Acclaimed singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, storyteller, political activist, and author, John McCutcheon, makes a welcome return to Australia in March 2013 as a headline international guest at the Port Fairy and Brunswick Music Festivals, and an associated tour of selected venues including Brisbane’s Ian Hanger Recital Hall at South Bank.

“The most impressive instrumentalist I’ve ever heard.” – Johnny Cash

“He has an uncanny ability to breathe new life into the familiar. His storytelling has the richness of fine literature.” – Washington Post

John McCutcheon is one of America’s most respected and loved folksingers. As an instrumentalist, he is a master of a dozen different traditional instruments, most notably the rare and beautiful hammer dulcimer, along with guitar, banjo, fiddle, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, and many more. His songwriting has been hailed by critics and singers around the globe. His thirty recordings have garnered every imaginable honour, including seven Grammy nominations.

His most iconic song “Christmas In The Trenches” relates the unofficial Christmas truce between British and German soldiers on the Western Front in 1914. He has produced over twenty albums of other artists, from traditional fiddlers to contemporary singer-songwriters to educational and documentary works. His books and instructional materials have introduced budding players to the joys of their own musicality. And his commitment to grassroots political organizations has put him on the front lines of many of the issues important to communities and workers.

Even before graduating summa cum laude from Minnesota’s St. John’s University, this Wisconsin native literally “headed for the hills,” forgoing a college lecture hall for the classroom of the eastern Kentucky coal camps, union halls, country churches, and square dance halls. His apprenticeship to many of the legendary figures of Appalachian music imbedded a love of not only home-made music, but a sense of community and rootedness. The result is music, whether traditional or from his huge catalogue of original songs, with the profound mark of place, family, and strength. It also created a storytelling style that has been compared to Will Rogers and Garrison Keillor.

The Washington Post described John as folk music’s “Rustic Renaissance Man,” a moniker flawed only by its understatement. Besides his usual circuit of major concert halls and theatres, John is equally at home on a festival stage, or college and University auditoriums. He is a whirlwind of energy packing five lifetimes into one. In the past few years alone he has headlined over a dozen different festivals in North America, recorded an original composition for Virginia Public Television involving over 500 musicians, toured Australia for the sixth time, toured Chile in support of a women’s health initiative, appeared in a Woody Guthrie tribute concert in New York City, gave a featured concert at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, taught performance art skills at a North Carolina college, given symphony pops concerts across America, served as President of the fastest-growing local branch of the Musicians Union, and performed a special concert at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This is all in his “spare time.” His “real job,” he’s quick to point out, is father to two grown sons.

But it is in live performance that John feels most at home. It is what has brought his music into the lives and homes of one of the broadest audiences any folk musician has ever enjoyed. People of every generation and background seem to feel at home in a concert hall when John McCutcheon takes the stage, with what critics describe as “little feats of magic,” “breathtaking in their ease and grace…,” and “like a conversation with an illuminating old friend.”

Whether in print, on record, or on stage, few people communicate with the versatility, charm, wit or pure talent of John McCutcheon.

AUSTRALIA TOUR: MARCH 7-23, 2013

Sat, Mar 16, 2013 Brisbane, QLD

Ian Hanger Hall Queensland Conservatorium of Music, South Bank.

http://www.folkmusic.com/shows/upcoming

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