Wilco "Guitar God" Nels cline --Wide-Ranging Sonic Experiences

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

May 21, 2008

Recently named a “Guitar God” by Rolling Stone Magazine, performing in a wide range of musical genres, Nels Cline is one of the most versatile, imaginative, and original guitarists active today. The lead guitarist for critically-acclaimed rock band Wilco (which he joined in 2004), Cline alternates with performances featuring The Nels Cline Singers, his ironically-named instrumental rock/free jazz trio formed with drummer Scott Amendola and bassist Devin Hoff.

Combining breathtaking technique with informed musical intelligence, delicate lyricism, sonic abstractions, and mind-binding flights of fancy, The Nels Cline Singers bring a concert of wide-ranging sonic experiences to The Paramount Theater on Friday, June 6. All seats for the 8 pm show are priced at $25.50.

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An “avant-garde guitarist” who “practically burns with talent,” (Dallas Observer), Nels Cline has performed on over 100 albums in the jazz, pop, rock, country, and experimental music genres.

Speaking of his chameleon-like musical abilities, All About Jazz observed that “in the fractured zone between punk, progressive rock, jazz, electronica, and neo-tribal futurism lie all sorts of loose ends just waiting to be tied together in unpredictable ways. Cline's specialty is exactly this."

Keeping “one foot in the avant-garde and one in rock” (Guitar Player), the self-taught Cline displays a mastery of guitar expression that inspired Jazz Times to call him “The World’s Most Dangerous Guitarist.” Born in Los Angeles in 1956, his earliest musical influences included Roger McGuinn, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, John Fahey, and Duane Allman.

Later these giants, as well as those of jazz, jazz/rock, punk, and the improvising avant-garde twisted his head around. Cline claims his most valuable music training came from his work with bassist/multi-instrumentalist Eric von Essen, with whom he performed as a duo from 1977 until von Essen’s untimely death in 1997.

In the late 1970s, Cline formed the influential chamber-jazz group Quartet Music with von Essen, percussionist (and brother) Alex Cline, and violinist Jeff Gauthier. Quartet Music recorded four albums and toured extensively, a twelve-year run highlighted by two performances in 1989 with the Milwaukee Symphony. Cline's first appearance on an album was on woodwindist Vinny Golia's 1978 record, Openhearted. His first work as a bandleader was 1988's Angelica with New York City altoist Tim Berne.

Other musicians Cline has performed and/or recorded with include Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Rickie Lee Jones, Julius Hemphill, Charlie Haden, Tim Berne, Mark Dresser, Bobby Bradford, Elliott Sharp, Thurston Moore, Gregg Bendian, Mark Isham, The Geraldine Fibbers, Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Devin Sarno, Zeena Parkins, Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Kaiser, The Scott Amendola Band, Banyan, and Carla Bozulich.

Cline formed the amped-up Nels Cline Trio -- a worthy forum for guitar excursions spanning probing, reflective balladry and bracing freeform assaults -- in 1989. The success of the trio format served as a launching pad for the current Nels Cline Singers.

The group has followed 2002’s Instrumentals and 2004’s The Giant Pin with 2007 release Draw Breath, which “expertly mines ... [a] wide range of influence and experience” (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) as it “dreams, drones, relentlessly rocks and deliciously resonates with quiet lyricism” (Billboard).

Tickets for The Nels Cline Singers on Friday, June 6 at 8 pm are $25.50 (all seats reserved). Students of all ages may obtain half-price student rush tickets at the Box Office with a valid ID 45 minutes prior to curtain. Group discounts are also available.

Tickets are available online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about The Nels Cline Singers, please visit www.nelscline.com or www.myspace.com/nelscline.