American Primitive Guitar: Glenn Jones w/ Vic Rawlings

"The best guitarist you never heard of." –The Boston Globe

Glenn Jones is an instrumentalist of unparalleled skill and creativity. A master of American Primitive Guitar, a style invented in the late 1950s by his friend and mentor, John Fahey, whose traditional fingerpicking techniques and wide-ranging influences were used to create modern original compositions. Jones, who led the post-rock ensemble Cul de Sac, brings his own made-up tunings, the use of custom-crafted partial capos, and a highly skilled picking style on both banjo and guitar, to create personal compositions that are lyrical, emotive and elegant. What sets him apart from the myriad guitarists playing today is his ability to tell stories with the guitar and banjo, escaping the known to navigate new and unfamiliar landscapes. “But it’s my hope,” he says, “that what you hear are not the tunings and partial capos and all that, but the music — the feeling within these pieces.” 

To date, Jones has issued seven highly lauded full-length albums, many of which have made critics' year-end "best of" lists (in such places as MOJO, Uncut, The Wire and many others).  His most recent albums are The Giant Who Ate Himself (2018), Waterworks (2017) and An Idea in Everything (2017), the latter a collaboration with drummer Chris Corsano and monologist David Greenberger. With each album Jones chronicles his experience, looking to the past or capturing the present with limber melodies that potently communicate the underlying emotions of the songs. Jones’ flair for storytelling shines in a live setting where origin stories are quite often the song’s introduction. 

Vic Rawlings is a musician, instrument builder, sound installation artist, and filmmaker based in Northampton, Massachusetts. For this performance, Vic uses durational processes that merge the austere and the immersive, informed by many musical traditions and comfortable among none. He foregrounds the use of time in sonic improvisation, has performed works by Cage, Stockhausen, and Cardew, and has worked directly with 20th/21st century composers Alvin Lucier, Michael Pisaro, Antoine Beuger, and Christian Wolff. He has performed throughout North America and Europe at venues including The Stone, Jordan Hall, The Gardner Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and many itinerant artist-run spaces. He co-directed the feature-length film Linefork (Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab), an immersive observational documentary offering a rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of Smithsonian Folkways banjo legend Lee Sexton and his wife, Opal, in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky, which has been presented at festivals on four continents. Festival appearances include Victoriaville (Quebec), Musique Action (France), and Vision (NYC). Visiting artist residencies include CalArts, Oberlin Conservatory, MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Wesleyan, as well as homeless shelters, correctional facilities, community centers, and primary and secondary schools. Collaborators include Greg Kelley, Tim Feeney, Liz Tonne, Jake Meginski, Mary Staubitz, Arkm Foam, Seijiro Murayama, and many others. Labels include Grob, RRR, Sedimental, Absurd, Boxmedia, Rykodisc, YDLMIER, Music Is The Worst, Another Timbre, and Full Spectrum. He teaches privately and on the Performance Faculty of Amherst College and Smith College.

Wednesday Knudsen and Willie Lane's Duo occupies a special wing in the hallowed halls of exploratory sax/guitar-guitar duos.  The pair navigate freeform space like hot air balloon enthusiasts headed for the moon, as Knudsen provides steady heat with lush looping backdrops, nimble horn runs and flute cascades while Lane casts off the sandbags of acid rock riff and fingerstyle pick.