Train, Muleskinner (with Grisman, Bill Keith, Richard Greene, and Clarence White), and Old and In the Way (with Vassar Clements and Jerry Garcia). Subsequent solo and group projects have proven him to be a visionary creative force, unconcerned with the constraints of boundaries and genres.

As one of the premier exponents of flat-picked acoustic guitar, Tony Rice parlayed his initial inspiration from Clarence White and Doc Watson into a legacy of innovation. His early stints with the Bluegrass Alliance and J.D. Crowe and the New South introduced a guitarist with a classic bluegrass sensibility matched with a thirst for experimentation.  He was a member of David Grisman’s groundbreaking first quintet, and then set out with a series of solo albums that saw him integrating bluegrass music with elements of jazz, folk, country, and other contemporary forms.

In the time since the release of You Were There for Me, Rowan and Rice’s touring quartet, featuring bassist/vocalist Bryn Davies and mandolinist/vocalist Sharon Gilchrist, has coalesced into a uniquely powerful, cohesive unit. The new album from Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, entitled Quartet, is a moving document of this new ensemble, with all the fire and fluidity of the band’s remarkable live performances preserved.

Tickets for An Evening of American Acoustic Music on Friday, October 26 are $38.50, $41.50, $44.50, and $49.50. Half-price student rush seats and group discounts are also available.

Tickets are currently on sale online and through The Paramount's Box Office at 434.979.1922.

For more about the artists featured in An Evening of American Acoustic Music, please visit www.davidbromberg.net, www.angelband.net, www.peter-rowan.com, and www.tonyrice.com.