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Paul Sprawl has a unique, creative and soulful approach to the
guitar, to songwriting, and to finding an audience for his work.
Who else grew a national audience by traveling around in a van
going to open mics? Who else combines percussive guitar techniques
with bottleneck, tapping, harmonica on a rack, and songs of the
downtrodden and forgotten? Who else with a truckstop guide next
to the driver's seat of his van has a college arts education
and has put out six cds in seven years? Listen for yourself.
With performances in 35 states in the USA and shows in Canada
and Germany, Paul Sprawl toured six to eight months a year from
2000-2005, and he's back at it again. Since his 1999 cd, Blue
Suitcase, produced by Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, Kelly Joe Phelps)
for the German label, Intuition, he's put out five more full-length
cds on his own label, Vagabond Music.
Sprawl has developed a thing that everyone seems to agree is
his own and unique. It involves poetry, storytelling, a baritone
singing voice, and some unusual guitar techniques that you've
just got to check out for yourself.
More art than entertainment; this is creative work with life
commitment - with influences like... Skip James, John
Cage, Joni Mitchell, Harry Partch, Michael Hedges, Chris Whitley,
Ed Harkins, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Jarmusch,
William Gibson, Noam Chomsky, David Byrne, Laura Nyro, Pepe and
Celin Romero, Charlie Haden, his brother's
bands, Nature, travels, jazz & rock bands, poets, and lots of strangers who
wanted to talk.
"Paul has taken the blues and used them in a unique way
to tell his own songs and stories. Slide guitar, lightning finger
work with both hands up the neck, percussion on the body of the
guitar, and a mellifluous voice that slides and bends his melodies
the way his slide guitar finds the notes on his frets. He has
three albums out - we were sold on him last year when he sent
us a copy of Lucky Hand - a self-produced album with just Paul
and his guitar, and no overdubs or fancy studio tricks."
-Al Boyce (Old Kitchen Rug and Brewery House Concerts Promoter
- Minneapolis, MN)
For more information, visit www.paulsprawl.com |
