DARYL SHAWN AND MATTHEW SABATELLA
Event Details
DARYL SHAWN AND MATTHEW SABATELLA
DARYL SHAWN
“meet the man who can make his guitar sound like anything” – Songlines magazine
Daryl Shawn is a modern troubadour and a disciple of the nylon-string guitar. Originally hailing from Amish farm country in rural Pennsylvania, Shawn has logged many miles in search of musical inspiration and communal experience. With a background in classical guitar, flamenco, jazz and edgy rock, as well as an abiding interest in music from around the globe, Shawn incorporates an unusually broad range of influences into his playing.
His eclecticism and highly varied technique informs a singular vision: solo guitar performances; nylon strings; no altered tunings or effects pedals. His picking proficiency can produce the attack of a full band, or, as Guitar International magazine put it, Shawn “possesses the ability to take a nylon-string guitar and make it roar with dynamic precision and raging power.” Touchstones include Kaki King, Tommy Emmanuel, and Rodrigo y Gabriela, though Shawn’s work stands apart, straddling such genres as world, Americana, folk, and rock, while making something new out of the combination.
His latest album, On Time, is informed by Shawn’s globe-hopping and wide-open ears, and includes several tributes, including an ode to the single-stringed Brazilian instrument called the berimbau, and another dedicated to Hua Shan, one of the seven sacred mountains of China. And while it maintains Shawn’s “no effects” ethos, the album does feature some custom preparations, including handmade wooden koto bridges and a dollar bill wedged between strings to emulate an African instrument.
Taking cues from such guitar titans as Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, and Michael Hedges, Shawn combines these influences with his own idiosyncratic vision to create a sonic signature equally at home at folk venues and listening rooms, rock clubs and festival stages
With vocals, guitar, banjo, and mountain dulcimer, Matthew Sabatella brings to life music that is woven into the fabric of the United States. For nearly two decades, he has followed the threads of traditional folk song, revealing a tapestry of music created by American colonists, pioneers, sailors, lumberjacks, immigrants, ’49ers, farmers, mountaineers, slaves, soldiers, cowboys, railroaders, factory workers, and activists. In this solo performance, Matthew tells his own story of discovery while digging deep into his repertoire of folk, bluegrass, old-time country, fiddle tunes, Appalachian music, ragtime, blues, spirituals, railroad and cowboy songs, work songs, sea shanties, Old World ballads, and more. This is American heritage music.