BELLOWS FALLS — Still in his 50s, Billy Bragg has left an indelible mark on pop music. He unites several threads of post-war music on both sides of the Atlantic: the folk activism of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan; the anger-fueled, damn-it-all attitude of the Clash and the Jam; and the vaudevillian stylings of Lonnie Donegan, “the King of Skiffle.”
And he has a big heart, one that's brought him to Bellows Falls twice before when he's performed at benefit concerts for local volunteer radio station WOOL.
He's back for another WOOL benefit show on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Bellows Falls Opera House. Doors open at 8 p.m.; the show starts at 8:45. There will be a cash bar.
According to Gary Smith, one of the founders of WOOL and also of Popolo Restaurant, which is promoting the show, Bragg is a friend to the community.
“His perspective is often in sync with our members, our programming, and with our sort of 'do-it-yourself' attitude,” Smith said in a program announcement.
Bragg is a singer-songwriter who's maintained the quality of his craft and the intensity of his perspective for more than 30 years of playing professionally, “despite ups and downs, duplicity, artifice, greed, fatigue, and disappointment that comes with being in the music business,” Smith said.
Opening for Bragg is Canadian singer-songwriter Billy The Kid, the stage name of upstart Billy Pettinger.