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About
Folk Songs of Hope
NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) grant recipient Fred Gillen Jr. has released eleven full-length albums to great critical acclaim. He has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe as a solo artist. His live performances are spontaneous and full of storytelling, and he enjoys audience participation. He is equally comfortable playing at a theatre, festival, or museum as at a farmers market, coffeehouse, or brewery.
His songs have been featured on ABC’s “All My Children,” NPR’s “Car Talk,” and the CMJ New Music Marathon Sampler. From 2017 to 2019, he was music director of The Greenheart, traveling to Nepal four times and India once to perform concerts and raise awareness of environmental activism.
In 2012, his version of Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home” was featured on “Pete Remembers Woody,” a collection of Pete Seeger’s spoken stories about Woody Guthrie interspersed with artists’ renditions of Guthrie’s songs. Besides playing with his heroes like Pete, he has opened for artists including Merle Haggard, Todd Rundgren, and the David Bromberg Big Band.
In both his original songs and the songs he covers, he incorporates elements of folk, rock, roots, and Americana music. Though his songs cover a wide variety of topics, his overarching message is simple: “We are all in this together.”