In 1997, Robert Sarazin Blake dropped out of college and hit the road. The folk music of his father’s house had combined with the DIY punk ethos of the day and resulted in his first batch of produced songs, Another Irrelevant Year. On his first US tour, Blake played 30 shows around the US planting seeds as he developed touring, not as an economic model, but as a lifestyle. He hasn’t stopped. Eleven full length albums into his career, he’s continued to write pulling from folk roots, his travels, his contemporaries, and the quiet spot in the back of his mind. The writing has evolved, mellowing with experience and expanding with reference, but the essence of the work has remained the same-strong narratives solidly built on the folk foundation and fully in the immediacy of the now.
The song is what fuels Robert Sarazin Blake’s travels. There is a joy of sharing a song, singing it among friends, and hitting a stage to play it before a new audience every night. It is the joy in the simple craft of songwriting in Blake’s music, and that joy shines through in his new album, Robert Sarazin Blake. Recorded in Brooklyn during a hot summer week, the album reflects Blake’s signature beatnik roots songwriting. Over an undercurrent of intricate guitar and bouzouki runs, his lyrics swirl like the smoke in an old Greenwich Village folk coffeehouse, drawing from the triumphs and disappointments of a life well lived.
The touring and performing has become an art in and of itself. Performing 200 shows a year, Blake is a world class performer committed to the neighborhood show. His show is a combination of songs and rambles landing somewhere between a concert and a theatrical instillation. The neighborhoods have been all over Ireland and the US with forays into Canada, Scotland, England, Norway, Denmark, France, and most recently, Germany and the Netherlands. Just a man, a guitar, and a suitcase from which he sells his albums and keeps his notebooks.
This commitment to the neighborhood, to the local, reflects Blake’s dedication to the moment, to the connection within live performance. There is always a moment in a Blake show where the room pulls together and the space between the singer, the song, and the listener disappears.
We are excited to present Robert in an intimate House Concert setting.
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