Jim Kweskin & Samoa Wilson

Jim Kweskin & Samoa Wilson
http://www.jimkweskin.com

Folk icon Jim Kweskin will appear at the East Rock Concert Series on Sunday, March 31, at 7p.m. Stunning vocalist Samoa Wilson will be joining Kweskin. She has appeared and recorded several albums with him. Kweskin was the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, the legendary group that started in Boston in the 1960s and played Club 47. With Fritz Richmond, Geoff and Maria Muldaur, Bob Siggins and Bruno Wolfe the jugband successfully modernized the sounds of pre–World War II rural music.

There's an endearing sense of good humor to Kweskin's versions that makes his performances a charming delight.

Kweskin is probably best known as a singer and bandleader, but he also created one of the bedrock guitar styles of the folk revival, adapting the ragtime-blues fingerpicking of artists like Blind Boy Fuller to the more complex chords of pop and jazz. He has maintained a remarkably consistent musical vision since his jug band days, continuing to explore traditional folk and blues with the sophisticated sensibility of a jazz musician and jazz with the communal simplicity of a folk artist.

Jim continues to perform his vast repertoire of folk, blues, swing, jug band and early standards with his own brand of infectious personal interpretations. His guitar finger picking of songs like “Some of These Days and Exactly Like You” is recognized by his peers and fans as some of the best there is. His selection of songs is vividly evocative of his many diverse influences such as Louis Jordan, Clancy Hayes, Fats Waller, Milton Brown, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby and Pete Seeger.

Kweskin has maintained a remarkably consistent musical vision since his jug band days, continuing to explore traditional folk and blues with the sophisticated sensibility of a jazz musician and jazz with the communal simplicity of a folk artist.

+ Washboard Slim and the Bluelights
www.washboardslim.com

Thirty years at it and kickin', W.S.B.L. continues to release new music and expand the limits of what a jug band can do including their fusion of jug band and rockabilly called “Jugabilly” They can navigate effortlessly from raucous Saturday night blues to Sunday morning mountain gospel with a few surprises along the way. Appearing with the band for this show will be guest musician Phil Rosenthal formerly with the legendary bluegrass band “The Seldom Scene”

Doors: 6:30pm / Showtime 7pm - All- Ages
Tickets $20. In advance and $25. At the door