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.