Sun 3/15 - James Keelaghan w David Woodhead (Bethesda)
Schedule
Sun, 15 Mar, 2026 at 07:30 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Imagination Stage | Bethesda, MD
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FocusMusic and WFMA present James Keelaghan and David Woodhead at Imagination Stage (Reeve Theatre). 4908 Auburn Ave. Bethesda, MD 20814 | 7.30pm | Tickets/Info - phone: 866-412-5943Admission: $25 in advance (WFMA / Focus members $22.50) / $30 at door (members $25)
Virtual Tickets: $15 in advance (members $13.50)
Contemporary folk songs, at their very best, offer an insight into the hardships, attitudes, and resolve of characters and events that shape our day-to-day lives. You can dress these songs up in inspired arrangements and intricate instrumentation but, at their very essence, the archetypal folk song is all about stories. Stories and people. Something such compelling songwriters as Eric Bogle, Si Kahn, Ewan MacColl, and Stan Rogers … all understood and mined so effectively.
James Keelaghan, too, burrows into that same rich seam with equal ability and comparable conviction. To quote Eric Bibb, the award-winning American acoustic bluesman, after listening to Keelaghan perform: “[You're] a joy to hear, just beautiful. Reminded me of the best of the best of another time ‐ Liam Clancy, Tom Paxton etcetera.” Less colourful but more succinct, Dave Marsh, the eminent Rolling Stone critic, simply described Keelaghan as “Canada's finest songwriter.”
Truly, throughout a career that now spans almost four decades, the Juno and Canadian Folk Music Award winner has created a repertoire of incalculable importance ‐ a unique body of work, either inspired by or drawn from the folk tradition. Ten solo albums flush with enduring lyrical relevance. Take the beautiful but heartbreaking ballad, “Jenny Bryce,” for example. From any point of view, it's indistinguishable from the numerous traditional tracks covered on his disc A Few Simple Verses.
What's more, various other originals from the Keelaghan cannon must surely enter the domain of traditional folklore. Most notably, “Small Rebellion” (highlighting the 1931 slaughter of peaceful striking miners in Bienfait, SK); “Hillcrest Mine” (a prelude to the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history); “Kiri's Piano” (a triumph over adversity amidst the shameful, racist treatment of Japanese-Canadians during WW II); “Cold Missouri Waters” (a harrowing portrait of the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire in the mountains of Montana) …
James Keelaghan grew up in a bungalow in northwest Calgary, AB, with six siblings, an Irish father, and an English mum. His brother Bob would develop into a noteworthy guitarist with the excellent, but now defunct, Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. From his father, Jim, James developed a love of history. The family record collection provided further inspiration. Traditional folk LPs by the likes of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Sèan Ò Riada, and Harry Belafonte certainly caught young Keelaghan's ear. He still cites Belafonte At Carnegie Hall as a recording that changed his life at age six!
For this concert James will be accompanied by David Woodhead:
You've probably seen David's name listed on the backs of recordings in your collection and, yes, he's on some 300 projects and worked with many influential artists including Perth County Conspiracy, Stan Rogers, Oliver Schroer, Gil Scott-Heron, and David Sanborn. His own music draws from the intimacy of the folk world, the harmonic sensibilites of jazz, and a sense of precision from classical arranging, with room for freedom in individual expression and improvisation.
“Was that you playing the bass up there? Oh, you're delicious!” ~ Odetta.
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Where is it happening?
Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave,Bethesda, Maryland, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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