 Our Our 15th show in the SONGS IN THE 'VILLE Songwriters In-the-Round series is on Thursday, January 20, at 7:30 PM at the UARK Ballroom, 644 W. Dickson St., in Fayetteville. My guest songwriters will be three accomplished Arkansas writers, Charlie Crow, from Little Rock; Charley Sandage, from Mountain View; and Keith Vire, from Fayetteville. These special events are presented "In The Round" - a style of performance in which songwriters set up in a circle, facing each other, in the middle of the room. The audience is seated at tables, all around the performers, giving both the artists and the listeners a more intimate, up-close experience. It's fun for the writers, too, because it feels more like they are sitting around the living room playing "with" friends, rather than playing "to" you from a stage. You get to hear the stories behind the songs and the interaction between the performers as they make their music. There is a $10. cover collected at the door. Doors open at 7PM. We're looking forward to sharing some great tunes with you!
Charlie Crow has been writing songs and poetry for over thirty years. His songwriting genres include old-fashioned country, blues, folk, pop, rockabilly and gospel and his songwriting style ranges from romantic ballads, Texas swing-style tunes to biting satire, political commentary and oddball humor, depending on the subject that inspires him. Music critic Philip Martin says Charlie is: “…a remarkable craftsman who has a pleasant, comfortably live-in voice and an uncommon gift for conversational phrasing…his songs…are highly polished and thoughtful gems set in roots, Americana meditations on folk and country styles. This is the sort of sincere music that a lot of people miss — the songs that no one writes anymore, with melodies that you can hum and lyrics that scan and flow.”His critically acclaimed debut CD, “Angela’s Asleep: Songs of Life and Living by Charlie Crow,” was issued in late 2010. One of the songs, “Odometer Blues,” was recently played on the “Car Talk” program on National Public Radio.Charlie is a member of the Arkansas Chamber Singers and leads the Central Arkansas Songwriters Workshop for the Nashville Songwriters Association International.
Charley Sandage began writing songs in the mid-fifties when he was the singer for a local band in Hot Spring County, Arkansas. He didn’t know at the time that what they were playing was "rockabilly."
Then came the "folk" (not to be confused with traditional music) boom that coincided with Sandages’ college and army years. “I wrote my share of obscure lines and strange chord progressions”, says Sandage. The eclectic band called Sugarhill came together just as he was digging into traditional Ozark tunes and ballads.
These influences - and an understanding that categories don’t really matter - shape the songwriting that he does today. Adventures in Nashville have netted some acclaim and a couple of cuts. A song called "Neighbors" was performed by Grandpa Jones on The Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw, and by the group, Harmony, on Garrison Keillor’s NPR radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.
Keith Vire credits Kris Kristofferson for giving him the desire to write. “I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Kris singing ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’” he says. “It just really grabbed me. Every word, every line, seemed to create a picture in my mind. I wanted to write like that. I wanted to paint pictures with words. Now, all these years later, I still love a Kristofferson song.”
Vire began to write regularly in his mid 20’s while attending the University of Arkansas. “I really started working hard on the craft of writing. I co-wrote lots of songs with Bob Askins and Gary Davis, two really good writers in Fayetteville during that time, and that helped me develop some discipline and purpose.”
In 1985, Vire was a finalist in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas. He recorded his CD, “Bribing the Muse” in 2003. That led one reviewer to say, “…Keith's songs are personal. His writing is direct and to the point, with songs that are often more like short stories.”
Vire now combines his love of music with his long time career as a nonprofit administrator. He also builds guitars under his own Vire Guitars label. |
