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Don Henry, Craig Bickhardt and Nathan Bell
rammy Award winner Don Henrys songs have been recorded by legends like:
Ray Charles, Patti Page and Conway Twitty
By country crooners like:
Gene Watson, John Conlee and B.J. Thomas
By young hit makers of today like:
Blake Shelton, Lonestar and Miranda Lambert .
..and the list goes on.
And hes shared the stage with performers as diverse as
Joey Ramone to Keith Urban.
The wit and wisdom of Dons songs are widely renowned whether its campfire favorites, the hilarious B.F.D. and biker lullaby Harley, to the wonderfully poignant tribute to Martin Luther King Beautiful Fool, and of course his Grammy Award winning country classic Whereve You Been.
In addition to a Grammy, Kathy Matteas version of Whereve You Been won Don (and co-writer Jon Vezner) song of the year honors from ACM (Academy of Country Music), CMA (Country Music Association) and NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International). Whereve You Been was the first song in country music history to be awarded all four honors in the same year!
When Craig Bickhardt steps onto a concert stage, he comes equipped with his trusty acoustic guitar. A side musician or two will frequently join him. Hes also accompanied by something invisible, yet ever-present: the stories of a lifetime, vividly translated into words and melody.
From the boisterous club scene of Philadelphia to the country-rock milieu of Los Angeles to the picking parlors of Nashville, Craig has immersed himself in the sights and sounds of American music. His music reflects a life lived as a rock band lead singer, a solo troubadour, a dedicated songwriter, a husband and father. Dreams, heartaches and hard-earned lessons have fed his creativity. There is no other way he couldve written the eloquent, often bittersweet songs that have become his trademark.
Craig is a singer/songwriter of the old school you can hear echoes of such 60s folk revival artists as Tom Rush, Gordon Lightfoot and Eric Andersen in his work. Added to this is the melodic sophistication of a Jimmy Webb or a Paul Simon, as well as a spare but telling lyric approach. I admire songwriters like Woody Guthrie and poets like Robert Frost because they created functional art, he says. Too much music today is just for the singer, not for Everyman. I think of my work as a Please Touch museum I want my songs to be sung until theyre worn out.
Also crucial to Craigs art is his virtuosic guitar work, interweaving folk, blues, country and ragtime influences into a unique whole: The guitar isnt just an accompanying instrument for me sometimes its the front man and my voice is the accompanist.
The call to the stage grew stronger after he released his first solo album, Easy Fires, in 2001. Five years later, he returned to his Pennsylvania roots and fully came into his own as a solo performer. By the end of the decade, Craig had won a new legion of fans on the East Coast and beyond through opening gigs for the likes of Judy Collins, Kathy Mattea and Billy Joe Shaver and club dates on his own.
A Craig Bickhardt live set is a mix of absurd anecdotes and personal confessions, accompanying a well-stocked bag of original tunes and the occasional choice cover. His decades in music have given his performances the depth of experience his love songs seem sweeter and more poignant, his story-song narratives more true-to-life than they could have in the past.
Nathan Bell has lived life. At 56, the wizened songwriters weary voice bleeds experience. Hes seen both sides of the cointraveled the nomadic, bohemian path of the hard-luck troubadour, and found comfort and meaning in the stability of a family, a home and a near two-decade corporate gig. And now, with a guitar back in his hands where it should be, hes ready to tell the tale. But its not just his own story hes after. Its a story of America, of the working classesboth blue and white collar.
Bell is a songwriters songwriter, a man who has shared bills with legends like Townes Van Zandt, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal and Norman Blake. The son of a poet and professor, his concise narratives come wrapped in gorgeously downhome yet ethereal production, adorned with gentle harmonies, daydreaming mandolin and the occasional blanket of pedal steel. Hes got a keen eye for detail, and an unapologetic penchant for the political, populist humanism of his literary heroes John Steinbeck, Jack London and Studs Terkel. With his latest LP, I Dont Do This for Love, I Do This for Love (the third installment in a potent trilogy that began with 2011s Black Crow Blue and continued with 2014s Blood Like a River), Bell has created a song cycle that is both moving and timely.
Though he now resides in Tennessee just outside of Chattanooga, Nathan Bell was born in Iowa City. Obsessed with Jimi Hendrix, he picked up the guitar at age 15 and started playing in local rock & roll bands. Equally enamored with folk-blues artists Lightnin Hopkins, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, he soon drifted toward acoustic music, and lit out across the country for Boston after high school, where he began writing his own songs and became a fixture of the citys vibrant early 80s music scene. By 1983, hed formed proto-alt-country duo Bell & Shore with then-wife Susan Shore. The two scored a record deal, returned to Iowa City, began touring heavily, and would eventually release a pair of records, the second, L-Ranko Motel, scoring a rave review from Rolling Stone. Their marriage and musical partnership ended in 1989, with Bell headed for Nashville, and what seemed like a promising solo career. But things didnt work out as planned.
By 1993, Bell was out of the music business entirelyhe didnt pick up a guitar or write a song again for almost 15 years. At first, he worked some basic labor jobs, before becoming swing-shift manager at a shop that sold fine cigars and imported beer. After a few years, through one of his regulars, he landed a gig at AT&T, where he stayed for nearly two decades, working his way up to a cozy management position in Chattanooga while he and Leslie raised their two children. Eventually, though, a call from an old friend and a kind gesture from his wife thrust Bell back into the arms of his first love, music.
His post-hiatus albumsespecially I Dont Do This for Love, I Do This for Lovewouldnt have been possible without all the years of perspective under his belt. The idea behind the title of the new record is that, for somebody who goes to work every day and has a family, hes not doing what he does because he loves the job, hes doing it for the love of being, of existing, of being part of the world.
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LocationTrinity House Theatre (View)
38840 West Six Mile
Livonia, MI 48152
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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