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Early Show R&R Sunday: Jeff Ray & Phil Heywood
Sunday March 10 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Sun Mar 10 Phil Heywood & Jeff Ray, 1pm
Phil Heywood plays fingerstyle guitar with a bluesy swing and a bucketful of whatever it takes to turn an instrumental piece into an arresting lyrical narrative. His lucid playing encompasses the down-home rhythmic groove of a Mississippi John Hurt or Leadbelly, and the sheer fluidity and melodic flair of such contemporaries as Leo Kottke. The internationally renowned Kottke, in fact, once handpicked Heywood to tour and perform duets with him. Heywood has been based in Minneapolis-St. Paul since the mid-eighties, performing locally and regionally while also establishing himself in the greater guitar and acoustic music world. In 1986 he won the National Fingerpicking Championship, and followed up a year later by winning the American Fingerstyle Guitar Festival Competition.
He will be joined by Minnesota resonator slide-guitarist and songwriter Jeff Ray. Ray‘s music is rooted in the traditions of acoustic blues and American primitive fingerstyle guitar while also integrating Indian classical and world music styles under the cryptic guise of alternate guitar tunings. His music recalls early blues and rock, fingerstyle-folk, and Indian Carnatic music – sounding equal parts Ry Cooder, Grateful Dead and RL Burnside. Jeff has shared the stage with Chris Smither, Justin Townes Earl, Indigenous, Spider John Koerner, Earl Greyhound, Black Diamond Heavies, Pat Donohue, Retribution Gospel Choir, Dawes, and Charlie Parr, among others. He has earned recognition as a first-place winner of the Minnesota Blues Society “Road to Memphis” competition and placed second in the Trocadero’s Spotlight Songwriter Competition.
JEFF RAY hosts the “Roots & Resophonics” concert series at the White Squirrel Bar on the 2nd Sunday of every month, 1-3pm, featuring a unique duo performance of the most talented local and regional musicians in the American roots genre.