PORT TOWNSEND — Rainshadow Recording and Concerts will present Nashville singer-songwriter Buddy Mondlock at the Palindrome at Eaglemount Cidery at 7:30 p.m. Friday and for an intimate songwriting workshop the following day at Rainshadow Recording’s Fort Worden studio.
Tickets are $20 each online at https://www. ticketstorm.com/e/27658/t/ or $25 at the door at 1893 S. Jacob Miller Road.
The two-hour workshop is $50. It will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the studio in Building 315. The ticket link is https://www.ticketstorm.com/e/27870/t.
Mondlock’s songs have been recorded by other artists such as Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith and Janis Ian. His song “The Kid” was recorded by David Wilcox, Peter, Paul and Mary and Cry, Cry, Cry.
In his latest album, Filament, he explores new territory, organizers said. Songs like “Problem Solved” and “Sunlight In My Pocket” are propelled along by drums and percussion. Others are painted with woodwinds and string arrangements. The stories of the songs range from a young artist who finds fame too soon in the title song, to the wonders and mysteries found in “The Dark,” a song he co-wrote with Guy Clark.
When Mondlock made his first trip to Texas from his native Chicago, Guy Clark heard him singing one of his songs under a tree at the Kerrville Folk Festival and liked it. So Clark went back to Nashville, opened the door and said, “listen to this kid, he’s good!” A publishing deal and a U-Haul headed south soon followed.
In recent years, Mondlock has been writing songs with military veterans through a program sponsored by an organization called Music Therapy of the Rockies, and he includes several of those songs in his shows (and one on his new album).
“This has been such a powerful experience and I’m honored to have been trusted with these stories of trauma and of triumph too,” he says.
In addition to writing and touring, he also teaches songwriting. Along with one-day workshops across the U.S. and Europe, he has also been a staff instructor at the Swannanoa Gathering, the Kerrville Folk Festival Song School, the Sisters Folk Festival Song Camp and retreats like Ellis Paul’s New England Songwriter Retreat and Cedarsongs in Tennessee.