ANTHONY PIROG is DC's great, rapidly becoming discovered, upcoming guitar hero. He is a versatile player, comfortable in many genres and areas, and he has played with musicians across a wide spectrum of styles.
JOEL HARRISON, originally from DC and now NYC based, was recently hailed thusly by the New Orleans Times Picayune; "Add Joel Harrison to Metheny and Frisell as guitarist/ composers who have created a new blueprint for jazz."
On Friday, May 30, they will team up with their respective bands at IOTA, with special guest guitarist, finger-style master Daniel Bachman.
IOTA Club & Cafe
2832 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, Virginia 22201
8:30 pm
http://www.iotaclubandcafe.com/
On Saturday, May 31, they will team up with their respective bands at ORION.
ORION STUDIOS
2903 Whittington Ave, Suite C
Baltimore, MD 21230
8:00 pm
http://www.orionsound.com/
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at both shows you will see:
Anthony Pirog's Telecaster Tribute Band :
Anthony Pirog - guitar
Bobby Muncy - sax
Nathan Lincoln Decusatis - organ
Nathan Kawaller - bass
Larry Ferguson - drums
Performing the music of Danny Gatton, Roy Buchannan and many other masters of the telecaster.
You can hear tracks from Anthony's duo with Janel Leppin here:
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com...here-is-home-2
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Joel Harrison's Mother Stump will be performing and celebrating their debut release on Cuneiform Records:
Joel Harrison - guitar
Michael Bates - bass
Jeremy Clemons - drums
You can hear a track by Mother Stump here:
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mother-stump
"Best unknown guitarist in America... he plays like Danny Gatton and John Scofield in a barfight." Brent Black- criticaljazz.com
For many years, guitarist Joel Harrison claimed he had no roots. Growing up in Washington D.C., a place whose identity and values are always in drift, Harrison was convinced he had to “go out into the world with a shovel and plant something of my own,” he says in his liner notes to Mother Stump, his latest album on Silver Spring, MD-based Cuneiform Records, a fitting home for a record paying tribute to the artist’s DC-upbringing.
But as we often discover, time and distance have a way of putting things in perspective. Looking back, Harrison realized that Washington D.C. was, in fact, a town whose musical gravity overpowered whatever ephemeral political and cultural winds might blow. “I had to move away and get older to see those roots,” Harrison says. “You can hear them on this record.”
“Washington D.C. was quite a segregated place in the 1960s and ’70s, and yet the musicians were inclusive and open in their tastes,” Harrison recalls. A plethora of genres were represented around town. One could hear bluegrass by The Seldom Scene andThe Country Gentlemen, and soul, jazz, and funk by Roberta Flack, The Blackbyrds, Terry Plumeri, and Ron Holloway. Blues was a pervasive force represented by Roy Buchanan, The Nighthawks, and the legendary Powerhouse Blues Band that featured Tom Principato. On the folk scene were people like Jorma Kaukonen, Emmylou Harris, and John Fahey.
“I remember seeing psychedelic rock groups, maybe backed by a light show, at Pipeline Coffee House or at Fort Reno ― bands like Tractor, Tinsel'd Sin, Crank, Grits, or Grin (with Nils Lofgren). There were outliers like Root Boy Slim and Evan Johns.
“On any given night there might be a redneck band from Southern Maryland, a hillbilly band from nearby West Virginia, or an infusion of urban blues and Philly soul. The people who affected me the most, welcomed it all into their guitar playing.”
When Harrison discovered local guitarist Danny Gatton, he became a quick devotee. “If I ever had an idol, it was he,” Harrison says. “I followed him around like a stray dog in the early and mid ’70s, sometimes placing a cassette recorder on a beer-stained table in one of the many low-rent bars he inhabited.” Gatton’s ability to incorporate many streams of American music, such as country, blues, jazz, rockabilly, and funk, would play an important role in Harrison’s own future development as a genre-crossing guitarist.
“It was an amazing time in which to come of age musically. Minds were open, blueprints were being created, invention was everywhere, and yet strong tradition anchored the experimentation. You'd go way beyond the borders, but there was still that tangle of roots that stretched beneath and across the town.”
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If you live in the DC or Baltimore areas, we hope to see you at one of the shows!
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