Elijah Wald (USA): voice, guitar
Pietro Brunello: voice, guitar
Alex 'Kid' Gariazzo: voice, guitar
Marco ‘Benz’ Gentile: violin, mandolin
Bob Dylan arrived in Greenwich Village in January, 1961, joining a vibrant musical world from which he emerged as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Through songs and stories, Elijah Wald brings audiences into that world, tracing Dylan’s progress as he met and traded songs with people like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Eric Von Schmidt, and Jean Ritchie. He grew up on the folk scene and was friends with many of the people featured in this program, hanging out with Elliott, performing with Von Schmidt, and becoming particularly close with Van Ronk, whose couch served both him and Dylan as a frequent resting place (though not the same nights). This program traces Dylan’s evolution from his arrival in New York through the moment he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. It ranges from old folk songs (“The Cuckoo,” “Nottamun Town”) to obscure early compositions (“The Old Man,” “If I had to Do It All Over Again”) and familiar masterpieces (“Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “Mr. Tambourine Man”), tied together with stories about the Village scene, and Dylan’s path from a raw folk and blues singer into the voice of a generation.
Elijah Wald has been performing for almost fifty years in a wide variety of styles, from blues, folk, ragtime, swing, country, and cowboy songs to classic Swahili pop, the Bahamian guitar style of Joseph Spence, and Mexican corridos. He hit the road in his late teens as a rambling busker, and has toured all over the United States and much of the rest of the world, playing in coffeehouses, bars, nightclubs, colleges, concert halls, and on festival stages from New Orleans to Chicago, Tokyo, Salzburg, and Sydney. Elijah’s mentors include Dave Van Ronk, with whom he performed, recorded, and wrote Dave’s memoir, "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" (which inspired the Coen Brothers’ movie "Inside Llewyn Davis"); Howard Armstrong, the legendary Black string band master, with whom he toured for five years; Eric Von Schmidt, the founding father of the Cambridge folk/blues scene; and Jean-Bosco Mwenda, the father of Congolese acoustic guitar. He won a 2002 Grammy (for liner notes, which in Van Ronk’s words “is kind of like getting the Nobel Prize in fingerpainting,” but still nice), filmed a highly-regarded instructional video on the guitar style of the Bahamian wizard Joseph Spence, and his shows blend music and stories from a wide range of people and places in a compellingly personal style. Elijah’s music and stories are deeply informed by his second career as a chronicler of American and world music. Along with the Van Ronk memoir, he has written books on Josh White and Robert Johnson, an exploration of Jelly Roll Morton and the censorship of early blues, an alternative history of popular music provocatively titled "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll", and "Dylan Goes Electric!", the basis of the film "A Complete Unknown". Accompanying Elijah on FolkClub stage will be a lineup of top-notch Italian musicians: Alex ‘Kid’ Gariazzo (guitar and vocals), Marco ‘Benz’ Gentile (violin) and Pietro Brunello (guitar and vocals).
“A brilliant fingerpicker and distinctive singer” (The Boston Globe)
“Exuberant and educational” (The Times of India)
“Great songs, sporty picking, and some of the prettiest shirts on God’s green earth.” (Dave Van Ronk)
“Elijah Wald is a great folk singer who combines deft musicianship with great song choices and historical memory that sets him as one of the best in his field. Elijah has put in untold miles of traveling all over the world, meeting people and playing music with them. He is one of only a handful of folk musicians in his generation that is tightly connected to old iconic folk singers like Dave van Ronk and also to a new generation of musicians engaging with folk and traditional music in the new century. If Elijah Wald is playing a show, you won’t want to miss it.” (Eli Smith, director of the Brooklyn Folk Festival and Washington Square Folk Festival)
“Elijah has a highly accomplished traditional style of guitar and powerful songs. Although performing solo after a loud band, he was capable of handling a crowd of 1000 people and pulled a great festival performance. Highly recommended!” (Štěpán Suchochleb, director of the Blues Alive Festival, Czech Republic)
