Fred Eaglesmith, Ace's Bradenton 1/9/2010

I saw Fred the first time in 1999 at Skipper's. I remember sitting at the picnic table wrapped in a blanket and enjoying every minute of the stories and songs Fred performed. Since then I've tried to see him when he comes to town. It has been a few years but he is booked on Delbert's Blues Cruise which leaves from port of Tampa today. I have tried for years to get a cabin on that cruise too. I guess you have to know someone who knows someone. This is the last year of the cruise too. (Another fav of mine, PTB is on that cruise. Why didn't HE book a Tampa show???)
Anyhoo, Friday Fred was at Ace's in Bradenton and I convinced Scott and Liz to venture south with me. It was another great show (except for the bad mics) and kind of a 'greatest hits' night. The Ginn Sisters were with him singing back up and they are wonderful as well.

The New Yorker magazine said it best: “If you’re missing Fred Eaglesmith, you’re really missing out.” An award-winning and acclaimed music auteur of the highest order, he has forged a singular and distinctive legacy with his songs, recordings, live performances, achievements and impact unlike that of anyone else in contemporary music. And done so as a fiercely independent and original artist through the sheer power of the music he creates.

His 17 albums over the last three decades — many of them released on his own label — have consistently evoked critical raves, and he’s been compared to a broad blue-ribbon list of musical icons. His fellow songwriters regularly record his songs and sing his praises. He hosts a number of music festivals across North America, where he plays hundreds of dates a year in addition to touring Europe and Australia. Devoted fans follow him from one show to another to savor what one reviewer calls the “fury and fun” of his concerts. His releases consistently hit the upper reaches of the Americana charts, and he’s the only Canadian to ever write a No. 1 bluegrass hit. His songs have even become part of the course curriculum at two colleges, and the paintings he creates when not making music have been shown in numerous prestigious galleries.

Eaglesmith comes by his exceptional musicality and lyrical command naturally and honestly, through dedication to his craft and delivery and building his following from the grassroots upwards ever since he left the family farm at age 15 to become an itinerant budding troubadour. His life story could in fact be the subject of one of his songs, which is one reason why Eaglesmith has such a deft touch for finding the literary significance within the lives of seemingly common people and rendering their tales, thoughts and feelings with profound humanity and sensitivity alongside a knack for creating a contextual sense of time and place that resonates with reality.

In live performance, Eaglesmith and his band “rock like punks on a mission.” and deliver “a truly timeless brand of primitive rock’n’roll [that is] exactly like the sort of music you dream of hearing in some crowded, hot, beery bar near closing time,” observes Amazon.com in reviews of his live albums. Onstage he is also a sharp between song raconteur whose tales and observations are as keen and compelling as his songs and frequently as hilarious as the best stand-up comedians. For many years running, he has hosted the annual Roots on the River festival in Vermont, the Fred Eaglesmith Texas Weekend at Gruene Hall (the mother church of the Lone Star State music scene) and two more yearly festivals in Canada. His youthful travels hopping freight trains inspired the Roots on the Rails rolling music festivals, for which he currently hosts two annual rail trips that ride everywhere from scenic and historic narrow gauge lines in the American West to, this last year, into the Canadian arctic.

Source: http://www.fredeaglesmith.com/

AND... HE LIKES TRAINS! :) How can you NOT love someone who likes trains??