Category: News

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A More Abundant Life with Hank Lazer

I’m appearing tomorrow at a poetry reading/performance with Hank Lazer at Ernest & Hadley Booksellers to celebrate the release of Lazer’s poetry collection Abundant Life. I’ll provide some ambient field recording sounds, play my electric clawhammer guitar, and deploy some voice-responsive electronics.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 5pm
Hank Lazer
Ernest & Hadley Booksellers
Tuscaloosa AL 35401

Hank and I have been performing together for the last 5 years–less than a quarter of the time represented in Abundant Life. And like the poetry in the collection, our work together continues to change and evolve while circling around a common interest in poetry and sound as opportunity for stillness, presence, attention.

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Floating Down the River with a Fiddle and a Banjo

Onoma River album cover showing an engraving of a Kingfisher surrounded by a gold halo and hovering over a rural landscape. Esther Morgan-Ellis and Holland Hopson's names are in cursive and blocky fonts.
Onoma River cover art, exceprt from John Klosterman’s print

Fiddler Esther Morgan-Ellis and I are celebrating the release of our new recording, Onoma River, with an online listening party on Thursday. Onoma River is a collection of new old-time tunes for fiddle and banjo that brings new blood to old-time music. Esther and I embrace the spirit of ‘crooked’ tunes with a set of newly composed music that builds on southern Appalachian traditions.

Thursday, November 13, 2025 7pm
Onoma River Listening Party
RSVP for a free, online listening party

I’ve been writing a banjo tune every week since 2011. A few of these tunes have wound up in other projects, but most have never been released. Working with Esther was a great opportunity to get more of this music out into the world.

To accompany the album we commissioned John Klosterman to create a beautiful, limited-edition, 12.5” x 18.5” art print. The hand-printed piece incorporates gold ink on Arnhem cotton rag paper and chine collé woodblock images on Japanese rice paper. We chose a section of the print to serve as the album artwork. More information about John’s work can be found at www.johnklosterman.com

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Celebrating 30 Years of New Music in Alabama with Craig Hultgren

Tomorrow the Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) continues their 30th anniversary season with a concert of new music for solo cello featuring Craig Hultgren. Craig will perform music by Alabama composers including my piece As Safe As If It Were In The Fire for cello and live electronics. Craig performed Monroe Golden’s Fantasy as part of the very first BAMA concert in September of 1995.

Sunday, November 9, 2025 4pm
Craig Hultgren: BAMA 30th Anniversary Concert
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Hulsey Recital Hall
950 13th Street South
Birmingham AL

After the concert I’ll be part of a short panel discussion about the history of BAMA moderated by arts journalist and composer Michael Huebner. The panel will also include founding BAMA member Michael Angell.

Also, Craig will play a concert tonight at East Village Arts at 7pm featuring music by Davey Williams and Mark Lackey.

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1000 Clicks to ClickFest

I had a great trip to Athens, Ohio, recently for the ClickFest electroacoustic music festival. It was my first visit to southeast Ohio, to Ohio University, and my first time at ClickFest. On my way I had M. Sage’s Tender / Wading and Xexa’s Kissom on repeat.

And I enjoyed seeing giant ragweed on the side of the road.

Fall flowers and milkweed along the edges. One of my creative principles: More Edge!

Here’s me and Mickie Wadsworth who performed Sudden Swan for voice and live electronics.

On the way back I had a quick visit in Columbus, Ohio, with too-long-neglected friends. And then I took a detour through Indianapolis, Indiana, to see family. We enjoyed a visit to Newfields. It’s always great to experience James Turrell’s (Acton) and Robert Irwin’s (Untitled) work in person. I’ve also been thinking about codifying a set of studio colors (see Tom Sach’s COLOR video), so it was fun to encounter Ellsworth Kelly’s 11 Panels.

Newfield’s pollinator meadow is hard to beat, too!

Heading back home I enjoyed Keith LeBlanc’s Major Malfunction and a rainy stop at KMAC in Louisville, Kentucky, for the South Arts 2025 exhibition.

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BAMA@30

The Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. One part of the celebration is a series of virtual concerts. The first one dropped on Friday, October 10 and features music by Cynthia Miller, Shane Lamb and me.

YouTube player

Future virtual concerts will premiere every Friday afternoon. Over 100 composers have been active in BAMA during its 30 years of supporting new music in Alabama. So there’s a wide range of interesting pieces to come: chamber music, solo piano, improvisations, electronics, and more. Follow B’ham Art Music Alliance on YouTube to see them all.