singer-songwriter

Dar Williams Select Songs: "Iowa," "The Christians And The Pagans," "When I Was A Boy"

Singer-songwriter, performing artist, and author, Dar Williams, joined us for a solo concert in the Hawthorne Barn on May 26, 2018, where she shared her music from her extensive collection of folk tunes, along with stories from her many journeys and experiences. Below you can watch select songs, "Iowa," "The Christians And The Pagans," and "When I Was A Boy."

Bedouine Select Songs: "Solitary Daughter," "One Of These Days," "Louise"

Syrian-born, Los Angeles-based songstress Azniv Korkejian, known onstage as Bedouine, performed in the Hawthorne Barn on June 15, 2018, sharing her modernized take on sixties folk and an arsenal of beautiful songs, including the songs 'Solitary Daughter,' ‘One Of These Days,’ and ‘Louise’ from her debut album.

John Gorka Select Songs: "Nazarene Guitar," "Love Is Our Cross To Bear," "When Doves Cry (Prince)"

Iconic singer-songwriter John Gorka raised the rafters on May 18, 2018 in the Hawthorne Barn with his spirited acoustic guitar playing, insightful lyrics, and wry, witty storytelling. Veteran of countless world tours and collaborations with the likes of Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Ani DiFranco, Gorka released his fifteenth album, True in Time, in January 2018. We were proud to be a stop on his album release tour, where he performed a solo set of songs including the featured tracks below: “Nazarene Guitar,” “Love Is Our Cross To Bear,” and a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.”

Lucy Kaplansky in Concert

Blending country, folk, and rock styles, vocalist Lucy Kaplansky performed in the Hawthorne Barn, sharing original songs as well as covers of June Carter Cash, Gram Parsons, Lennon-McCartney, and Nick Lowe.

Production Credits: Filming by Stone Dow and Lise King, Sean Gannett Productions Audio by Chris Blood Edited by Filipp Kotsishevskiy

Emily Wells in Concert

Performer, producer, singer, composer, and classically trained violinist, Emily Wells joined us in the Barn with her varied use of classical and modern instrumentation as well as her deft approach to live sampling. She has evolved into a uniquely modern singer and composer who uses a variety of instruments, from strings and drums to synths and beat machines, to create what NPR has praised as “gospel-folk music that’s immersed in secular desires and experiences” and the New York Times as “quietly transfixing.”

Production Credits: Filming by Stone Dow and Lise King, Sean Gannett Productions Audio by Chris Blood Edited by Filipp Kotsishevskiy

John Boutté in Concert and Conversation

From New Orleans, jazz vocalist and songwriter John Boutté joins us for a conversation and performance. Boutté is a celebrated interpreter of the American songbook who rose to national attention when one of his own melodies became the theme to the HBO series “Treme.” His repertoire includes contemporary classics in popular music as well as traditional jazz and gospel. Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame producer Allen Toussaint called Boutté “one of the very best singers in New Orleans.” Over a twenty-year career, Boutté has performed across the U.S. and Europe and released a number of solo albums, including Jambalaya, Good Neighbor, and All About Everything. He has also recorded with Cubanismo! and the funk band Galactic.

Joining him will be Gwen Thompkins, NPR contributor and host of “Music Inside Out,” which airs on WWNO.

Nicole Atkins in Concert

On May 21, 2016, we welcomed Nicole Atkins to the Barn. Her debut album, Neptune City, paid homage to her New Jersey hometown and won her a place on Rolling Stone’s list of “Top 10 Artists to Watch.” Since then, she has produced two more (Mondo Amore and Slow Phaser) and toured widely through the U.S. and Europe, both as a headliner and alongside bands such as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Primal Scream, and the Avett Brothers. She has also performed on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Conan,” and “Later . . . with Jools Holland” and is a host on Sirius XM’s Spectrum channel.

Marshall Crenshaw in Concert

Musician, actor, author, publisher, and jack-of-all-trades Marshall Crenshaw launches Twenty Summers’ third season with an intimate acoustic solo performance. In a career now spanning four decades, Crenshaw has reached the Billboard Top 40 and been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. As a stage and film actor, he has portrayed other musicians, ranging from Buddy Holly to John Lennon. Since 2011, Crenshaw has served as the host of WFUV’s radio show “Bottomless Pit,” and he is a contributor to Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger’s HBO series “Vinyl.”

Patty Larkin in Concert

Patty Larkin redefines the boundaries of folk-urban pop music with her inventive guitar wizardry and uncompromising vocals and lyrics. Acoustic Guitar hails her “soundscape experiments” while Rolling Stone praises her “evocative and sonic shading.” She has been described as “riveting” (Chicago Tribune), “hypnotic” (Entertainment Weekly) and a “drop-dead brilliant” performer (Performing Songwriter).

The Parkington Sisters in Concert

When Ariel, Sarah, and Rose Parkington of the Parkington Sisters pick up their instruments to strike up a song, the air begins to buzz. The chemistry between the three sisters is so present you feel like you can touch it. Hailing from Wellfleet, Massachusetts, the Parkington Sisters cut their teeth on music from the very beginning. Daughters of a prog rock musician and a classically trained guitarist and songwriter, they were raised playing music on picturesque Cape Cod.

Kaki King in Concert

Kaki King, named by Rolling Stone in 2006 as one of The New Guitar Gods and hailed as “a genre unto herself,” is a true iconoclast, a visionary musician/artist whose singular work rightly stands out among the easily formatted. Over her decade-long career thus far, the Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer has recorded five extraordinarily diverse and distinctive LPs, performed with such icons as Foo Fighters, Timbaland, and The Mountain Goats; contributed to a variety of film and TV soundtracks (from Golden Globe–nominated work on Sean Penn’s Into The Wild to the score of the acclaimed 2007 drama August Rush); and played to ever-growing audiences on innumerable world tours. Beginning with 2002′s Everybody Loves You — to date, her only fully acoustic guitar recording — King has expanded and reconceived the role of the solo instrumental artist, constantly kicking at the boundaries of what’s expected.