October 7, 2011

$22 / $25 at door

Cris Williamson

We’re About 9 opens

Cris Williamson'Decades before indie labels were the norm, and years before women had any real access to the industry, Cris Williamson was busy changing the face of popular music. Williamson’s stellar vocals and compelling persona are regarded as legendary for good reason. In 1975, the twenty-something former schoolteacher recorded The Changer and the Changed and made music history. Today, that record remains one of the best-selling independent releases of all time. ¶ Opening this show is We’re About 9, a trio from Baltimore known for their catchy songwriting and intense harmonies which form an instant connection with their audiences.

Cris Williamson’s music was embraced by audiences hungry for a fresh, bold sound able to match the uncharted waters of the mid-seventies. It took close to a decade for the genre to earn a critical reception, and by that time Cris’s astounding vocals were earning reviews that sounded as though they had been written by close relatives. Finally, the stage had been set for women, and particularly for lesbians, to write, produce, record, and issue their own material — on their own terms.

For thirty-some years, Cris has toured incessantly, performing in Russia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. One of the most sought-after performers on the acoustic circuit, she continues to criss-cross America, selling out Carnegie Hall three times, and headlining among others, the Newport and Kerrville Folk Festivals. For Cris, the music has always been the vehicle for something larger. Her lyrics appear on a regular basis in books and thesis papers. Her albums are part of the curriculum for women’s studies courses, and thousands of people who may not even know her name join their voices in “Song of the Soul” around campfires and places of worship. She is often considered a treasure, passed hand-to-hand, person-to-person. Cris’s 2008 release, Fringe, is about returning home — in body, spirit and memory. The places we have left, by moving or maturing, abide in us still, and Cris takes us back to her beloved Wyoming with old songs and old-style songs that lovingly pay tribute to harsh prairies and to the virtues required to eke out a living on them.

Photo of Cris Williamson by Irene Young

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We're About 9

We’re About 9 traces their beginnings to a weekly open mic at the Jahva House in Ellicott City, MD. They regularly captured the attention of the Sheriff’s Department not for disorderliness, but for breaking fire codes with attendance flooding both floors of the cafe and spilling out into the street. After the open mic ended each week, the music would continue outside in the parking lot. It was in the magical location of Parking Lot D that Katie Graybeal, Brian Gundersdorf, and Pat Klink first started sculpting their distinctive vocal harmony arrangements. We’re About 9 knew they needed to be edgy, charming, dissonant and robust. And while they needed to work hard and take the craft seriously, the presentation needed to be all about fun. We’re About 9 has played the main stage at Falcon Ridge Folk Fest, Philadelphia Folk Fest, Clearwater Revival, Mountain Stage New Songs Fest, and many more — at the same time touring east coast folk clubs, coffeehouses, house concerts, and college venues. They will be appearing as a duo tonight.

  • On Cris Williamson:
    A brilliant composer and lyricist The Boston Globe
  • A voice “like honey on a cello” Bonnie Rait
  • . . .
  • On We’re About 9:
    Stretches of imagination seldom seen anywhere . . . I’ve just gotten that explosion in my chest that I get when someone new has walked into my life and lit the fuse to another thrill. Richard Cuccaro, Acoustic Live! in NY
  • Well beyond the ordinary . . . Soaring Harmonies. The Washington Post