There’s still an opportunity for people to escape the double-digit freezing temperatures expected Friday night for the soul-warming music of Tony Furtado.
The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist will be performing at Song Sparrow Hall on Jan. 12, with special guests Chicken-Like Birds.
Adept on banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar and baritone ukulele, Furtado mixes and matches sounds and styles to create evocative, soulful Americana roots music. The Portland, Oregan native took up the banjo at age 12 – inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies television show and a sixth-grade music report. He first attracted national attention in 1987, when he won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kansas.
Furtado has recorded six critically acclaimed albums released by Rounder Records, collaborating with such musicians as Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Marshall, and has toured with Gregg Allman and esteemed slide guitarists as David Lindley, Derek Trucks and Sonny Landreth.
Chicken-Like Birds will open the evening. A mildly ridiculous folk, country-blues duo from Salmon Arm, Jasmin Frederickson and Ari Lantela perform offbeat and thoughtful songs about the people they have met, the places they have been and the strange thoughts that permeate their world. Their live shows can be unpredictable, mainly due to the duo’s desire to throw wrenches into each other’s musical gears.
Doors Open at 6:30 p.m. with showtime at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets, $35, are available at songsparrowhall.ca.
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