Selwyn Birchwood • July 12 • 7:30 PM • Free

 Although award-winning Florida musician Selwyn Birchwood is firmly rooted in the tradition, the young guitarist, lap steel player, songwriter and vocalist sets a course for the future of the blues with his visionary, original music. Birchwood, whose band features the pulsating interplay of his blistering guitar with Regi Oliver’s driving baritone sax, deploys a singular sound and style all his own. He calls it “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues,” an intoxicating mix of deep blues, blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock, booty-shaking funk and sweet Southern soul, played and sung with the fire-and-brimstone fervor of a revival tent preacher with a hellhound on his trail. Tastemaker Americana music magazine No Depression says, “Selwyn Birchwood reaches back in the blues tradition to launch something out of this world.” On his new release, Exorcist (his fourth for Alligator and sixth overall), Birchwood delivers the most far- reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Exorcist was recorded in Florida and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge, with each of the 13 vividly detailed songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms. Each twists its own tale, ranging from the love- gone-wrong Horns Below Her Halo to the love-gone-terrifying Exorcist to the ripped-from-the- headlines escapades of FLorida Man and Swim At Your Own Risk to the autobiographical Underdog. According to Blues Music Magazine, “Selwyn Birchwood heralds a fresh, exciting new direction in the blues. Toe-tapping, hip-shaking, joyful and inviting...expansive and focused, exploratory and time-honored, but always original.”

Abbie Gardner is a fiery dobro player with an infectious smile. Whether performing solo or with Americana harmony trio Red Molly, her acclaimed tales of love and loss, both gritty and sweet, are propelled by her impeccable lap style slide guitar playing. Solo performances feature the dobro as a solo instrument, bouncing between a solid rhythmic backbone and ripping lead lines, all in support of her voice and songs. Her latest recording DobroSinger was released May 13, 2022. It’s intimate, real and raw - her dobro and voice recorded at the same time at home, without a band or any studio tricks to hide behind. You can hear every breath, every chuckle, as if you are in the room with her.