Saturday, September 20 @ 8pm
Glenn Jones/KBD/Liam Grant
$20, No one turned away for lack of funds
15601 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland OH 44110
Glenn Jones
Though he’d never admit it himself, Glenn Jones might singlehandedly be the most important guitarist of the last several decades. His life long tenure to the underground has gifted us, dear reader, with 10 widely acclaimed solo LPs on top of an already emphatic career alongside the genre defying Cul De Sac – a band that you forgot played more times with Damo Suzuki than Can did.
Jones’ subtle approach to fingerstyle remains uniquely idiosyncratic, having 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, long conversations in the driveway with 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
Liam Grant is a New England guitarist with a punk ethos, 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 falls and black pearls from the river. The exodus to Stratton-Eustis and the last night on Dead River before the great flood.
Prodigal Son
VHF debut and second widely-available LP by Grant, part of a new generation of underground “American primitive” guitar players serving the traditions and smashing them up simultaneously. Prodigal Son is a portrait of an artist on the road, changing fast, recording things as they spring from the fountain. The sound here is raw – grass and dirt instead of prefab; homemade/handmade instead of high-tech, etc. There’s a visceral quality and immediacy of culture that’s being lost every day in modern life – Prodigal Son is a chance to grab some of it back. “Palmyra” has Liam on weissenborn-style lap steel, the sound fuzzed out and distorted by the guerilla recording technique. “Salmon Tails Up The River” stretches out to nearly 13 minutes, a dense meditation on 12 string that sustains a dark and heavy mood for the entire duration. On the B side, “Insult to Injury” reverses the mood, with an elegant and unhurried 12 string sequel of deep beauty. Liam’s unexpected take on Loren Conners’ “A Moment at the Door” is a perfect translation of Loren’s reverb-heavy electric drift to unadorned acoustic (and tape hiss) – a frozen moment of absolute grace. Wrapping things up is a take on “Old Country Rock,” with fiddle and banjo, just a brief taste of the barnstorming old-time sound of Liam’s touring trio.
https://www.vhfrecords.com/catalog/liam-grant-vhf166-lp
https://vhfrecords.bandcamp.com/album/prodigal-son
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