Don Conoscenti Duo
Once a die-hard rocker, Don Conoscenti is one of the most respected
musicians and critically acclaimed songwriters in acoustic music. His
live performances are a soulful fusion of styles blended from his
experience playing rock, jazz, blues, folk, funk and country. But his
primary love is the landscape of story telling and songwriting. His "one
man band" sound is driven by an unusual rhythmic sense and a
finger style approach to guitar arrangement which is set apart by the
use of partial and multiple capos. The performances are never canned.
There are no set lists. Expect to go on an improvisational musical
journey of unexpected segues, humorous reflections, stories and songs.
Songs about lovers, outcasts, healing, loss, mystery, spirit, murder
and redemption.
In 1999, Conoscenti
appeared in Boston as part of the first Inner Forest Concert
presentations spearheaded by visual artist LSM Mukha Reyes and jazz
drumming legend Rakalam Bob Moses. Conoscenti has met the direct
descendents of native tribal leaders Crazy Horse and Geronimo and has
been added to the Library of Congress archives as a Folk Revivalist.
At seventeen Conoscenti set out across America, hitchhiking and
traveling by truck, motorcycle, bus and the occasional freight train. He
trekked to every one of the forty-eight contiguous states plus Hawaii,
Jamaica, South America and Japan. While living in Vermont, scooping ice
cream at a homemade shop in Burlington run by two guys named Ben and
Jerry, he formed the first of dozens of bands comprised of virtuoso
players from the rock and jazz worlds. After bouncing from north to
south and coast to coast for several years he settled in Atlanta, rising
up through the thriving acoustic music scene based out of Eddie's Attic
in Decatur...a scene which has produced hit makers like Indigo Girls,
Shawn Mullins, SugarLand and John Mayer. It was at Eddie's Attic that he
also befriended a young Ellis Paul and they've been close friends,
collaborators and partners in crime since.
