Joe Goodkin Plays and Sings the Odyssey
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Joe Goodkin Plays and Sings the Odyssey
Thursday, February 29, 5-6PM, LI220
About Joe
Joe Goodkin is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter and guitarist. He has released 12 albums of original music under the name Paper Arrows and his own name. His has been described variously as “Mutations-era Beck cutting his teeth on the early works of Leonard Cohen” (Parcbench), a “successor to Woody Guthrie” (Indie Voice Blog), and "a tremendous and fearless songwriter” (Anhedonic Headphones). He composed two modern folk opera retellings of Homer’s epic poems the Odyssey and the Iliad (entitled The Blues of Achilles) which he has performed a combined over 400 times in 47 US states and Europe as a guest of such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, and many more. Joe’s 13th album, Consolations and Desolations, is available everywhere you get digital music.
About the Performance
Joe has been performing his unique interpretation of The Odyssey for high school and college audiences since 2002. Drawing on his Bachelor's Degree in the Classics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and his years of writing and performing original rock and acoustic music, Joe has created a 35 minute long composition for solo acoustic guitar and voice, which deconstructs the story of The Odyssey in song, invoking the spirit of the ancient Greek bards who originally brought forth the timeless stories of Odysseus and the heroes of the Trojan War, while making the poem and the circumstances of its creation accessible to modern audiences of all ages.