An Evening with Willie Carlisle

Fenix Arts @ Mt. Sequoyah Center

Friday, July 22, 8:00pm

Tickets $15 on sale @ fenixarts.org

Limited seating!

Willi Carlisle’s new production features brand new storytelling that accompanies his most recent album, “Peculiar, Missouri.” It’s a love story with folk songs and field recordings. This production won three awards, including “Best Solo Show”, at the Orlando Fringe Festival, the largest independent theater festival in the United States.

“Like an Arlo Guthrie of the Ozarks, Carlisle deftly weaves his gently hilarious story-songs from fascinating audio recordings of his encounters with cops, community square dances (which he calls the most fun you can have standing up), and stoned Bible study sessions.

This self-admitted work-in-progress doesn’t have the cohesive storyline of Carlisle’s award-winning previous production, but it’s well worth attending to see a slice of America not often represented on the Fringe stage, from the uneasy truce between Walmart and vehicle-bound vagabonds to gospel sing-alongs around the communal campfire. And while Carlisle isn’t above making a dumb joke about milk, he also slips in sharp asides about why out-of-tune fiddle music is the ideal anthem for late capitalism’s apocalyptic end run, or how racism excluded certain cultures from our recognized folk canon.”  Seth Kubersky, Orlando Sentinel