Thirsty Ear is proud to present an intimate evening of traditional American music with gritty singer-songwriter Chipper Thompson, a long-time Thirsty Ear Festival favorite (he's played four out of five T.E. Fests). This marks the second performance in the new Thirsty Ear Gallery Concerts series.

Thompson lives in Taos, New Mexico, but he grew up in the heart of the Tennessee Valley — a microcosm of the Old South with both cotton fields andd Appalachian foothills—where he was well grounded in the musical traditions of his Scots-Irish ancestors, as well as regional blues. Thompson's deft handling of guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, dulcimer, and banjo make him a viable threat, whether cranking out his own brand of "folk & roll" or teaming with other musicians for bouts of Appalachian/Celtic folk songs. "We wanted to play and record songs with the same intensity and near-apocalyptic passion we'd heard on old field recordings," says Thompson of his collaboration with Mason Brown on Am I Born To Die, a wonderful, bloody body of traditional Appalachian and Scots-Irish songs. "So often folk music has a flowery, sweet image, but that's not how it's performed by the old-time singers in the pubs in Ireland. We want that smoldering sound."

Only 50 seats are available in this intimate gallery setting, so please make your reservations early.