Guitarist Sam Pacetti in G-ville
Fingerpicking guitar wizard, deft songwriter, and mesmerizing live performer, Sam Pacetti, will be performing in Gainesville. Pacetti represents a culmination of the best of the American and British traditions. His 1997 Waterbug debut, Solitary Travel, garnered critical raves. “This guy is very good, indeed,” remarked the highly respected (and highly critical) UK magazine Folk Roots.
Sam Pacetti grew up in North Florida. At age 13, he saw Chet Atkins on TV and thought, “Yeah, that’s the way guitar should be played.” So Sam bought a couple of finger-picks and grew his nails. Fate intervened shortly afterwards in the person of Gamble Rogers, the legendary picker and raconteur from St. Augustine who took the young Pacetti under his wing.
Tradition and innovation neatly balance in Sam Pacetti’s music, the whole infused by a relentless intelligence. Martin Simpson and Merle Travis are touchstones to Pacetti, and while there are strong elements of the Leo Kottke/John Renbourn school of guitar wizardry throughout his work, there is a powerful raw emotionality evident as well - an earthy sensuality more reminiscent of a Greg Brown or a red-dirt blues master than of a musical academic.
Word has started to spread about Sam Pacetti. You won’t see Pacetti written up in People or Us. You won’t hear his music on Top-40 radio. No, word is spreading about Sam Pacetti the way true innovation always does - through the grassroots.
When: Saturday, April 14 @ 8 PM
Where: 2nd Street Bakery, 1511 NW 2nd Street, Gainesville
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door
(advance tickets available at Hyde & Zeke Records, Omni Books, and Wild Iris Books)
Call (352) 373-0010 for more information.