Usually, Friday the 13th isn’t thought of as a lucky day. This year, that’s not the case, because Friday the 13th is when Greg Greenway will play at Sundilla. Showtime is 7:30, and admission is just $10, $8 for students, and free for children 12 and under.
Greg Greenway is one of those artists who is so rich a talent that it is difficult to categorize him. He traverses, combines and mixes up musical genres, and manages to open a window on global events that bring us together as citizens of the world. Like other great performers before him, Greenway’s message is that we can all play a part and make a difference in the course of both our private and public lives. But few musicians can do just this with such style, passion and sheer musicality. But the central appeal of his music is that it comes through the singular lens of Greenway’s humanity and his soulful affinity for the audience. He has been described as “one of the strongest, and finest voices in folk music.” The Boston Globe wrote, Confessional one moment, rambunctiously disarming the next, few modern folk singers can own a coffeehouse stage as completely as Greenway.” Another reviewer perhaps described it best, “A profoundly rich poet and musician. Folk Music is too narrow a description.” And he has legendary energy. One Cambridge promoter is fond of introducing Greg with “fasten your seatbelts, this next performer is going to take you for a ride.” It is “a ride” well worth taking.
Greg has released seven CDs, and each has been met with acclaim. His first, “A Road Worth Walking Down,” was nominated for two Boston Music Awards; it was followed with “Singing for the Landlord,” which ended the year ranked in the Top Five on the FOLK-DJ list. “Mussolini’s Head,” “the much-demanded “Greg Greenway Live” and “Something Worth Doing” followed. Two years ago he released “Weightless”. In the months immediately following its release, it ranked #4 on the FOLK-DJ radio playlists– one spot ahead of Bob Dylan’s Grammy-winning “Modern Times.” Almost six months later, it was still in the Top 20, while that Grammy-winning CD by Bob Dylan was no longer on the charts. His latest is the hot-off-the-presses “Standing on the Side of Love,” and it is keeping the pace set by its predecessors, which is no surprise to anyone who has heard it.
“Standing on the Side of Love” does break new ground for Greg: it features what Greg calls his “first successful face-to-face co-write”, and his co-writer is none other that Sundilla favorite Kate Campbell. It was suggested that their Southern backgrounds and similar sensibilities should result in a superb song, and what was born was the tune “I’m So Sick and Tired.”
Among Greenway’s onstage highlights are a show at Carnegie Hall in the New York Singer/Songwriter Festival which was rebroadcast on NPR’s World Cafe, an appearance on nationally syndicated Mountain Stage, and a show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoring Phil Ochs. In August of 2000, Greenway was seen world wide on CNN’s World Beat in a segment on socially conscious artists. He was filmed at the Clearwater Hudson River Revival Festival performing along with Folk legend Pete Seeger and others. Greenway was featured on the weekend edition of NPR’s All Things Considered. In a recent survey of Boston’s premiere Folk Music station, WUMB, of all artists large
and small over their 20 years on air, Greenway was picked 12th. At the end of October 2006, he was selected to sing his trademark remake of U2′s, “In the Name of Love” to close a rally at the University of Virginia that featured NAACP Chairman, Julian Bond. And in 2007 he spent several weeks opening for the incomparable Richie Havens, and even got to perform with Havens while on the tour.
Perhaps the greatest testimony to Greg Greenway is his popularity among his peers. At music conferences and festivals, other performers line up to see Greg perform which is one reason he has been called “a magnet for musicians.” And more often than not, some of them wind up on stage with him. He’s as friendly as he is talented, and by the end of the night you’ll have more than a new favorite performer; you’ll have a new friend.
So if you’re up for a Friday the 13th filled with great entertainment at an affordable price, be sure to come see Greg Greenway in concert. (Your other option is to go to the movies and see the re-make of “Friday the 13th.” Spoiler alert: the guy in the hockey mask did it.) He (Greg, not the guy in the hockey mask) will be taking the stage at 7:30; admission is just $10, $8 for students and free for children 12 and under. There will be free coffee, tea, water an food, though as always the audience is invited to bring whatever food or beverage they prefer. For more information, just go to www.sundilla.org.
From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on February 10, 2009. View the original page.
