Welcoming singer and breakneck acoustic guitarist:

George Cole

George Cole lives in a musical world all his own.... a world in which Django Reinhardt, The Ramones, Nat King Cole and Doc Watson get equal billing with Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Willie Nelson and the Great American Songbook. Cole currently occupies the guitar chair for the David Grisman Quintet and has 2 releases on Grisman’s highly regarded Acoustic Disc Label. George was guitar teacher and mentor to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of Green Day for 10 years in the East Bay. Cole, a San Francisco native and BAMMIE award winner brings an expertise to his guitar playing and singing that is filtered through Rock and Roll, Gypsy Jazz and All things American. The music he makes brings to mind the old adage “Everything Old Is New Again”. David Grisman tapped Cole to play on his most recent Sextet record and Cole in turn featured Grisman on his release “George Cole Live”. Jazz legend Keely Smith handpicked Cole to play guitar and sing duets with her on her last tour. Chris Isaak also had Cole lay down guitar tracks on his platinum selling Forever Blue release. Cole is currently performing at festivals, performing arts centers, top nightclubs, and vintage theaters. Watch and listen for yourself!

Also  welcoming back:

Sean McGowan

Sean McGowan is a fingerstyle jazz guitarist who combines many diverse musical influences with unconventional techniques to create a broad palette of textures within his compositions and arrangements for solo guitar. His first recording River Coffee won the Best Independent Release of the Year Award (2002) from Acoustic Guitar magazine and music from the recording has been published in Japan’s Acoustic Guitar magazine and Mel Bay’s Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar, Vol. 3 (2005). His subsequent recordings Indigo (2008) and Sphere: the Music ofThelonious Monk (2011) offer compelling portraits of classic jazz standards performed on solo electric archtop guitar. Sphere was named one of Acoustic Guitar magazine’s “Essential Albums of 2011”, and Sean was recently featured on the cover of Fingerstyle 360 magazine (Summer 2012). His most recent solo guitar recordings include Thanksgiving & Christmas Tidings (2014) a collection of seasonal hymns and carols arranged for acoustic guitar, and My Fair Lady (2015) a collection of songs from Lerner & Loewe’s masterpiece.

Saturday — July 11th — 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Maple Hall / Upstairs
104 Commercial St.  La Conner, WA - Map

$20 / Advance - Online

$25 / at the Box Office (located in Maple Hall during exhibition hours)