Jim Kweskin & Samoa Wilson

mActivity, 285 Nicoll St., New Haven, Connecticut

 

 Fernando Pinto Presents: Jim Kweskin & Samoa Wilson and Washboard Slim and the Bluelights at the East Rock Concert Series. For tickets, go to https://jimkweskin.brownpapertickets.com/ . WSBL are excited to be playing with jug band legend Jim Kweskin with Samoa Wilson.  Appearing with WSBL for this show will be guest musician Phil Rosenthal formerly with the legendary bluegrass band The Seldom Scene. Jim Kweskin & Samoa Wilson, 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."...Still a masterful guitarist and storyteller... effortless, gently driving finger-picking style..." - Robin Denislow, The Guardian“Mr. Kweskin’s music is a blend of blues, jug music, rhythm & blues and jazz – rag-timey stompdown party music.” - Alex Ward, New York Times"Jim Kweskin 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."

$20 in advance, $25 at the door