Sat 11/11 @ 6:30PM
The annual Woodchopper’s Ball, organized by Brian Henke at the Kent Stage, aims to showcase a range of musicians in the style he himself performs: finger-style guitar.
For its 22nd year, as he always does, he’s rounded up an all-star cast of players who are respected among aficionados of this genre, with nine musicians and a band performing their own variation on finger-style picking. And, as usual, the list of performers features a lot of familiar names from previous Woodchoppers balls.
Attendees from previous years will know Indiana’s Michael Kelsey, a virtual one-man band; the Madison, Wisconsin duo of Helen Avakian and Dave Irwin who perform as the Red Door; Northeast Ohio retired high school teacher/guitar builder Jesse Smith; Indiana’s Patrick Woods; and Atlanta duo the Night Travellers, featuring James McKinney on banjo and Niki Portman on bass.
Columbus-based Kelly Zullo, who plays an aggressive, percussive funky style of guitar, also returns, as does guitarist Tim Thompson who has performed in previous years with his fiddler son Myles. Gareth Pearson, who is described as “the Welsh Tornado” of fingerpicking guitar, joins the cast this year. And of course, Henke himself performs, demonstrating what he’s picked up in more than three decades of playing acoustic finger-style guitar in Cleveland.
Get tickets here.
