PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present contemporary folk singer/songwriters Ellis Paul and Garrin Benfield at Next Stage on Friday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m.
Ellis Paul was at the forefront of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene in the 1990s, creating a movement that revitalized the national acoustic music circuit with an urban, literate, folk pop style.
With a probing humanism shaped in part by the five years he spent as a social worker, Ellis frames the most divisive issues of the day into starkly personal and emotional terms in his songs.
Drawn to Woody Guthrie's social consciousness, Ellis is committed to Guthrie's legacy.
In 1996, Ellis joined the likes of Bruce Springsteen and the Indigo Girls in a 10-day celebration of Guthrie's work at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Later, when Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma, hosted the first Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in July, 1998, Paul was tapped as one of the headliners and honored by being named an honorary citizen of Okemah in the process.
The connection with Guthrie continued into the new millennium when Nora Guthrie invited Ellis to put music to a set of her father's lyrics. He later participated in the Ribbon of Highway tour, a communal salute to Woody Guthrie.
Ellis has released 19 albums, a book of essays, a children's book, and the film 3000 Miles.
Garrin Benfield's sound has been described as freestyle acoustic rock. His music is a blend of moody, guitar driven rock and polyrhythmic groove all run through the filter of a very serious singer/songwriter.
He flat-picks his way through complicated and lightning-fast arrangements, often using a Loop Station to create mesmerizing soundscapes, darkened by his extensive use of effects pedals. Garrin has recorded five CDs of original music, and his song What You're Hiding - a stark tribute to Matthew Shepard - was featured in a production of The Laramie Project.