Folk Club Bringing Canadian Singer-Songwriter to the Community Center

On April 2 at 8 p.m., the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club will present acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter James Keelaghan at the . Opening the evening will be Christine DeLeon, a singer-songwriter from New Jersey.

Over the course of nine recordings Keelaghan has earned numerous nominations and awards—including a Juno (Canada's Grammy)—and acclaim from Australia to Scandinavia.

Possessed of an insatiable appetite for finding the next unique story line, Keelaghan forges his pieces with brilliant craftsmanship and monogrammed artistic vision, making him one of the most distinctive and readily identifiable voices on both the Canadian and international singer-songwriter scenes.

"I’ve always had the urge to write," says the Calgary native who has been calling Winnipeg home for the past few years. "Some things weren’t being said in the way I wanted to say them, some things were not being written about at all. That's why I started to write the historical material. That led me to writing my own personal narratives as well.”

Not only does Keelaghan lay claim to a deep catalogue of timeless originals like “Kiri's Piano,” “Fires of Calais,” “Cold Missouri Waters,” “Jenny Bryce,” and “Hillcrest Mine,” he is also a possessive interpreter of outside material, a fine example being his gripping take on Gordon Lightfoot’s epic “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” from the Lighfoot tribute disc “Beautiful.” There are also a number of illustrations of his interpretive skills on his 2006 recording “A Few Simple Verses,” an homage to his roots in traditional music.

Opening the evening will be singer-songwriter Christine DeLeon. Raised in Northern New Jersey, she discovered the joys of singing as a member of the children’s choir at her family church at the age of 8 and followed that interest into her school chorus groups. Despite the cautious warnings of a mentor for excessive enthusiasm, Christine started off on her journey as a performer. She began her own songwriting at the age of 17 and, after more than twenty years exploring that creative path, she was chosen as a winner of the 2008 New Jersey Folk Festival Songwriting Competition.

Tickets for this concert are $25 ($22 for Hurdy Gurdy members) and can be purchased online at www.hurdygurdyfolk.org or at the box office at the Fair Lawn Community Center on the night of the concert.

Additional information can be received at the website or by calling the Hurdy Gurdy Hotline at (201) 384-1325. The Hurdy Gurdy is celebrating its 30th season of presenting acoustic music in Bergen County.

Editor's Note: This press release was submitted by the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club