BELLOWS FALLS — Oliver Wendell Holmes declared, “Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.”
That description, according to a news release, could be applied to B, a 17-year-old songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist “with consummate skill and a powerful social conscience” who will perform at the first Stone Church Arts concert of 2019 on Saturday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Chapel at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St.
Mary Gauthier says “B is a brilliant young songwriter whose music moves me. Give a listen, you'll be glad you did.”
According to a news release, B's music “is an acoustic mixture of folk, classical, bluegrass, an unsurprising blend considering the company this young artist has been keeping.”
In 2012, Amos Lee, in his headlining set at the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, introduced 12-year old B to the stage to join his band. “In that instant, the lives of everyone in attendance changed for the better,” wrote The Huffington Post about that appearance.
Since childhood, B has shared the stage with a veritable who's who of the folk/bluegrass community, including David Grisman, Tim O'Brien, and Chris Thile.
“I've had the great privilege to play with some incredible musicians in my life. Rarely have I come across one who is both virtuosic and profoundly raw and soulful at the same time. I don't think many people are given either, let alone both. B's got it,” says Langhorne Slim.
B's latest EP, Ghosts Underneath My Skin, was recorded mostly live in a few days, with six songs that touch on issues ranging from gun violence to the refugee situation to growing up queer in America.
A Colorado native currently living in Boulder, B's unique approach to schooling has allowed B to pursue what B loves from an early age. Homeschooled until high school, B began piano, voice, and guitar at age five and mandolin at age eight. B will attend Berklee College of Music in Boston starting this fall.