Mollie O'Brien and Rich Moore with Swing State

Friday, January 30, 2009 ~ 7:30 pm
350 Main Street, Lyons Community Church, Lyons, CO
$12 in advance, $15 at the door

Mollie O'Brien and Rich Moore are in synch and you know it! It's a partnership that's fun to watch and delicious to hear. Mollie is simply one of the finest singers and interpreters of American music alive today. She has performed and recorded with a virtual "who's who" of modern acoustic music, including her brother Tim O'Brien and Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion, and has a vast national and international following as a solo artist as well. Rich Moore is a virtuosic guitar player with "piles of styles"; Rich's fills and interludes are so attentive that the end result is a pure distillation—a rich, deep interpretation of the song for the song's sake. The intimacy of one voice and one guitar showcases their excellent musicianship, great material, and warm humor.

Swing State is a dynamic quartet that serves up vintage and original swing, Dixieland, and old-time country music, with Greg Schochet on archtop guitar and mandolin, Bill Pontarelli on clarinet, Nancy Thorwardson singing lead vocals and socking out the rhythm on guitar and ukulele, and Aaron Keim rocking the bottom end on bass. This band soars, with Bill and Greg weaving intricate and inspired melodies, while Aaron and Nancy create a landslide of swing rhythm. This is a happy collusion—a swinging synergy that makes everybody want to hoot, holler, and shake that thing!