This is a Philadelphia Music Co-op Exclusive Artist Development Workshop! Co-op members and bandmates may attend. The event will take place at the Keswick Theatre, beginning promptly at 7 PM. Doors will open at 6:30.
Vance Gilbert's Collision Course Workshop offers you the opportunity to take an interactive and fun look at your performance skills and your songwriting in an open mic stage setting. Vance's revolutionary appoach combines the elements of crafting a song with live performance - elements that inseparably interwined for the performing songwriter. All aspects from the process adjusting the microphone, stage banter, eye contact, song arrangement, lyric tweaks, and approach to the instrument will be reviewed, gently critiqued, and adjusted in real time by Vance in the supportive stage setting of other singer-songwriters, one of whom will be next to take the stage. It doesn’t matter your level - Vance has worked with everyone from rote beginners to David Wilcox.
Show up with your instrument, a song you know needs a good looking at to be stage ready, and let's get to work!
For those that don't know, Vance Gilbert burst onto the singer/songwriter scene in the early 90's when buzz started spreading in the folk clubs of Boston about an ex-multicultural arts teacher who was knocking 'em dead at open mics. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Vance started out hoping to be a jazz singer, and then discovered his affinity for the storytelling sensibilities of acoustic folk music. Once word got out about Gilbert's stage-owning singing and playing, Shawn Colvin invited him to be special guest on her Fat City Tour. Noted not only for being the ever consummate performer, Gilbert has recorded 12 albums, including 4 for Philo/Rounder Records and a duo album with friend Ellis Paul. Along with being opener of choice for artists as varied as Aretha Franklin, Arlo Guthrie, and Anita Baker, 2006 and 2007 found Gilbert opening 140+ shows for comedian George Carlin. Most recently he’s the opener of choice for Paul Reiser and The Subdudes.
Considered by many to be an integral part of the national folk scene, Gilbert's approach to the acoustic singer songwriter idiom is significant. Gilbert's compositions, while frequently employing sophisticated melodies and harmonies that attest to his jazz roots, remain sublime attestations to the storyteller's craft. He even has a tune on a Grammy Nominated children’s album.