John Sherman

Thursday , August 24, 2000
12:00 am
Location: Elderly Instruments
in-store performance (free)

John Sherman has been a performer of traditional and Celtic music for the last two decades. Early involvement in string bands playing traditional American music led to an abiding interest in the Scottish and Irish elements of that repertoire, which in turn led to study of the native musical styles themselves. While Sherman has played a variety of instruments (fiddle, bouzouki, banjo and Highland pipes) while working in this area of music, he is first and foremost a guitarist, and has arranged nearly fifty Irish and Scottish melodies for that instrument, most of which can be heard on his two solo recordings, "Farewell to the Creeks" (1987) and "So Inclined" (1996). The albums have received critical acclaim in the nationally circulated musical magazines Sing Out!, Dirty Linen, and Acoustic Guitar, and have garnered airplay across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Ireland and even in the new central European country of Slovenia. In March of 1998 Mel Bay Publications issued a bound volume of 28 of Sherman’s transcribed pieces (including the "So Inclined" CD) that is now being marketed internationally. In addition to his solo work, Sherman was also a founding member of Inisheer, long one Ohio’s most highly regarded Celtic concert bands, which also released two recordings "Sounds from the Atlantic" (1993) and "Rainbands" (1994). Inisheer received the Columbus Music Award for Best Ethnic Band in 1994. Sherman has also been active recently producing the recordings of other noted regional artists, among them hammered dulcimer virtuoso Mark Wade and the C & W/bluegrass group One Riot One Ranger. He is a sought-after accompanist and opening act as well, having performed with some of Celtic music’s major touring talents, such as the Tannahill Weavers, Phil Cunningham and John Renbourne. In 1994 he served as singer/songwriter Tom Paxton’s accompanying guitarist for two of that folk legend’s concerts in Ohio. Most recently Sherman has performed at festival venues with Aniar recording artists Todd Denman and Theo Paige, and with New England based sean nos singer Bridget Fitzgerald and guitarist Carol Barney. Sherman and Barney released a critically-acclaimed album of Irish music arranged for two guitars, "Ceol Anam", on the Folk-Legacy label in later summer of 1999.

Check out recordings we carry featuring John Sherman