Eliza Gilkyson, Harmony House Concert

| April 8, 2011

Eliza Gilkyson

Story, pix, and video by Mary Jane Farmer

She apologized for her newest CD not quite being ready Thursday night, but Eliza Gilkyson had a table-full of former CDs available anyway. No one went away without her music to enjoy over and over again!

Eliza performed at the Harmony House Concert Series Thursday (April 7) to a sold-out audience, bringing with her a lead guitar picker from her home/transplant/town of Austin. Robert  McEntee as they traveled up through North Texas for this concert, onto an Oklahoma Friday night gig, then back down to Dallas for another one on Saturday night.

 

Faye Weddell introducing Eliza

Eliza has been performing for at least 40 years, probably more, and yet she treats each performance as if it were the most important one of all. At Harmony House, she interacted with her audience in a way that made everyone there feel as if they had known her forever.

 

Robert McEntee

Yet, for many, it was a first time. Faye Weddell and Scott Lipsett have hosted Harmony House concerts for many years now, and so their friends have come to know that, even if they aren’t familiar with an artist, if Faye and Scott are bringing them in, they will be good.

 

She opened with that simple apology, and then countered with “But I have a whole lot of new songs, some from it, to play for you.” OK, anyone can go online and buy the new CD when it comes out. In fact, the link is posted here, at the bottom.

Eliza talks about her writing, and how she comes about each song. One in particular was especially sentimental which she said she wrote shortly after her father’s death. Her dad was Terry Gilkyson, who, like so many folk singers of the 60s, has been lost among the countless new artists who have taken stage and awards since then. Terry was a member of the “Easy Riders,” (among a lot of other credits) and that’s the name Eliza gave the song. A simple tribute to a simple, loving man who, she said, was most crazy about her mother.

Eliza Gilkyson

“Rose of Sharon” has long been a favorite, adapted from the Bible’s Old Testament scripture and personalized to a woman’s viewpoint.

And the tale about the Canadian bikers who roared into a quaint little log cabin retreat she had settled into on a road trip… later making friends with the bikers and then playing them, and house-concert goers Thursday night, a song called “Midnight Rider.” A video of that song is shared here.

To view video “Midnight Rider” click here (NOTE: It’s a long video, 7 minutes, and not my best effort, be patient with me as I learn this new art, please—M.J.)

Robert played an electric guitar, complimenting Eliza’s acoustic style. Eliza said he’s also a songwriter, but for this concert, he remained faithful to the guitar.

His fingers sometimes barely touched the strings as he glided them up and down the guitar’s neck, creatubg music mixing power with sweetness and sentiment. He’s not shown in the video, but his guitar licks are very easy to catch!


To go to Eliza Gilkyson’s Web site, click here

The next Harmony House Concert is scheduled for mid-May featuring Ashville, N.C.’s Chuck Brodsky. Contact Faye or Scott at  903-583-2661 to be added to their e-mail notification list.

 

 

Category: *- Features

About the Author ()

In the music production business, including event production, booking, photography, reporting, and other such essentials, since 1980.

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