BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:151999@kingstonhappenings.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250925T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250925T190000 DTSTAMP:20250922T145211Z URL:https://kingstonhappenings.org/events/selwyn-birchwood-w-matt-axton-ba dmoon/ SUMMARY:Selwyn Birchwood w/ Matt Axton & Badmoon DESCRIPTION:“No one in blues compares to young Florida-based guitarist Se lwyn Birchwood. With the quality of his material\, combined with a vibrant stage persona\, there’s no need to borrow tunes from the greats who wen t before him. Lean yet mean and tough…lyrically and musically intense” —American Songwriter\n“Rising blues star Selwyn Birchwood is the real deal. Birchwood puts his own fresh spin on the blues\, taking the traditi on and making it into something new.” —Guitar World\nAlthough award-wi nning Florida musician Selwyn Birchwood is firmly rooted in the tradition\ , the young guitarist\, lap steel player\, songwriter and vocalist sets a course for the future of the blues with his visionary\, original music. Bi rchwood\, whose band features the pulsating interplay of his blistering gu itar with Regi Oliver’s driving baritone sax\, deploys a singular sound and style all his own. He calls it “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues\,” an intoxicating mix of deep blues\, blistering\, psychedelic-tinged rock\, booty-shaking funk and sweet Southern soul\, played and sung with the fir e-and-brimstone fervor of a revival tent preacher with a hellhound on his trail. Tastemaker Americana music magazine No Depression says\, “Selwyn Birchwood reaches back in the blues tradition to launch something out of t his world.”On his new release\, Exorcist (his fourth for Alligator and s ixth overall)\, Birchwood delivers the most far-reaching\, musically adven turous album of his career. Exorcist was recorded in Florida and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge\, with each of the 13 vividly detaile d songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms. Each twists its own tale\, ran ging from the love-gone-wrong Horns Below Her Halo to the love-gone-terrif ying Exorcist to the ripped-from-the-headlines escapades of FLorida Man an d Swim At Your Own Risk to the autobiographical Underdog. According to Blu es Music Magazine\, “Selwyn Birchwood heralds a fresh\, exciting new dir ection in the blues. Toe-tapping\, hip-shaking\, joyful and inviting…exp ansive and focused\, exploratory and time-honored\, but always original. ”Live\, Birchwood is a force of nature. His ability to win over an audie nce–any audience–is proven night after night on the bandstand. With hi s warm\, magnetic personality\, Birchwood is as down-to-earth as his music is thought-provoking and electrifying. With his band feeding off his ener gy\, the 6’3″ musician roams the stage barefoot\, ripping out memorabl e guitar licks with ease\, his soulful\, rocks-and-gravel vocals firing up his fans. When he sits down to play his lap steel\, he takes the crowd to a whole other level\, with the music exorcising any bad times and trouble s.Birchwood\, his father from Tobago\, his mother from the UK\, was born i n 1985 in Orlando\, Florida. He first grabbed a guitar at age 13 and soon became proficient at mimicking what he heard on the radio. But the popular grunge rock\, hip-hop and metal of the 1990s didn’t move him. And then he discovered Jimi Hendrix. “He was larger than life. What he did was mi nd-blowing.” As luck would have it\, just as Birchwood was learning Hend rix’s guitar playing was steeped in blues\, legendary bluesman Buddy Guy –a major influence on Hendrix–was scheduled to perform in Orlando. Bir chwood was there\, front and center. “I was floored\,” he recalls. “ I completely connected with the blues. I knew this was my path\, and I had to make this music.” He dove deep\, listening to icons including Albert King\, Freddie King\, Albert Collins\, Muddy Waters\, Lightnin’ Hopkins and of course\, Buddy Guy. “The flood gates opened\,” says Birchwood\ , “and at that point I started trying to absorb as much as I could.”At 19\, Birchwood met and connected with veteran blues guitarist Sonny Rhode s\, who was instantly impressed by the enthusiastic young guitar slinger. Within one month’s time\, Rhodes asked Birchwood to pack his bags and jo in him on the road. Rhodes took the young man under his wing\, teaching hi m not only guitar and lap steel\, but also how to conduct business\, how t o run a band\, and how to reach an audience. “Sonny always said\, ‘Pla y what’s in your heart.’ I’ve never lost sight of that\,” says Bir chwood.Birchwood treasured his time with Rhodes but was adamant about comp leting his college studies. Rhodes\, as a tribute to Birchwood’s drive a nd talent\, made it clear to the young musician that he would hold the rhy thm guitar spot in his band open for Selwyn whenever he was available. Bir chwood–through hard work and scholarships–received his MBA from The Un iversity of Tampa. Combining the musical lessons learned from Rhodes and h is business acumen\, Birchwood created The Selwyn Birchwood Band in 2010\, featuring seasoned\, veteran musicians who had chosen to play with the ne w kid–a testament to Birchwood’s talent and leadership skills.In 2011 the self-released\, self-produced FL Boy helped the band land gigs outside of their Florida base\, where they were already becoming local heroes. Af ter winning the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis (beating 150 other bands)\, Birchwood found doors swinging open. He took a giant step forward in 2014 with his Alligator Records debut album\, Don’t Call No A mbulance. Rave reviews ran in publications from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal\, from The Chicago Tribune to The San Francisco Chronicle. The album won both the Living Blues Award and the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Best New Artist Debut. He followed in 2016 with fan-favorite Pick Your Poison and\, in 2021\, with the groundbreaking Living In A Burning House. He won the coveted BMA Song Of The Year Award for that album’s I’d Cl imb Mountains.Radio has supported Birchwood from the beginning\, with Livi ng In A Burning House being his most successful record at radio to date. T he album appeared at or near the top of every significant domestic and int ernational blues chart\, including #1 on the Living Blues Radio Chart. In addition\, Birchwood had multiple songs reach heavy rotation on SiriusXM ’s Bluesville\, while crossing over to AAA (Adult Album Alternative) sta tions\, jam band specialty shows and tastemaker NPR Music stations\, inclu ding acclaimed Americana influencer WMOT in Nashville.The Selwyn Birchwood Band tours virtually non-stop. They have performed at The Chicago Blues F estival\, Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival\, The Mississippi Valley Blues Festival\, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival\, The North Atlantic Blues F estival\, The King Biscuit Blues Festival\, as well as on The Legendary Rh ythm &\; Blues Cruise and Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea Cruise. Internationally\, they have appeared at The Great British Rhyt hm &\; Blues Festival\, Jazz a Vienne in France\, the Rawa Blues Festiv al in Poland\, the Moulin Blues Festival in the Netherlands\, the Ottawa B lues Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada\, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland\, as well as playing concerts in Spain\, Norway\, the Czech Republic\, Ireland\, Belgium and Mexico.Now\, with Exorcist\, S elwyn Birchwood and his band are ready to get back on the road and deliver the new songs live to expanding\, enraptured audiences around the world\, lifting spirits while banishing demons. Asked what fans can expect when t hey see him\, Birchwood replies\, “My goal is to be sure you cannot list en passively. We’re going to make you dance\, and we’re going to make you think.” One listen to Exorcist will no doubt convert many new true b elievers: this is visionary contemporary blues written and performed by an endlessly creative\, modern-day blues master.\nhttps://www.selwynbirchwoo d.com/\nMatt Axton &\; Badmoon\nMatt Axton is a gifted singer/songwrite r. Granted\, that’s a claim made by many artists that inhabit the world of Americana these days\, but in Matt’s case\, it’s more than a mere b oast. The ability to make music is firmly infused in his genes\, courtesy of a family history that implanted that ability in him early on.While he m odestly describes his sound as a "humble slice of Americana\,” it’s cl ear that it possesses so much more. With a style that encompasses country\ , folk\, roots\, rock\, R&\;B\, and pure pop proficiency\, he defies ea sy categorization. With a rich reservoir of original tunes — over 300 in fact — and three well received albums (Blue Sky Rain\, Matthew C. Axton and Badmoon)\, he’s established himself as a prolific and proficient si nger\, songwriter and guitarist\, both on his own and at the helm of his v arious ensembles.Even a small sampling of his musical output proves the po int. His current single\, “Blue Sky Rain\,” the title track of his cur rent album\, is both stirring and seductive\, an easy amble that belies it s description of the topsy turvy travails that accompany the entanglements of relationships.“Born of Chains\,” culled from Badmoon\, is flush wi th steadfast determination\, a rugged\, relentless bluesy-rocker that conv eys clear conviction and a desire to overcome whatever obstacles are tosse d in his way.\nhttps://mattaxton.com/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://kingstonhappenings.org/wp-content/upload s/2025/09/527797966_1394339599158265_5909046039573826007_n.jpg CATEGORIES:@Featured,@Newsletter,Music,Nightlife and entertainment LOCATION:Colony Woodstock NY\, 22 Rock City Rd\, Woodstock\, New York\, Uni ted States GEO:42.0424924;-74.11799489999999 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=22 Rock City Rd\, Woodstock \, New York\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Colony Woodstock NY :geo:42.0424924,-74.11799489999999 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR