A night of transcendent American Primitive guitar & soul-stirring songwriting—feat. Glenn Jones, Liam Grant, & Nic Panken (of Spirit Family Reunion)—where intricate fingerstyle meets deep-rooted folk storytelling.
Glenn Jones & Liam Grant w/ Nic Panken (of Spirit Family Reunion)
Wed 5/20
6pm doors/7pm show
All Ages | $18 adv./$22 day of
“First known for his emphatic career with the genre-defying rock group ‘Cul De Sac,’ a band that you forgot played more times with Damo Suzuki than Can did, Glenn Jones has gone on to become one of the foremost American Primitive guitarists of the early 21st century. His life long tenure to the underground has gifted us dear reader with 10 widely acclaimed solo LPs and his approach to fingerstyle remains uniquely idiosyncratic.
Over the course of two and a half decades as a solo artist Jones’ has established and continued to innovate a deeply personal melodic grammar for the acoustic guitar and banjo that is witty, cleverly self-referential and tethered to the weight of reflection and memory.
Sketches of Fahey, a close friendship with the late John Jackson of Fairfax Virginia, a maiden voyage to visit 78rpm gugu Joe Bussard alongside one Jack Rose; devotion to his mother, the ever lovely Nora Smith with her leather jacket, and his cats. The portraiture of days gone by, sentiment for those close and fondly remembered. Ever fleeting. Ever sublime.
Here is a vital messenger of the steel string guitar who we can celebrate in his time – here and now.” — Man Tragil, 2025.
Liam Grant is a New England guitarist and improviser cut from the American Primitive cloth. The restless guitar explorations, modal epics, and driving uptempo rags recall the likes of Grant’s pedagogue, Takoma Records, and the path that was paved by his forebears John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Peter Walker, Max Ochs and later Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Jack Rose, and others.
Bridging that past Grant evokes the pith of the landscape where he was raised. Instrumental memoirs and ruminations on the banks of the Merrimack River. Amoskeag. And the place where the waters flow around it. Salmon tails up the river, the exodus to Stratton-Eustis and the last night on Dead River before the great flood.
Near Divine or Merely Rhyme is the debut solo record from Kingston, NY songwriter Nic Panken, called “earthy, elegant and accessible” by MAGNET Magazine. He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing on NPR’s Tiny Desk, at Newport Folk Festival and Austin City Limits as lead singer in NYC band Spirit Family Reunion.
