For fifty years now “Folk Music’s Rustic Renaissance Man” (Washington Post) John McCutcheon has been everywhere in the folk music scene. A breath-taking multi-instrumentalist, a traditional music archivist, one of the primary revivalists of the hammer dulcimer, a pioneering children’s and family artist, a prolific and wide-ranging songwriter, and the very definition of the touring Road Warrior. Until COVID.
Starting in March 2020, fresh from his twelfth Australian tour, he settled into home life and wrote. And wrote. On September 2, 2022 he’s releasing ‘Leap!,‘ his third album of songs written during the pandemic. “These are not songs about the pandemic, they are songs because of the pandemic,” the multiple-Grammy nominated McCutcheon mused.
The 18-song collection covers lots of ground. He takes you to backroad Appalachian to Belfast, from a front-porch salesman to an immigrant’s first day of work waiting outside a steel mill, from a 9-year-old at recess to a chance meeting in a New York subway. McCutcheon’s legendary storytelling illuminates moments great and small, elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary, all delivered with his warm baritone and his long-time bandmates, fleshing each tale out perfectly.
‘Leap! ‘follows on the heels of ‘Cabin Fever: Songs from the Quarantine‘ (2020) and ‘Bucket List’ (2021) and brings the total to 54 new songs written and released since the 2020 lockdown. “And that’s less than half of what’s been composed, not counting at least that many from my weekly Zoom sessions with Tom Paxton and others!” said McCutcheon.
With this, his 43rd release in his 50-year career, John McCutcheon proves again that he is one of the most creative, prolific, reliable, and satisfying of American folk music’s stalwarts. ‘Leap!‘ puts a big exclamation point on his already impressive legacy.
Ticket info
All seats are reserved and priced at $35 or $25 (plus applicable fees). Tickets can be purchased in person at The Kent Stage or online via the link below:
