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Show Cosy Sheridan On the road, in touch, and ready to share her songs, Cosy sets four perfo:t;mances in Utah this time 'round Any of us who need proof that hard work pays off need only look to Cosy Sheridan. For more than 10 years, she has faithfully plied the songwriter's craft, but now she carries two acclaimed recordings, competition honors from Kerrville, Texas, and Telluride, Colorado (1992)-not to mention winning the hearts of multitudes as a result of her wide-ranging travels the past three years. The Intermountain Acoustic Music Association presents Cosy Sheridan Saturday, April 9 at 7:30p.m. in the Social Work Auditorium,'University of Utah. Tickets are $9 in advance; $10 day of concert, $6 for children and seniors, available at Acoustic Music, Intermountain Guitar & Banjo, Local Music and Smokey's Records. As always, lAMA members get a $1 discount. Dave Crossland, Ohio singer I songwriter-lately working out of New England-will open the show. His 1992 recording, Here's To The Ride, showcases Crossland's considerable writing and guitar . skills, and he's been touring sucessfully in support of that recording at festivals and folk venues nationwide. Cosy Sheridan will also give three other Utah shows: in Moab's Star Hall April2 at 7:30p.m. with opener, Shane Jackman (for Kokopelli Productions); at Mama's Cafe in Provo; and AprilS in Logan, 7:30p.m., Eccles Conference Center, with opener, Willow Valley Trio (for Bridger Folk Society). "Packed by weight, not by volume," Sheridan describes herself, "some settling will occur in shipping." The weight of Sheridan's performance is measured by the great depth and sensitivity of her song writing, together with the gentle strength of her delivery. Her easy, smoky alto is at once, tough and tender, as she sings about life's complications, the vagaries of love, and questions of purpose. Her delightful humor has a sharp side, and she takes several issues-of-the-day for wild musical rides. The result is dead-on 4 Intermountain Acoustic Musician, April 1994 Cosy Sheridan satire. Often overlooked is Sheridan's guitar skill. Honed with the flavors of blues, traditional folk and jazz, her style is friendly, but unique-a perfect complement to her song writing. Her New Hampshire musical roots are deep. She's been a guitar player since age 9, and her interest in performing was strong even in prep school. "My senior project at [Phillips] Exeter [Academy] was playing the bars of Portsmouth. They remember me as the girl who came with her father and had to leave by 10." Much of Sheridan's mid-to-late 1980s were spent in that performer's sweat-shop: the local and regional bar scene. Breaking out of that was one of her most important goals. It's a good thing, too, as we in the lAMA might never have been graced by her tender nature. "I wouldn't play my songs in those places," she said. "It would have been like sending your child out to dance in front of a crowd that doesn't want to see them-it just hurts too much. The bars taught me the ability to talk and sing no matter what was going on, but fighting a crowd can only teach you so much. Nowadays I can sing what I care about." And the world is better for it. With Kerrville and Telluride credits, her voice now has an authority with people who've not heard her, enabling her to build successful tours of small concert venues the past two years. (She was exceptionally well-received when opening for David Wilcox last year in Kingsbury Hall, which was her third visit to Utah.) Sheridan is true to her folk roots, but fiercely independent about her own dir~ctions. "With folk music, you can't hide a bad song behind a loud band and a good beat. Pop music often has established rules. It follows a form and walks a straight line. But folk music is interesting when it dares to be crooked." On the road this spring with guitar, books-on-tape, and a laptop computer, Sheridan juggles the age-old problems of the itinerant troubadour(" .. . never drive from Chicago to Seattle in 3 days," she writes). Life on the road is both empowering and draining. In her own keystrokes, "I am remembering how the wide open spaces of the West open up different spaces in my mind. The emotional vacillations of traveling both buoy me up and drag me down. Either way, I am more awake. "This is combined with the continuing inner struggle over art versus career. Interesting to discover they are not one and the same all the time." If a thoughtful and sensitive nature is the hallmark of the great writer, Cosy Sheridan is in the midst of a long, and mostly successful, journey to arrive there. With two CDs, Late Bloomer and Quietly Led, plus a third nearly completed, her creative force moves ahead. We're lucky to be a stop on her road. |
