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Curtis Eller's American Circus - Minor Key Concert Series

The Old Church Concert Hall
Portland, OR

Sales have ended for this event.

Tickets are still available, contact staff@theoldchurch.org for more information.

Doors 7:30pm - All Ages Show - Bar with I.D.

This show is a part of The Old Church Concert Hall Minor Key Concert Series which was created to showcase the best singer-songwriters this world has to offer. Genres will range, but the stories will linger. Set in Portlands oldest still standing church, you will find yourself set in one of the most intimate venues around.

An excellent and highly intriguing singer/songwriter based in New York City, Curtis Eller has successfully brought a variety of influences to his unorthodox folk-rock vision. The banjo-playing Eller's work has an old-time feel, drawing on an abundance of direct or indirect influences from the '20s, '30s, and '40s (including country singer Jimmie Rodgers, cowboy icon Gene Autry, and Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson).

But Eller's material is far from a carbon copy of music from that era - the charismatic songwriter Eller's work draws on an abundance of direct or indirect influences from the first half of the 20th Century, combined with a modern perspective and a healthy dose of rock & roll energy. Many of the lyrics deal with American politics both historical and contemporary. Ellers creates an unusual essence of sound in such a dark and haunting tone with the banjo, it is the prefect element to the songs about mining disasters and circus tragedies.

Eller's multitalented team creates compositions that embody a dreamlike vision of American history where all points in time have collapsed into one. The groups latest recording, How to Make It in Hollywood, is a compact collection of glittery show tunes, sentimental tear-jerkers and rock & roll rave-ups whose lyrics are populated with two-bit prize fighters, Hollywood has-beens, lapsed gospel singers and forgotten pop starts.

CURTIS ELLER
Purposefully enigmatic, he once told American Songwriter I consider myself primarily a rock and roll singer. I just happen to play the five-string banjo, thus extending the enigma a little more. After beginning his show business career at the age of seven as a juggler and acrobat, the Detroit native turned to the banjo and headed towards NYC were he rose to becomes known as New York's angriest yodeling banjo player. After spending years toiling in the musical sweatshops of the industrial north, Eller uprooted his family and resettled in a Piedmont, NC. After spending years toiling in the musical sweatshops of the industrial north, Eller uprooted his family and resettled in a Piedmont, NC. From there he branched off and grew the band to what it is today, embodying brutish and inelegant rock and roll outfits.

Location

The Old Church Concert Hall
1422 SW 11th Ave at Clay St
Portland, OR 97201
United States

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