La Conner Guitar Festival proudly presents:

An Evening of Acoustic Blues with

Mary Flower

Mary Flower is a top notch player, an internationally known and award-winning picker, singer/songwriter and teacher and an acoustic musician you have to have on your radar, especially if you are a blues fan. Just as comfortable on the lap style guitar as she is on a standard six string… and on each she can play the blues, but it’s not all blues… with Mary she is very much at home in the swing genre as she is ragtime, folk, and even jazz. She plays with such command of the guitar, and such confidence in the notes that it is impossible to stop listening. She plays the blues the way the blues were meant to be played, raw and in your face. She is a true blues connoisseur from her playing to her vast knowledge of the genre’s catalog from Piedmont to the Mississippi Delta, with stops in ragtime, swing, folk and hot jazz.

Flower’s 11 recordings, including her four for Memphis’ famed Yellow Dog Records — Bywater Dance, Instrumental Breakdown, Bridges and Misery Loves Company — show a deep command of and love for folk and blues string music. For Flower, it’s never about re-creation. Her dedication to the art form is a vital contribution to America’s music.

The Midwest native relocated from Denver to the vibrant Portland, Oregon music scene in in 2004. She continues to please crowds and critics at folk festivals, teaching seminars and concert stages domestically and abroad, that include Merlefest, Kerrville, King Biscuit, Prairie Home Companion and the Vancouver Folk Festival, among many. Mary Flower’s immense finger picking guitar and lap-slide prowess is soulful and meter-perfect, a deft blend of the inventive, the dexterous and the mesmerizing. Her supple honey-and-whiskey voice provides the perfect melodic accompaniment to each song’s story. A finalist in 2000 and 2002 at the National Finger Picking Guitar Championship, a nominee in 2008, 2012 and 2016 for a Blues Foundation Blues Music Award, and many times a Cascade Blues Assn. Muddy Award winner.

“A world class finger-style guitarist and lap slide player.” – Downbeat Magazine

“There are few musicians in the genre bringing as much creative spark and low-key mojo to this century-old music…” – Acoustic Guitar Magazine

plus special guest

Dorian Michael

Dorian Michael started playing guitar as a seven-year old in Los Angeles just as folk music was about to have a renaissance of sorts and earthy acoustic music was his first guitar experience. He has been a working guitarist for four decades and in that time has played plenty of blues and folk, jazz and rock and roll.

There has always been a huge variety of playing experience from smokey honky-tonks to theater orchestra pits. At some point along the way he started playing a few solo fingerstyle instrumentals, made a cd and decided he needed to hit the road and see if he could sell all those cds he had. Three solo cds and four ensemble cds later Dorian is still playing throughout the States and Canada. He calls his solo music “contemporary traditional”; original music that reflects his interest in a number of styles of music. These influences come through in his original material, but it is a contemporary music that grows from, rather than mimics, those influences. When he plays someone else’s music or a traditional piece he always manages to add a few surprises. Says Dorian, “Some music makes you feel, some makes you think and some music is just for the fun of it. I try to get to all those places in the space of a performance.”

Stereophile Magazine – “…infectious music” with “…a thrilling intensity to the performance “Acoustic guitarist Dorian Michael is a player in the vein of John Fahey and (pre-vocal) Leo Kottke--fingerpicking with a style that's alternately delicate and wiry, drawing from blues, world music, folk, and classical” -AllMusic Review)

Dorian Michael Fuses Americana, blues and jazz into original compositions that strike a balance between following and breaking form. An outstanding guitar player with several instructional videos and books, he is also a gifted singer and will demonstrate both talents

Saturday — May 11th — 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Civic Garden Club
622 South Second St.  La Conner, WA - Map

$20 / Advance - Online

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

Get Tickets Now!