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Event
Robert Sarazin Blake
n 1997, Robert Sarazin Blake dropped out of college and hit the road. The folk music of his fathers house had combined with the DIY punk ethos of the day and produced his first batch of songs, Another Irrelevant Year. On the heels of Richard Manning, Billy Bragg, and Ani Difranco, Blakes eighteen-year-old release is now an early document of the folk-punk movement. On his first tour, Blake played 30 shows around the U.S., planting seeds as he developed touring, not as an economic model, but as a lifestyle. He hasnt stopped. Eleven full-length albums into his career, hes continued to write, pulling from folk roots, his travels, his contemporaries, and the quiet spot in the back of his mind. The writing has evolved, mellowing with experience and expanding with reference, but the essence of the work has remained the samestrong narratives solidly built on the folk foundation and fully in the immediacy of the now.
The touring and performing has become an art in itself. Performing 200 shows a year, Robert Blake is a world-class performer in a neighborhood venue. His show is a combination of songs and rambles landing somewhere between a concert and a theatrical installation. The neighborhoods have been all over Ireland and the U.S., and occasionally in Canada, Scotland, England, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and France. Blake books, manages, and drives to the showshes a one-man cottage industry existing beneath and outside the main streams of the music business.
Robert Blakes songs continue to be influenced by Bob Dylan, John Prine, Shel Silverstein, Christy Moore, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell; his stories and stage banter by Arlo Guthrie, Garrison Keillor, Spalding Gray; his outlook by Naomi Kline, Jim Page, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky; and his essence by James Baldwin, Henry Miller, Jeannette Winterson, John Steinbeck, and Philip Roth. Blakes contemporariesAnais Mitchell, Louis Ledford, Hamell on Trial, The Heligoats, CR Avery, Jeffrey Lewis, and Jinx Lennoncontinue to influence and inspire.
From his home in Bellingham, Washington, Blake started his own record label SameRoomRecords, recordings of songs and musicians in the same room and the same time an oddly unique idea in an era of digitally manipulated soundsand has sold over 10,000 albums from his suitcase.
This philosophy reflects Blakes dedication to the moment, to the connection within live performance. There is always a moment in a Blake show where the room pulls together and the space between the singer, the song, and the listener disappears.
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LocationChenango Craftsman Houseconcert (View)
Address emailed after reservation
Binghamton, NY 13901
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
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