PORT TOWNSEND — Singer, songwriter and guitarist Jim Page will be the featured performer at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Rainshadow Recording.
Tickets are $15 for the concert at the studio on Battery Way at Fort Worden. Tickets are available at http://jimpage.brownpapertickets.com.
Page got his start in the bars and coffee houses of the lower San Francisco Bay Area in 1966. On the first day of 1970 he headed to New York City by thumb, arriving in January with a broken fleece-lined jacket and 34 cents, organizers said.
He borrowed a guitar and performed in the clubs of Greenwich Village, but the scene had gone and the Village was a shadow of its former self. A year later he headed to Seattle.
In 1974, after being threatened with arrest, Page took on the Seattle city government and the result was the legalization of street performing. It was a landmark case and Seattle is now a famous city for buskers of all styles.
In 1975, Page recorded his first album of original music, a vinyl LP called “A Shot Of The Usual,” released on his own label. Two other albums followed in rapid succession.
In 1977, Page journeyed to the U.K. and performed at the Cambridge Folk Festival.
Returning to the U.S. in 1983, Page recorded an album in Portland, Ore., produced by Irish musician Micheal O Domhnaill in 1985.
Page now is busy with solo performance and various ensemble configurations leading to more albums.
He was one of the founders of the Pike Market Performers Guild, Seattle’s first street performers’ union. They organized and ran the first and only Busker Festival to be operated entirely by buskers, and he again petitioned the City Council to create Buskers Week.
In 2007, he was included in an all-star cast of the 50 most Influential Musicians In Seattle History, a position shared with Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana.
Page’s songs have been covered by the Doobie Brothers, Christy Moore, The Moving Hearts, Dick Gaughan, Roy Bailey, David Soul, Leftover Salmon and Michael Hedges. He has received awards from Artist Trust and Jack Straw Productions. His music has been included on many compilations, including the Grammy-nominated “Best Of Broadside.”
For information about the concert, call 360-301-0291 or email centrum recording@gmail.com.
