PORT TOWNSEND — Tony Furtado will perform for Rainshadow Concerts at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The concert will be in the Palindrome at Eaglemount Cidery, 1893 S. Jacob Miller Road, Port Townsend.
Tickets are $25 per person at www.ticketstorm.com/c/17038/rainshadowrecording or $30 at the door.
Furtado will be joined by Simon Chrisman on hammered dulcimer and bass and Luke Price on strings.
Furtado is a singer-songwriter who plays the banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar and baritone ukulele. The Portland, Ore.-based musician started playing the banjo when he was 12, inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies television show and a sixth-grade music report. He won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kan., in 1987 and again in 1991.
In between those years, he played with Laurie Lewis and Grant Street.
Furtado signed with Rounder Records in 1990, and he recorded six albums, starting with “Swamped.”
He has collaborated with Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Marshall and recorded with SugarBeat and, on the Rounder Banjo Extravaganza, with Tony Trischka and Tom Adams.
In the late 1990s, influenced by Ry Cooder, David Lindley and Taj Mahal, he added slide guitar, singing and songwriting to his musical toolbox and began leading his own band. He tours as a solo act, in a duo, trio or with his five-person band.
“I love playing live,” Furtado said. “All my energy is focused on the love of playing music and rolling with the moment. It’s a give-and-take from the audience to the stage and back. And the music that is created is something that otherwise might not occur without that flow.”
Furtado has appeared at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Jazz Aspen, Kerrville Folk Festival, Strawberry Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Sisters Folk Festival and the San Jose Jazz Festival.
