The Grundy County Friends of the Arts first program for the 2007-2008 season will feature Nashville recording artist Jeff Black.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Black will perform at the Ketcham Community Center on Friday, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m.
Black is singer/songwriter who has recorded four CDs, including “Tin Lily”, “B-Sides and Confessions Vol. 1”, “Honey and Salt” and “Birmingham Road.” He has ties to Trenton, where his mother, Margaret Black, and sister, Bobbie Morgan, currently reside. An he even proposed to his wife, Krissy, at Crowder State Park.
“Black is an artist of substance,” wrote Billboard magazine in a review that compared his piano ballads to Randy Newman and his guitar rockers to Bruce Springsteen. Described as a burley, bare-knuckled, blue-collar son of the Missouri plains with dark Irish blood who digs into tough topics with a gentle heart, Black’s songs are ambitious epics performed with brawny passion. There’s nothing predictable about a Jeff Black lyric other than it will be sung robustly and will head toward hope instead of dwell on despair.
Black has collaborated with everyone from rock experimentalist Wilco to American favorite Irs Dement to progressive bluegrass stalwart Sam Bush. On his current CD, “Tin Lily,” Black is joined by Bush on mandolin, bassist Dave Roe, drummer Craig Wright and guitarists Will Kimbrough and Kenny Vaughn.
While Black doesn’t want to offer in-depth explanations of what his songs mean, he does admit that he “love(s) songs about freeing the spirit, about minimizing the struggle the best you can, about treating your individuality as something that’s precious and important.” As anyone who’s seen his moving, funny and unpredictable concerts already knows, he responds to the moment with stories and songs that transcend the role of a singer/songwriter and his instrument. What makes a Jeff Black show exciting is that, as a listener, you know the singer is there not to perform for you, but to take you on a journey with him.
Tickets at the door will be $8. Friends of the Arts season ticketholders and North Central Missouri College students with proper identification will be admitted free. Season tickets are on sale at the Ketcham Community Center and the Trenton Area Chamber of Commerce office.
Corporate co-sponsorship is provided by Citizens Bank and Trust, Hy-Vee Food Store, the Trenton Republican-Times, US Bank and the PAR Broadcast Group. Additional co-sponsorship is provided by Barnes-Baker Motors and by donations from other individuals and businesses in the community. Financial assistance has also been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state-funded agency.