Songwriters In The Round $18 tickettomato tickets coming soon!
Ex Nashville Cats (Denny Bixby & John Bunzow) with guest Charlie Shaw
Songwriters In The Round
Charlie Shaw
For over twenty years, spanning between Memphis, TN, and Portland, OR, Charlie Shaw’s music career has remained Pacific-Northwestern in tone and Southern in attitude. His Memphis guitar grit goes hand in hand with a vulnerable and imaginative lyrical approach that, like Neil Young’s “Harvest” or Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska”, pushes creative boundaries while leading listeners on a wandering journey through forgotten, ghost-town Americana.
Denny Bixby
Oregon Music Hall of Famer Denny Bixby is known in his hometown of Portland, Oregon and far beyond as a creative, intuitive, and highly respected bassist and singer. His work with multiple Grammy and other award-winning, world-renowned artists (Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith, Buddy Miller, Suzy Bogguss, Chet Atkins, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea) and with Portland's own stellar musical community (Quarterflash, Curtis Salgado, Jon Koonce, Lloyd Jones, John Bunzow, Jack McMahon, Thad Beckman, Gary Ogan and many others) is well-documented.
Upon returning to Portland in 2005 after 18 years in the Nashville, Tennessee area, Denny continued his evolution as a musician by concentrating on songwriting and playing guitar.
Denny has two solo albums to his credit. 2003's Fish Out of Water, recorded in Nashville, showcases his love of contemporary jazz and fusion with 10 original songs, and features his arrangements and production.
His latest collection of songs, released in 2017, is entitled Joyride. The music falls into the Americana category and features roots, rock, folk, and country-influenced original material.
John Bunzow is an inspired and innovative American roots singer/songwriter/guitarist of depth, substance and groove.
“John destroys the boundaries between great rock, country, r&b, and soul music by owning his noteworthy sound with respect to the great artists who came before.” Ray Kennedy, Five time Grammy winner. Producer, Engineer, Musician (Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver)
Bunzow, based in Portland with regular commutes to Nashville, has built a long and storied career. Infused early with a strong love of Southern music – thanks to kin from that part of the country – John has developed his own unique fusion of roots rock and blues, seasoned with everything from reggae and country rock
to pop.
He counts among his “Mt. Rushmore of influences,” as he puts it, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Mike Bloomfield, Albert King, country picker Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Webb, Randy Newman, Steve Earle, and Jerry Garcia, among many.
During his early years, Bunzow performed with bands that favored original music, including the Cowboy Angels and the X-Angels, as well as working as a solo singer/songwriter and even trafficking in a country music tour of truck stops and county fairs. John found himself bouncing around various music scenes including San Francisco, Seattle and LA. But it was in Nashville that his songwriting created new opportunities, Bunzow says. “My focus was always as a songwriter, and that is what brought me to Nashville – twice.”
John's Band recently performed on the Main Stage at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland. John and duo partner Denny Bixby opened for Texas troubadour James McMurtry at the Aladdin Theater.