Culture
Stuart’s Welcomes David Bromberg Feb. 27
< < Back toStuart’s Opera House will welcome acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, former Dylan sideman, singer and songwriter David Bromberg and his Quintet to Nelsonville on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m.
Throughout a career beginning in the 1960s, the Grammy nominee has combined elements of bluegrass, folk, jazz, blues, country and rock on his own recordings, and those of such varied artists as Bob Dylan, The Beastie Boys, George Harrison, Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, John Hiatt, Jerry Garcia, Reverend Gary Davis, Dr. John, Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Phoebe Snow, Jerry Jeff Walker and Mississippi John Hurt.
Bromberg began studying guitar at age 13 and was eventually drawn into the Greenwich Village folk scene in the mid-’60s. He became a first-call “hired gun” guitarist for recording sessions, ultimately playing on hundreds of records by artists including Bob Dylan (New Morning, Self Portrait, Dylan), Link Wray, The Eagles and Willie Nelson.
An unexpected and wildly successful solo spot for 600,000 concert-goers at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival in Great Britain led to a solo deal with Columbia Records, for whom Bromberg recorded four albums. His eponymous 1971 debut included “The Holdup,” a songwriting collaboration with George Harrison, who also played slide guitar on the track.
Bromberg also met the Grateful Dead and wound up with four of their members playing on his next two albums. His material, based in the folk and blues idioms, continually expanded with each new album to encompass bluegrass, ragtime, country and ethnic music, and his touring band grew apace. By the mid-’70s, the David Bromberg Big Band included horn players, a violinist, and several multi-instrumentalists, including Bromberg himself.
Despite sold-out concerts and a string of acclaimed albums on the Fantasy label, Bromberg found himself exhausted by the logistics of the music business. “I decided to change the direction of my life,” he explained, dissolving his band in 1980.
With the release of the Grammy-nominated Try Me One More Time, his 2007 solo return to the studio, Bromberg continued his musical revitalization, playing shows on his own, with the David Bromberg Quartet, and reunions of the David Bromberg Big Band. This led to the 2009 album Use Me, featuring David with John Hiatt and other friends like Levon Helm, Los Lobos, Tim O’Brien, Vince Gill, Widespread Panic, Dr. John, Keb’ Mo’ and Linda Ronstadt.
In 2013, content with the balance of both his violin business and performing career, Bromberg was ready to record again with his live band. Enlisting old friend Larry Campbell (three-time Grammy-winning producer for Levon Helm and multi-instrumentalist with Bob Dylan) and engineer Justin Guip, Bromberg and his group entered Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, in March 2013. Enlisting some of Helm’s former recording and touring musicians, the David Bromberg Band emerged 12 days later with Only Slightly Mad, a return to his genre-bending albums of the ’70s and ’80s.
Tickets for Saturday’s show are on sale now. Floor seats are $25 in advance or $30 at the door, balcony seats are $20 in advance or $25 at the door, and box seats are $30 in advance or $35 at the door. For more information, call 740-753-1924 or visit stuartsoperahouse.org.