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Peters, Kelsey to perform Wednesday
Singer/songwriter Joe Peters and multi-genre improvising guitarist Michael Kelsey are the featured performers in Wednesday’s Greencastle Summer Music Festival performance.
The free 7:30 p.m. concert in Gobin Church is a gift to the community from the more than 60 donors who are at the core of the GSMF family of audience members, as well as all those who have contributed to the GSMF’s endowment at the Putnam County Community Foundation. The GSMF is also supported by the Inn at DePauw and Doc’s Inn.
“Joe and Michael are two of my favorite Hoosier musicians,” GSMF founding artistic director Eric Edberg said. “Joe’s songs are profoundly eloquent, and Michael is one of the most imaginative, creative guitarists I’ve ever heard. They are also close friends who have been making music together for years, so they epitomize our motto of ‘friends making music for friends.’”
Kelsey brings a free-flowing improvisational style to the guitar that involves every inch of his instrument. From his funky, percussive playing style that conjures an image of a one-man version of STOMP to lush instrumentals reminiscent of Michael Hedges/Phil Keaggy, his performance blends multiple musical genres and vocals along with some techno fun to create a sound all his own. He is the winner of Guitar Center’s “Guitarmageddon.”
Chosen from among 3,000 entrants the singer-songwriter performed at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads 2004 where he shared the stage with many legendary guitarists. Throughout a performance Kersey may make use of technology, his improv skills, objects in the room, and audience interaction to make music for the ears but more importantly a musical experience for the senses. Indianapolis’ Nuvo Magazine wrote, “A fearless experimenter, Kelsey is an acoustic guitarist who weaves a multitude of unusual sounds and rhythms into his patchwork quilt of work. Part performance artist and part virtuoso musician. Kelsey takes the widest possible variety of music and makes it his own.”
Peters is an American singer-songwriter who has released more than a dozen CDs of original music since 1998, mostly under the band name, The Joedai Warriors. Peters grew up in the Midwest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his songs harken back to a time when young people sought the experience of peace, love and adventure and expressed this search in their music.
Some of his songs are influenced by oriental philosophies and were written while living and working overseas. His song, “Sail Away,” won top honors at the inaugural Blooming-Tunes songwriting contest in 2009. His original musical slide show, Root of the Matter, is featured on the Catholic Relief Services website. Peters has recently (2017) moved to the Bay Area of California where he continues to write and perform. He occasionally returns to Indiana to record with his musical mates and share his songs with a Hoosier audience.
The Greencastle Summer Music Festival concludes next week on Aug. 16 with the Tad Robinson Band.