Elijah Wald (US) + Phil Shoenfelt & Jan Švihálek (Blues Alive 2025)

Program:

18:00 - Elijah Wald: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories (audio-visual program - in English, Czech synopsis will be available)

19:30 - Phil Shoenfelt & Jan Švihálek (concert)

20:30 - Elijah Wald (concert)

Input: 350 CZK in pre-sale, 450 CZK on the spot in cash

More about the event:

Born in 1959 in Massachusetts, guitarist and singer Elijah Wald began performing publicly at an early age - inspired by the likes of Woody Guthrie, Mississippi John Hurt and Dave Van Ronk. His interest in traditional and world music led him to study ethnomusicology and to explore musical cultures across continents.

He began his musical career in the 1970s as a wandering busker. He played in cafes, bars, concert halls and major festivals - from New Orleans to Chicago, Tokyo, Salzburg and Sydney. His style ranges between blues, folk, ragtime, swing, country, and Mexican corridos. He has released several original albums, most notably Milk Cow Blues (1988), Street Corner Cowboys (1995) and Hitchhiking With the Blues (2000), all of which bear his hallmarks - masterful guitar playing, a deep knowledge of the genre and an authentic approach to the musical tradition.

But Wald is also a respected journalist and music historian. His books such as Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues and How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music offer an original perspective on the history of popular music. His work has received numerous professional accolades, including a Grammy Award for the accompanying text to The Arhoolie Foundation's CD box set.

A very recent interesting fact is Wald's authorship of Dylan Goes Electric, which became the subject of the film Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown.

His performance as part of the Blues Alive Tour 2025 concert series will offer not only an exceptional musical experience, but also a deep insight into the history of blues and folk - and the places where music is becoming a way of life.

Phil Shoenfelt & Jan Švihálek:

Just an extraordinary and rarely played fully acoustic duo of two distinctive musical personalities. Phil Shoenfelt is an important protagonist of the London and New York post-punk scene of the 1980s, living in Prague since the mid-1990s. Around the same time, Brno guitarist Jan Švihálek has been active on the Czech blues and rock scene as the frontman of the Hoochie Coochie Band and Band of Heysek. It is the latter that has been collaborating with Phil Shoenfelt consistently in recent years, releasing a joint album with him in 2023, Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo, and the pair of leaders is a kind of diamond in the rough.

Elijah Wald: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories (listening program to be shown ONLY in English, available will be Czech synopsis):

Drawing on Jelly Roll Morton's recordings for the Library of Congress, Elijah Wald explores a world of early blues and jazz that has been obscured by censorship and misunderstanding for more than a century. The blues that can be known from sheet music and recordings is very different from what was sung and played in black communities, which in some ways was closer to what is now known as gangsta rap. By looking at these songs, the people who played them, and the audiences who originally listened to them, one can gain a deeper understanding not only of the blues and African American culture in the U.S., but also of the ways in which significant voices have been silenced throughout history.

The event will also include a one-time Roots of the Blues I exhibit on the historical, musical and social origins of the blues in the Mississippi Delta.