Jerry Barlow

Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar

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Jerry talks with a fan after a concert at Swallow Hill.

Bach gave us God's word. Mozart gave us God's laughter. Beethoven gave us God's fire. God gave us music that we might pray without words.

Author unknown

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September 2009
March 2009
October 2008

September 2009

Thank you for blessing us with a concert by Jerry. We had a wonderful afternoon--everybody loved him (of course!) Let us know when Jerry wants to come this way again--the red carpet is out!

Veronika Barnes, Deming Arts Council

I’ve always felt that National Public Radio is the perfect showcase for my music. So I enthusiastically said “Yes!” when I was asked by NPR’s High Plains Public Radio out of Amarillo, TX to do an hour-long concert for their Spring Pledge Drive. This Living Room Concert Series is broadcast in six states and has really helped get my name out in the Midwest.

From Amarillo, I went to Greensburg, KS where I was the first musician to perform in their new 5.4.7 Arts Center. Greensburg was leveled by a Class 5 tornado in May of 2007 and the Arts Center is one of the first three buildings to be rebuilt. After performing for an incredibly warm and receptive standing-room-only audience, I was told by the Mayor of Greensburg that he felt my concert was yet another step in the recovery process of this community. This compliment meant a great deal to me as I truly believe that the healing of the human spirit is one of the most important functions of art.

After Greensburg, I headed north to Atwood, KS, where I appeared at the Shirley Opera House. This wonderful old Turn of the Century building is being fully restored to its former glory. For the past five years it has been used as a concert hall featuring some of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world. Performing on a stage that has been graced by guitar giants like Al Pettaway, Chris Proctor, Don Ross and Andy McKee was truly an honor for me.

Coming up soon are concerts for the Crestone Shumei International Institute in the beautiful Shumei Outdoor Amphitheater for the Summer Nights Concert Series and a concert closer to home for the South Suburban Park and Recreations District in Littleton, Colorado. Then it’s off to Kansas and Nebraska again. I’m surely enjoying this busy time. Soon we’ll be into fall and the warmth of the winter holidays. I look forward to adding a few traditional old carols to my performances and would love to have you say hello if you’re able to attend one of them.

March 2009

One of the most enjoyable concerts we've presented in the past five years. Our audience alternated between rapt silence during the guitar pieces and practically rolling-in-the-aisles laughter at Jerry's stories in between. We heartily recommend Jerry.

Bill Hudson, Whistle Pig Concert Series

Your first guitar can be a wondrous and magical thing. I bought mine in 1965 with fifty dollars I won at a bingo game. It had nylon strings and a thick round neck like a shovel handle. It was impossible to play, but I didn’t know any better, and so I played it anyway. To get me started my brother showed me three chords, C, F and G. My fingertips got sore and I wondered how anybody made music on something that engendered so much pain. The real miracle is that in spite of enormous frustration I kept going and pretty soon I had calluses on my fingertips and those chord changes were getting smoother. I now realize what I really bought for fifty dollars in 1965 was not a guitar, but a calling that continues to give my life meaning and direction. Sometimes when I’m doing a concert I’ll glimpse the admiring gaze of a young person who has just received his or her first six string, and I can’t help but wonder what their first guitar might come to mean to them forty years from now.

Winter finds me busy learning to navigate digital technology in my new studio. I hope it will make recording my next CD easier and more efficient. More about this later. March begins and ends like a lion with tours in Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Western Colorado. In April, I will be again in Kansas and also New Mexico. Being on the road has its challenges and joys, one of which is the warm, attentive, and responsive audiences I am provided. And I always look forward to coming home to my old friends in Colorado. I hope to see you at one of my upcoming concerts. Please visit my website for my schedule.

October, 2008

Thank you so much for taking the time to come down to share your wonderful music with us! Yours was one of the most entertaining concerts we’ve ever had, and many who attended think it was the best. We feel honored to have you as a guest performer. I hope we can arrange to have you back.

Paula Tripodi and The El Morro Area Arts Council

One of the great things about live performance is the spontaneous, magical moment when something wonderful and unexpected happens. I had such a moment one summer’s evening in Del Norte, Colorado, a cozy, little town nestled in the San Luis Valley. I was finishing a concert for a very warm and appreciative audience that had asked for an encore. I chose one of my own compositions, the title track from my second CD Bring Down the Storm. This is a dramatic piece in which I try to evoke the various stages of a storm. As I started the song very softly and slowly, thunder began to rumble in the distance. Suddenly, there was a stillness and an energy in the room that was palpable as both the audience and performer sensed we might be in for something very special. I continued to play, and there came the faint tapping of raindrops on the tin roof of the concert hall. I began the next section of the song, which escalates in volume and tempo, and with a flash of lightning, the intensifying storm matched the crescendo of my music. This frenetic interplay continued until I reached the third and final section of my song. It was as though the whole thing had somehow been choreographed, because as my playing gradually became slower and softer, so did the storm that was now passing us by. The rain stopped, and as I gently played the last chord of my song, there was the soft low rumble of thunder in the distance. The concert and the storm were over. The audience didn’t applaud. We all sat there in stone cold silence. Normally the lack of applause is not a good thing, but in this instance, it was sublime. We all knew we had experienced a little piece of magic and that marvelous silence allowed us to hold on to the moment just a little bit longer.

In August, I enjoyed performing at the Raton MainStreet concert series in New Mexico. Libraries continue to be one of my favorite venues, and this fall I will include several in tours in Nebraska and Kansas. I am also looking forward to special concerts for Congregation Rodef Shalom in Denver and the historic Georgetown Christmas Market. In December, in the spirit of the season and in keeping with Celtic tradition, favorite Old English Carols will be included in my performances. I hope you are able to fit one of my appearances into your Holiday schedule.

Keepsake and Bring Down the Storm are now available at the Denver Folklore Center, Twist & Shout, Amazon.com or at any of my performances. For more information about my schedule see my website www.jerrybarlow.com. For bookings call 303/756-4418.

Jerry Barlow

Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar

Newsletter

September 2009

March 2009

October, 2008