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Event
TOM PAXTON & THE DON JUANS - Saturday April 6th, 2019 - East Rock Concert Series! at mActivity, New Haven
Fernando Pinto Presents: A Benefit concert for WPKN Independent Community Radio 89.5 FM with Legendary Folk Icon Tom Paxton and The DonJuans - Saturday April 6th, 2019 - East Rock Concert Series!
at mActivity, New Haven
Doors 6:30pm / Showtime 7pm
Tickets $40. Adv. $45. At the door
Tickets: https://tompaxton.bpt.me
All-Ages
Tom Paxton and The DonJuans
http://www.tompaxton.com
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and folk icon, Tom Paxton, teams up with the Grammy winning singer/songwriter duo The Don Juans - Don Henry & Jon Vezner. Collectively, their songs have been covered by: Harry Belafonte, John Mellencamp, Miranda Lambert, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Nancy Griffith, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Kathy Mattea, John Denver, Faith Hill, B.J. Thomas, Blake Shelton, Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan... just to name a few! Within days of writing and playing together, they knew they were onto something. Now theyre taking it on the road!
Tom on guitar/vocals/stories
Don on guitar/vocals/uke/banjo/grins
Jon on piano/vocals/guitar/uke/kitchen sink
TOM PAXTON, After 56 years of performing around the world and writing and recording innumerable songs and recordings, Tom Paxton has found yet another outlet for his creativity; he has joined his friends and song-writing colleagues Jon Vezner and Don Henryknown collectively as The Don Juansin a writing and performing experience calculated to keep them too busy to get into trouble. A trembling world awaits the results.
Tom's career has taken him from his days as a drama student at The University of Oklahoma to thousands of concerts in a variety of venuesfrom coffee houses in Greenwich Village to The Albert Hall in London to Carnegie Hall in New York; from festivals in Hong Kong to Denmark, from Tokyo to Oslo.
He has done over 50 concert tours of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and has recorded over 50 albums of his own songs. Recordings of his songs by other artists number in the hundreds and include artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, John Denver, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary, to name just a very few.
He began his performing career in Greenwich Village in 1960, coming in on weekends from Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was toiling away in the Clerk Typist School. (He used his typewriter one day to compose his famous song for children, The Marvelous Toy, later a hit for The Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary). Upon his release he stayed in New York and put in several years playing in now-legendary coffee houses like The Gaslight and befriending other singers like Dave Van Ronk (The Mayor of Macdougal Street), Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Eric Andersen.
His shows with The Don Juans have him on his toes, he says; "These guys are long-ball hitters and if I don't want to get smoked I'd better do a little rehearsing. I probably need to do that anyway," he says, laughing. "It certainly couldn't hurt."
Thirty years ago Tom Paxton taught a generation of traditional folksingers that it was noble to write your own songs, and, like a good guitar, he just gets better with age.
-Guy Clark
JON VEZNER
Grammy award-winning songwriter, Nashville-based Jon Vezner is a tunesmith of rare sensitivity and dry wit. His catalogue of recorded songs, topped by the poignant Whereve You Been, reflects his straight-to-the-heart sensibility and emotional awareness. Vezner weaves the particulars of his own feelings with the lives of people he has known into universal themes that deeply touch listeners emotions. Vezner was honored with a Grammy for Best Country Song and the Nashville Songwriters Association Song of the Year in 1990, for Whereve You Been the true story of Vezners grandparents co-written with Don Henry, and recorded by Kathy Mattea. Whereve You Been was also honored as Song of the Year by the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM). Jon was also voted Songwriter of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association International.
Born in Minnesota, Jon Vezner began his musical career as lead singer and bassist for various groups in high school, going on to earn a B.A. degree in music education and music theory at Minnesota Southwest State University in the mid 70s. Jons catalogue of songs reads like a songbook itself, interpreted and recorded by some of the greats in the business such as Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Steve Wariner, The Wiggins, Clay Walker, Diamond Rio, BJ Thomas, Janis Ian, John Mellencamp, Nancy Griffith, Judy Collins, and Native American recording artist, Bill Miller, to name a few.
Jons production credits include artists such as Danny OKeefe, Victoria Shaw, and singing legend Patti Page.
Jon Vezner writes about the details, the details of our hearts and feelings. His gift is in speaking to these ordinary things which connect us to one another. And in recognizing their simple beauty, he transforms them into something extraordinary.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter
DON HENRY
In Morgan Hill, California in the early 70's, records like "The Band" by The Band and "Honky Chateau" by Elton John prompted Don Henry to begin writing his own lyrics to Jim Croce melodies. Then he learned to play guitar with a Paul Simon songbook. After that it was an education in The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Harry Nilsson, Carole King, Cat Stevens, and Joni Mitchell.
Then Randy Newman's 'Good Old Boys' and 'Old Number One' by Guy Clark changed his life. In April of 1979, at 19, Don made his way to Nashville.
After spending 4 years as the tape copy/librarian for Tree Publishing Company, cataloging some of the best songs by some of the best songwriters in Nashville (Sonny Throckmorton, Bobby Braddock, Harlan Howard, and Curly Putman), Don's own songs started getting recorded and he was moved to full-time staff songwriter. Ray Charles, Conway Twitty, the Oak Ridge Boys, T.G. Sheppard, John Conlee and Kathy Mattea are just a few who recorded Don's songs during this period. In 1990, Don and Jon Vezner received song of the year awards for co-writing Mattea's critically acclaimed hit, "Where've You Been". Awards from the Grammys, as well as from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International culminated it "Where've You Been" becoming the first song ever to be so honored by all four organizations. In 1991 Wild In The Backyard was released on Sony/Epic Records. Billboard's Ken Schlager chose the debut album as one of 1991's Top Ten records, as did Larry McClain of BAM magazine. Rolling Stone liked it enough to profile Don in their "New Faces" column.
Since, Dons songs have been recorded by Lonestar, Rosie Flores, The Thompson Brothers Band, Bryan White, and Blake Shelton. A 2001 release, Flowers and Rockets, was followed quickly by "Live At The Bluebird Café".
In 2013 Miranda Lambert had a hit with Don and Phillip Colemans song All Kinds Of Kinds.
At Don's shows, you'll easily spot those who have yet to hear his songs. Upon first experiencing them, the listener is often moved to laughter or tears, sometimes both at the same time! And everyone leaves humming, because Don Henry songs stay with you.
"The crowd was won over by this guy and his guitar. Long may he write." Dirty Linen
So come step into the minds and the music of Tom Paxton, Don Henry, and Jon Vezner!
Tom Paxtons songs are so powerful and lyrical, written from the heart and the conscience, and they reach their mark, our most inner being. He writes stirring songs of social protest and gentle songs of love, each woven together with his personal gift for language. His melodies haunt, his lyrics reverberate. I have sung Toms songs for three decades and will go on doing so in the new century, for they are beautiful and timeless, and meant for every age. Judy Collins
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285 Nicoll Street
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
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