PORT TOWNSEND — Northwind Arts Center joins Matt Miner Presents in welcoming singer-songwriter Nathaniel Talbot for an evening of original songs at 7 tonight.
Advance tickets are $12 each from ntalbotnorthwind.brownpapertickets.com, at Northwind Arts Center, 701 Water St., or $15 at the door.
Talbot, who also is a farmer, runs an organic vegetable farm and seed company on Whidbey Island.
When not out cultivating onions on his solar-powered tractor, he’s inside cultivating songs that are rooted in the earth and American traditionalism, concert organizers said.
“Working in agriculture, while often physically and emotionally tiring, also provides the mental space and quietude for songs to be sown and nourished,” Talbot said.
His fifth album, “Animal,” released last month on AWAL (Artists Without a Label), marks his most ambitious and personal crop of songs to date, he said.
Raised in the wooded foothills southeast of Portland, Ore., the big firs and wide farm-scapes of childhood made a life-long impression on Talbot’s songwriting.
“The natural setting imprinted on my sense of self, and populated my brain with the imagery and storylines that would later manifest in my songwriting,” he said.
Talbot began learning piano at age 7, started a punk rock band at 13, and quickly thereafter began steeping himself in guitar-driven sounds of Kelly Joe Phelps, Elliott Smith, Bill Frisell and other Pacific Northwest performers.
Over the next 15 years, Talbot honed an approach to songwriting and storytelling that earned him a distinct place in the Northwest folk scene, concert organizers said.
For more information, contact Northwind Arts Center at 360-379-1086 or email songwriters@northwindarts.org.
