Grateful Fred's Bijou Cinema Sessions
Two great shows coming up...
Over the coming few weeks we have two great Bijou Sessions lined up.
The first one is on Thursday the 24th of April, when we welcome back to Grateful Fred’s, all the way from Colorado…
David Starr
“David Starr has a voice you will never forget. His music is authentic, his songs are honest, full of emotion and truth. The Head and Heart is a showcase for his classic songwriting style and wonderful guitar playing.” – John Oates (Hall & Oates)
Grateful Fred is delighted to welcome back Arkansas native and Colorado resident, David Starr to Grateful Fred's at the Bijou. Starr has honed his decades-long career by releasing over eleven albums, touring internationally, and sharing the stage with esteemed artists such as John Oates and John McEuen, and opening for acts like America, John Oates (Hall & Oates), Jim Messina, Travis Tritt, Restless Heart, Karla Bonoff, The Steel Wheels, Survivor, and more.
His unique mix of soulful vocals and honest lyrics create a Blues/Americana sound all his own; garnering him prestigious showcase performances at Folk Alliance International, AmericanaFest, and Southwest Regional Folk Alliance. He consistently independently books and performs over 70 dates per year, including dates in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where he has continued to grow recurring audiences year after year. David frequently tops the Colorado Music Chart and is one of the most downloaded artists on Airplay Direct. A master guitarist, he is endorsed by Breedlove Guitars and was honoured to create his own limited edition signature guitar.
David is a founding member of the board for the Grand Mesa Arts & Events Center in Cedaredge, an intimate event space aimed at attracting musicians and visual artists to Colorado’s Western Slope. He curates the town’s annual Apple Fest, which draws over 15,000 people to the area, securing live music from more than a dozen acts on the Starr’s Guitar Stage over the course of the 3 day festival. In addition, he produced the sold-out inaugural Grand Mesa Songwriter Festival in June 2024, which brought over 15 songwriters from the US & UK to perform across five venues in Cedaredge.
An early riser by nature, David is often found up before 5am, and applies that same work ethic to his music. A prolific artist, he is constantly touring, writing, and recording; and continues to affirm himself as a mainstay in the Blues/Americana genre.
“His music is authentic, his songs are honest; full of emotion and truth. A voice you will never forget.” — John Oates (Hall & Oates)
https://www.davidstarrmusic.com
Opening the evening will be John Jenkins and Pippa Murdie
Tickets are still available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/southport-bijou-cinema/t-xmkdxpp
Then on Thursday, May 1st, we welcome back another brilliant musician and songwriter, the amazing…
Mean Mary James
Mean Mary has performed for us Fredheads twice before at “Fred’s Shed”, before we moved our mid-month concerts to The Bijou and each time the shows were total sell-outs.
The reason? Because she is a wonderful musician and brilliant entertainer.
Here’s a little bit about Mean Mary…
“Mean” Mary James, youngest of six children, was born in Geneva, Alabama, though her family lived in Florida, a couple miles below the Alabama line. Her mom (author, Jean James) and dad (WWII veteran, William James) lived a very nomadic lifestyle. On one occasion they packed up the family (Mary was four at the time) and moved from Florida to North Minnesota, near the Canadian border, to rough it in the wilds.
The North Country:
For three months they lived in a tent built from a roll of Visqueen they had brought with them. During this time, they built a log cabin using only an axe, handsaws, and the trees around them. They cooked their food on a campfire, got their water from a deep hole they had dug, and read at night by the northern lights shining through the clear walls of their plastic tent. On one occasion their tent was mauled by a large, 7’1" black bear that Mary’s mom, Jean, was forced to shoot.
The tent soon became unbearably cold, and when they finally moved into their almost completed log cabin, winter was upon them. Without electricity or running water, and cold enough to freeze water five feet from the only source of heat (an old wood stove), the family spent many hours reading books by kerosene lamp and enjoying the great outdoors (cutting firewood!).
First Guitar:
Mary’s oldest brother, Jim, who had just joined the Navy, sent the family a guitar and a compilation tape of songs he liked. With a battery-powered tape player, the family listened to the music of Hank Williams, Jr. and Dolly Parton. It wasn’t long before Mary was singing the songs and vocalizing all the instrumentation. Seeing her talent, Mom and Dad bought guitar books, and Mom started teaching all the children how to play the guitar. Mary and her brother Frank were the two who would turn music into a career.
Mary learned to read music before she could read words and was an official singer/songwriter before she had started her first day of kindergarten. With the help of her mom, she wrote her theme song “Mean Mary from Alabam’.” The press immediately baptized her with this handle, and she has been Mean Mary ever since.
Goodness, Snakes Alive:
The James family eventually migrated back to Florida. Mary’s dad (who was sixty when she was born) was now retired, and Mary’s mom searched for ways to help support the family as well as feed Mary’s musical appetite and the varied interests of their other children. She started an organic truck farm, built and sold live-animal traps, collected live reptiles, amphibians, and mammals for wholesale distributors, and collected live venomous snakes for antivenom production. The children joined in all these undertakings and found it great sport.
On the Road Again:
Mary was now playing guitar, banjo, and fiddle. She recorded her first album at age six and spent five hours a day on instrumental and vocal practice along with her live performances. When she upped her music study time to seven hours a day, and her road shows began to multiply, it became impossible for her to attend school. At the end of the second grade, she went into home study and started appearing daily on the Country Boy Eddie Show, a regional TV program out of Birmingham, Alabama. During this time, she also appeared regularly in Nashville, Tennessee at the Nashville Palace, on the Nashville Network, the Elvis Presley Museum, and on Printer’s Alley.
In spite of her hectic schedule, she found time for her studies and when only nine years old, she aced a state required test at a twelfth grade equivalency level. This wasn’t surprising to her parents who had witnessed her read the entire Gone with the Wind novel at age seven.
Her guitarist brother, Frank James, who had now joined her on stage and in the home school program, also excelled in his studies and at age fourteen taught himself trigonometry. He graduated from high school at fifteen.
You can read the whole story on Mean Mary’s website by clicking here.
Mean Mary will be accompanied on this short UK tour with her brother Frank on guitar and between them, I can promise you a wonderful night of live music and great fun.
Opening the evening will be my bandmates and myself, The Wanderers.
Tickets are still available at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/southport-bijou-cinema/t-avglljo
I hope you might come and join us for some great, live acoustic music.
In the meantime…
Peace and Love
Grateful Fred
