Joe Rollin Porter

“Where has this guy been hiding?” That’s a common question at Joe Rollin Porter’s performances. The answer is irrelevant; what matters is that his music is here now.

Joe’s fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing and vocals transcend genre and style, viscerally connecting with music lovers of widely diverging tastes. His live performance can bring a room full of loud distracted drinkers to a hushed silence, hanging on every note. The music primarily consists of Joe’s own arrangements of traditional American folk songs, with a dose of early rural blues and an occasional dash of Celtic flavor as well. The end product is truly unique.

Joe does not attempt to “authentically” replicate old-time music. Nor does he try to modernize the old songs to make them appeal to contemporary commercial tastes. Rather, after years of absorbing and internalizing traditional folk music, the songs flow out as natural self-expression. The result is an individual artistic statement that injects new life and energy into the folk tradition, keeping the heritage alive and growing.

If you don’t care about any of that, but you like great fingerstyle guitar playing, or simply enjoy high quality entertainment, Joe provides that too.