Sundilla welcomes back the incomparable Joe Crookston on Friday, February 9. Showtime at the AUUF (450 E. Thach Avenue in Auburn) is 7:30. Advance tickets are just $20 and can be found at Spicer’s Music, Ross House Coffee, Foodie’s, and online at sundillamusic.com; admission at the door is $25. Students with ID can pay just $15 at the door. Free coffee, tea, water and food will be available, and the audience is welcome to bring their own favorite food or beverage.
Joe Crookston is a force of nature on stage. He is in his power AND he communes with his audience and welcomes them into the magic. From touring with Gordon Lightfoot, headlining major US festivals, receiving Folk Alliance International “Album of the Year,” to being named Folk Alliance International Artist-in- Resident, Joe is on fire. He’s played with Suzanne Vega, Dar Williams, Arlo Guthrie, David Francey, John McCutcheon, John Gorka, Judy Collins and hundreds more. His songs are being made into award winning films. He’ll surprise you. He awakens the cynics. He’s plumbing for lyrical gold. His rhythm is infectious. In concert, he is hilarious one moment and transcendent the next.
To some, that might sound like a lot to live up to. The others are already familiar with Joe. He’s artful, intense… imaginative, and extremely engaging… If you love a moving song and magical madness, Joe delivers it all…the music, the lyrics, the energy, and the passion for exceptionally well written songs. Joe Crookston loves his audience, and it shows. Songwriter, guitarist, painter, fiddler, slide player, eco-village member and believer in all things possible.
Victory Music Review says: “Joe’s songs are powerful, simple, distilled lyrical paintings weaving together cycles of life and decay, cycles of joy and pain, and eventually they thread the needle through all of us…” The Seattle Folklore Society adds “I’ve watched audiences glued to their seats at the end of Joe’s shows simply not wanting the evening to end. There is a spirit in his music that is simultaneously sacred, celebratory, artful and solidly grounded in tradition………. Go see this man perform, and don’t be surprised if you drive home singing his songs with a renewed sense of what’s possible.”
He is a commanding, charismatic performer. Be glad Joe’s one of the good guys, because otherwise, he’d be dangerous.
Rattlesnake Tail (A Little Bit Lovely, A Little Bit Mean)