“Justin Golden’s performance…was a revelation” ~ Style Weekly
"We should all be so lucky to have the blues like he does.” ~ NPR Music
This Saturday, January 18th we welcome back our friend Justin Golden for an intimate solo show in Lovingston, Virginia. Join us at at Rapunzel’s for a dialogue between artist and audience as Golden shares his music and about his most recent adventures, recording plans, and work with The Rhapsody Project in Richmond, Virginia.
“The Richmond-based fingerstyle guitarist has made a name for himself as a songwriter, performer and teacher, and as a champion of compositions written as far back as the early 20th century. Whether he’s picking a nearly forgotten melody at a gig or showing students how its played during a Rhapsody Project in-school workshop, few artists are doing more to honor the past.”
~ excerpt from “Striking Gold” article written by Davy Jones
published January 2nd, 2024
in Style Weekly
Rapunzel’s Futher Ado Foundation presents:
Justin Golden
for a solo acoustic show and fundraiser for Richmond based chapter of The Rhapsody Project
when: Saturday, January 18th 2025
Seating @6pm &
Show starts @7pm
where: Rapunzel’s Coffee and Books
924 Front Street, Lovingston VA 22949
how much: $10 donation suggested
$15 donation = raffle entry for Golden Country tee + “Hard Times and a Woman” cd
Kids 14 & under or 80 & better get in free
all ages are welcome
JUSTIN GOLDEN
Justin Golden is a genre blending artist who enjoys playing acoustic Blues and Folk music. In addition to his work as a professional recording and performing artist, Golden maintains a busy teaching schedule and is the director of the Richmond, Virginia chapter of The Rhapsody Project, a non-profit working to provide community enrichment through anti-racist cultural heritage programs.
First picking up the guitar at age 19, Golden did what came naturally and let the music flow through him. His origins are deeply vested in the Blues, with roots in the Mississippi Delta, Chicago, and the Piedmont of Virginia.
Golden has become a champion for traditional Blues music by mastering fingerpicking patterns and transcribing old songs that might otherwise be forgotten. Fascinatingly, the Piedmont Blues style first came to him in a dream, which he later shared with late harmonica player, the great Phil Wiggins. Wiggins told Golden that he’d been unconsciously playing this deeply rooted style all along, and in fact he had written several songs in the Piedmont style before he had ever heard of the style. While perhaps not as well-known as the Mississippi Delta style, the Piedmont Blues has a deep history in Virginia, and is home to some of its greatest practitioners, including John Jackson and John Cephas.
By far, the most distinctive feature of the Piedmont guitar style is its finger-picking method, in which the thumb lays down a rhythmic baseline against which one or two fingers pluck out the melody of the tune. Using this technique, the Piedmont guitarist makes a single instrument sound like several, setting up a complex dialogue of bass and treble parts. While always playing with this history in mind he also has an extremely diverse musical palette, and Golden aims to bring some new ideas to traditional Blues forms.
The Rhapsody Project is a multi-generational community that celebrates music and heritage through an anti-racist lens. Some of the ways The Rhapsody Project does this includes providing music instruction, cultural events, virtual classes, and cultural workforce development to establish racial and cultural equity. These programs teach people to root themselves in their layers of heritage, and tap the power of music and culture to confront injustice and enrich their communities.
To learn more about the Richmond Chapter of The Rhapsody Project visit https://therhapsodyproject.org/richmond/
or email
info@therhapsodyproject.org
with subject line: I want to learn more about TRP Richmond!
Additional donations to Richmond chapter of The Rhapsody Project may be sent here.
In 2024, Golden Country: Volume 1 and Golden Country: Volume 2 were released to rave reviews. If you give each album a play through you’ll hear where Country, Blues and Bluegrass converge. The Golden Country albums feature an original song written by Justin Golden as well as some traditional and maybe more obscure favorites reinterpreted. Partnered with Richmond based backing band, Devil’s Coattails, these recordings were done and produced quickly, and there are more on the way! The Devil’s Coattails group is Trey Burnart Hall (mandolin, tenor banjo, electric guitar), Chris Gatens (upright bass, clawhammer banjo) and Drew Barnocky (drums and washboard).
Though Golden’s influences range far and wide, the blues will never be far from his heart. That’s because he doesn’t see the tradition as limiting, but rather a musical form open to any emotion. “The blues is not a box,” he says. “They try to make it seem like it’s just twelve bars or it’s gotta be sad or it’s gotta be this or that, but if you listen to so much old pre-war blues, there are so many feelings involved. There’s happy blues, sad blues, just got paid and spent all my money blues, gonna go see my girl late at night blues, there’s blues for anything. It doesn’t have to be a specific form or feeling, it can be whatever you want it to be, but you know it when you hear it.”
Learn more about Justin Golden by visiting his website and be sure to follow him on all your favorite social medias and music streamers to catch his latest releases.
P.s. - if you're available next Tuesday and you want to know more about the gourd banjo that Justin Golden plays - no better chance then this virtual speaker session with Dr. Dena Ross Jennings. She is a local Virginia luthier and community builder residing in Orange County. She also hosts regular music meet ups including the annual Affrolachian On-Time Music Gathering. Learn more from this speaker series hosted by Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
When: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 - 7 PM EST
Where: Virtually via Zoom
Cost: free and open to the public