Loudon Wainwright III returns to the Community Concert Hall
Special guests Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer open the show
Durango, CO – A singer-songwriter who injects his music with wry humor and piercing insight, Loudon Wainwright III will take the stage at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, Thursday, April 2, 2015. Special guests Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer will open the show at 7:30 p.m.
Loudon Wainwright III has proven to be the most candid diarist since Bob Dylan to bring confessional poetry into song. In addition to numerous award nominations over the years, his High Wide & Handsome earned a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2010. In 2014, Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet) marked his 26th career release. He has composed topical songs for NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” plus recorded several songs for the soundtrack of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”
Born in Chapel Hill, N.C., Wainwright came to fame when “Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road)” became a Top 20 hit in 1972. He studied acting at Carnegie-Mellon University, but dropped out to partake in the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco, and wrote his first song in 1968 (“Edgar,” about a lobsterman in Rhode Island). He was soon signed to Atlantic Records but lured by Clive Davis to Columbia, which released “Dead Skunk.” His songs were commemorated by the comprehensive five-disc retrospective 40 Odd Years in 2011.
Wainwright is often best remembered for his role as Captain Calvin Spalding the “singing surgeon” on television’s “M*A*S*H,” but his television acting credits also include “Parks and Recreation,” “Undeclared,” “Ally McBeal” and more. He has performed in a number of films including The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Wainwright’s most recent project is his one-man play entitled Surviving Twin, what the singer-songwriter calls a “posthumous collaboration” with his writer father.
As noted in Mojo Magazine, Wainwright is “…one of America’s most astute lyrical commentators…lyrically compelling and emotionally overpowering.”
Wainwright’s song, “Man & Dog” will likely be well-received by the Durango audience. View the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V0PEMCiRYA.
Special guests Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer are self-described natural explorers. McGraw spent a decade as a wildlife biologist, working from Mexico to the Grand Canyon. Fer enjoyed time in Spain, where she studied music and local culture. They met in the high desert of Flagstaff in 2010 and have since built a music career together based on their travels, funneling the characters they met, the things they saw, the sounds they heard, the stories they learned into a mix of rich, detailed folk music and rootsy Americana.
Their most recent album Maritime was recorded in the San Juan Islands of Washington, and upon release in Europe, remained at #1 on the EuroAmericana Chart for two consecutive months.Maritime is slated for release in the US in late winter 2015.
Tickets for Loudon Wainwright III with special guests Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer ($24/$34) are available on-line at www.durangoconcerts.com, or call 970.247.7657, or visit the Ticket Office inside the Durango Welcome Center at 8th St. and Main Ave., Downtown Durango. Ticket Office hours are Monday – Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
The Community Concert Hall is a not-for-profit, multi-use performance venue located on the campus of Fort Lewis College. Its ability to bring a diverse spectrum of shows to Southwest Colorado is made possible through a partnership with the college, a state-supported, independent institution of higher education, and through financial and in-kind contributions from generous members of the community.
