Gabrielle Louise

Make it a Black ROSE Friday with a special night of acoustic wonderment by the Gabrielle Louise Quartet. Gabrielle Louise is a nationally touring troubadour noted for her poignant lyrics and lush voice. She will be joined by Justin Evan Thompson on lead guitar, Jon McMillian on bass, and John Stilwagen on piano.

The daughter of two vagabond musicians, Gabrielle inherited the predisposition to wanderlust and song. Her music is anchored deeply in folk and Americana, but undeniably drawn to rich harmonies and melodic adventurism. Her sound has the earthy feel of early Joni Mitchell while also veering into the spirited and versatile delivery of fellow genre-hopping artist Eva Cassidy. Unafraid to take a musical escapade in the name of inspiration, Gabrielle is at one moment folkie and ethereal, the next a smoky jazz chanteuse.

Known for her authenticity and candor on stage, Gabrielle's performances are notably present and sincere, a professional presentation of her private creative world. Her story-telling and banter envelopes and enchants, gently enticing her listener to release their grip on the status quo. Perhaps because of this quality, Louise has been entrusted to share the stage with greats such as Richie Havens, Tom Paxton, Joan Osborne, Eliza Gilkyson, and Guy Clark.

A poet, painter, prose writer and orator, Gabrielle has also presented a talk on autobiographical expression at TEDx, an independently organized TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) event. Her talk, "The Breath of Experience," stresses the importance of making time to both "inhale" what others tell us about the world and mindfully "exhale" our own creative impressions of those stories.

In the original songwriting realm, Louise has released a handful of records, the most recent of which were Mirror the Branches (2010), The Bird in My Chest (2014), and If the Static Clears (2016).

"One of the finest songwriters of her generation"
David McGee, Deep Roots Magazine

"deliciously literate and thought-provoking (thus sexy) Americana"
Mike Greenblatt, Aquarian Weekly

Opening acts are John C. Spengler and Paul McCann.

$10 general admission, $5 members and students w/ ID, free for ages 12 and younger.