News

Barlow to perform Wednesday evening at Annie’s House

By Scott Wagar

07/22/2014

Jamie Barlow will be performing a free Celtic music concert at Annie’s House this Wednesday, July 23, which is open to the general public.

Barlow is a Celtic fingerstyle guitarist that has played throughout the country. His music has been played on National Public Radio, utilized in a PBS documentary, “Songs of our Children” and in a Landlocked Films and University of Colorado’s production. The title track from his sophomore album, “Bring down the Storm” was also recognized and granted the Indie Project Award for the Best Song of 2006.

Barlow has been playing music since a young age. He started his professional career in the 1960s playing folk music and went on to country music where he wrote songs and did studio work for 18 years. During that time, country singers like Conway Twitty and Eddy Arnold recorded some of his songs.

From Nashville, Barlow moved to the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee where he was introduced to Celtic music and his career as a fingerstyle guitarist began and where he grew into a highly proclaimed Celtic musician.

“I love the music itself. The melodies I find to be very compelling, the rhythm and jigs and the reels are just joyous,” Barlow said. “I love that most of these songs have been around for centuries and there is a lot of history that goes with them. There are a lot of stories about under what circumstances these songs have been played and I like to share that with my audiences. One of the big things that drew me to the music is the history.”

Barlow added that Celtic fingerstyle guitarists like Al Petteway and Martin Simpson have influenced his style of playing.

For the past 15 years in his Celtic music career, Barlow has taken his music and performed in theaters for the Arts Council, radio room concerts for NPR, schools as a resident for faculty and music students and libraries.

“I am strong supporter of libraries,” Barlow said. “I like doing library concerts because library patrons are interested not only in the music but the story around the music.”

Barlow is such a strong supporter of libraries that he is granting the Bottineau County Public Library the opportunity to have a free will donation during his concert to raise money for the public library.

He is also flattered to perform inside Annie’s House, a structure that was built in remembrance of Ann Nicole Nelson who lost her life in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City.

“I feel very honored to present my music there,” Barlow said. “One of the big intents with my performance is to bring joy, healing and uplifting. It sounds like a good place to do it.”

Barlow’s performance at Annie’s House will start at 7 p.m.