Aug 2 2024 - 7:30 PM
Sometimes it’s all about the interplay of musicians on the stage, with fiddles, mandolins, and banjos playing off against each other. And sometimes it’s all about a single guitar, a voice, and words that reach through your ears and grab you by your heart. This is that second show.
It’s been a couple years since Rupert Wates came through on his busy touring schedule. He’s got a new album Elegies, which has the great guitar work and masterful songwriting we’ve come to expect. We notice a lot of Richard Thompson influence in there.
Rupert was born in London and studied at Oxford University. He has been a full time songwriter since the late 1990s, settling in the US in 2006. He is now based in New York City and Colorado. Since coming to the US, he has won more than 50 songwriting and performing awards. His music is an eclectic mix of acoustic, melodic art/folk, with flavors of jazz, vaudeville and cabaret. He has released twelve solo CDs while playing 120 live shows every year, in acoustic venues in every state in America, in Canada and in Europe.
And it has been literally forever since David Stuart Howard, whom you might know as “Dave,” performed on our stage, at least as far as our records go. Dave released a strong string of albums from the 1990s through the twenty-teens, when other matters required his attention. He’s jumping back on the music train, with a retrospective album release, fresh performances, and – we bet – some killer new material.
Dave was a mainstay of the vibrant 1990s local coffeehouse scene, and later fronted the Blackout Blues Band and The Shamey Jays. A three-time nominee for the San Diego Music Awards, he has written and performed with A.J. Croce, Berkley Hart, Lisa Sanders, Joe Rathburn, as well as having his songs covered by a who’s-who of our favorite artists such as Gregory Page and Peter Bolland.