John Gage

Contact KTP by clicking here.

Right click here
for a printable JPEG.

John Gage - Biographical Summary

About the Artist:
John Gage is an established folk singer/songwriter who has made a career of entertaining audiences with his resonant tenor voice and flat-picking guitar. His music is solid listening. It draws on the alchemy of ancient balladeers and poets, transporting listeners inwardly for reflection and intimacy with others in the room. John performs on arts and festival stages throughout Kentucky and the region, and in churches, libraries, schools, or anyplace where there might be a potential audience just wanting to sing along. John has extensive experience planning collaboratively with classroom teachers for arts education programs and participating in curriculum planning. In addition, he conducts interactive workshops and motivational speeches throughout the southeast region in an effort to help educators and parents understand how personal involvement with music and other performing arts contribute to improved academic learning and overall personal well being. In addition, John is a veteran stage emcee at major festivals across Kentucky, and is host and emcee of Kentucky Homefront, a radio show that preserves Kentucky’s cultural heritage through storytelling and traditional music. John is available for booking through the Kentucky Theater Project.

About the Art:
The roots of traditional American folk music reach deep into the Appalachian Mountains and balladry of the Irish, Scots, English, and Welsh who began migrating there in the early 1600s. The mountains isolated communities, and people needed to rely upon each other; therefore, anything social, was highly important. Musical and dance traditions from home, speech and dialect, building practices, crafts, superstitions and religion were important links to the past and were cherished and passed down. But late nineteenth century industrialization produced mobility. The advent of recorded sound in the 1920s brought popular music to the mountains and old-time music out of the mountains to people across the United States. Mail order and mass production made instruments more accessible. Radio stations started barn dances with live performances of local talent, and styles began to cross over. But the traditional old-time Appalachian music never died off. Fiddlers' conventions, house parties, back-porch jams, and folk musicians have kept the music alive.

Bookings:
for booking information click here.