Houston Jones with very special guest Joe Craven March 7, 2009

BUY TICKETS
Houston Jones & special guest Joe Craven High octane Americana
Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 8:00 pm
$19 adv / $21 day of show

“Houston Jones. You might be thinking, "yet another singer/songwriter," but, boy, would you be wrong. In reality, it's a high-energy quintet of acoustic musicians from the San Francisco Bay area who play an original blend of folk, blues, bluegrass, and gospel. The name comes from members Glenn "Houston" Pomianek (lead guitar) and Travis Jones (lead vocals, guitar), who are joined by Chris Kee (acoustic bass), and Peter Tucker (drums).

They incorporate so many different influences and make it seem so easy. The songs are powered along by the high-energy drumming of Tucker and supportive, full-bodied arrangements. Jones' lead vocals are one of the group's strong features, with everyone else chipping in backing vocals. What separates Houston Jones from similar bands, though, is the high quality of the songwriting, with great hooks, melodies, and compelling lyrics.

These guys are stone pros, pushing every boundary possible, and creating something that is wholly unique, with layers upon layers of subtleties. You can hear bluegrass, delta blues, western, gypsy, swamp, spanish, rock, jazz, celtic, and God knows what other influences. They are surpassingly good and fun to watch live. This is the kind of human artistic endeavor that gets you an all-access pass in St. Peter's office. Truly accessible, intricate, and engaging music.

"Three crow town" (2005) - "Very highly recommended!" Dirty Linen Magazine
"One of my favorite CDs" KFOG-FM, San Francisco

"Calico Heart" (2008) - "Wonderful original tunes" Billboard.com

JOE CRAVEN is a madman with anything that has strings attached; violin, mandolin, tin can, bedpan, cookie tin, tenor guitar, mouth bow, banjo, berimbau, balalaika, boot ‘n lace plus a world of percussion instruments including animal bones, squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and...Himself. His stage setup more often resembles a yard sale. But there's more to Craven than meets the ear. Educator, visual artist, former museum curator, motivational speaker, actor/storyteller and festival emcee, Joe’s work is born out of respect and reverence and seeks to honor the creative energy in everyone. An advocate of the folk arts, Joe’s educational mission is to empower individuals to take possession of their own music and tell their stories by “demystifying” art through self-expression as a daily ritual.

For almost 17 years, Joe Craven was the highly respected multi-instrumentalist with the David Grisman Quintet... yeah, Joe was the guy with the Ralph Stanley autographed bongos and fiddle. Having played and/or recorded with Jerry Garcia, Stéphane Grappelli, Maria Muldaur, Vassar Clements, The Persuasions, Psychograss, The Alison Brown Quartet, Darol Anger, Rob Ickes, Bob Brozman, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, spoken word maven Ken Nordine and many others, Joe has performed music & sound effects on a wide variety of recordings including commercials, soundtracks, computer games and several Grammy nominated projects.

Hard to believe we can pack that much into one show, but we will!

Official Website: http://houstonjones.com