A folk singer-songwriter, always poetic, sometimes funny, heartful singing and fingerstyle guitar work.

19 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk



Details:
Andrew Calhoun's well-honed songwriting talents take an audience from laughter to tears and many places in between.. In concert he weaves a tapestry of original music written over thirty years, Scottish ballads he has translated from dialect, spoken word, and songs by other writers.

The title track of "Where Blue Meets Blue" celebrates a reunion with a long lost cousin; "Buffalo" and "Portrait of a Girl and Her Parents" (with David Chickering on cello) have more to say about family. Gerry O'Neill plays fiddle and Kat Eggleston harmonizes on "Vancouver"; Calhoun covers John Prine's "Hello In There" and Kate MacLeod's "Wild Birds". MacLeod sings and plays fiddle on "Baby-O". "Peach Song and "River Song" feature non-human points of view; "Garage", about the exhaustion and ambivalence of daily life, presents a human one. Andrew Bird plays violin on the catchy "Politics". Working with new musical ideas, several songs feature melodic shifts into related modes within the songs' keys.
At age 7, Andrew memorized W. B. Yeats' "Song of Wandering Aengus," thus earning a nickel from his mother. He got his first guitar in 1967 at the age of 10 and began performing in the Chicago folk scene in the late seventies. He has since toured internationally, performing at folk clubs and festivals, pubs and house concerts. He gives workshops in creative songwriting, Scottish folk ballads, and music theory for guitarists. In 1992, Calhoun is founder and artistic director of Waterbug Records, an artists' cooperative folk label which has grown to over 50 titles, bringing some of the brightest singer-songwriters and folk musicians to an international audience. His recordings have been released on Hogeye, Flying Fish and Waterbug. Calhoun's music is a great companion for anyone who has ventured off the well-paved road to forge their own path in life.


"Calhoun is a master at story songs, finely crafted works that swiftly and economically capture a moment or express an emotion. Like the best novelists, he is able to assume different personas and see the world through other people's eyes." -June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune

"A wonderful songwriter and funny, warm performer." -The Daily Iowan

"He's blessed with a resonant baritone, crystalline fingerpicking, and a writer's ear." -The Oregonian

"His songs are majestic in their imagery and endlessly challenging in their themes." -James Tarbox, St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch

"...he goes an awfully long way toward overturning the prevalent image of folksingers trying to live in a past that never was." -Renaldo Migaldi, Chicago Reader

"He is a creative force in the songwriter movement, a dynamite guitarist, and a traditional song interpreter of great skill. His introductions to songs can keep you doubled up with laughter, his songs run the gamut of human experience and emotion." -Phil Cooper

"Andrew Calhoun tells the truth. To my knowledge, there is no better songwriter alive."
-Dave Carter