Jack Rose + D Charles Speer

Saturday, April 19
Admission: $10, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 8 and 10:30pm
reservations are recommended

Jack Rose
Since 2001 Jack Rose has pursued his own path in the solo acoustic guitar genre as invented by John Fahey. Like Fahey, Rose draws his inspiration from early rural American musicians like Charley Patton, Skip James and Blind Blake. In addition to those influences he gleans inspiration from Robbie Basho, Ry Cooder, Zia M. Dagar, La Monte Young, Terry Riley. Jack incorporates all of these elements into his own idiosyncratic style and it is his sound and his alone.

From 1995-2006 Rose was a member of the legendary drone / noise / folk group Pelt. Pelt—along with Tower Recordings, UN, Charalambides—was one of the early groups who forged a new sound that combined free improv, drone, traditional folk music in the early to mid nineties, later coined "weird new america" by The Wire's David Keenan in the early oughts.

http://www.myspace.com/jackrosekensington
http://www.vhfrecords.com/jackrose
http://www.frontporchproductions.org

From Justin F. Farrar (Village Voice):

...Going by the stage name D. Charles Speer (a play on family names), Shuford and his backing group, the Helix, are the most unlikely Americana types you could imagine. (But so were Uncle Tupelo, once.) For the last dozen or so years, both he and bassist/producer Jason Meagher have had their heads stuck in the stars, exploring the far outer reaches of music (formless noise, free jazz, electronics, experimental folk) with the No-Neck Blues Band, a fixture of the New York avant-garde for the last two decades.

Then, about four years ago, Shuford locked himself in his Harlem pad and started writing actual tunes full of cryptic biblical references and intricately picked twang. "I still don't know how I ended up with that," he wonders aloud, while "Southern Man" fills a room stinking of cooked pig. "It was very natural, I think. I have my obsessions, and I follow them."

One of those obsessions involves reconciling a Southern upbringing (Shuford was born and raised in Atlanta) with all the freaky sounds he's adopted since relocating to the big city. "When I was young, I reacted against this music," he admits while talking about icons like Webb Pierce and Flatt & Scruggs. "I didn't like certain things about the culture. My dad used to play Bill Monroe when I was young, but it didn't come to me as a conscious thing until much later.

http://www.dcharlesspeer.com/
http://www.myspace.com/dcharlesspeer