Vashon singer and songwriter Kat Eggleston will take the stage with two of her good friends and favorite performing songwriters, Tracy Spring and Janis Carper, at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 5, in a round-robin of song sharing at the Vashon Havurah, located at 15401 Westside Hwy.
Eggleston most recently wrote and performed the music for Vashon Repertory Theatre’s “Kissing the Joy as it Flies: the Wit and Wisdom of Brian Doyle,” performed at Vashon Center for the Arts.
Pacific Northwest performing songwriter Tracy Spring is known for her rich vocals and versatile guitar playing that combine folk, blues, and jazz influences.
“She writes full spectrum four-minute novels, poetry, and music all rolled into one,” said Eggleston.
A seasoned performer, Spring has played in folk venues and festivals throughout North America and Australia, often combining her musical life with social justice work.
Janis Carper, said Eggleston, “crafts lyrics and melodies that reach into the heart and mind” and has a singing style that reflects influences including Bonnie Raitt, Rosanne Cash, and Lucinda Williams.
The three songwriters have known each other for decades, and their lives and careers have often intersected. Carper and Spring co-wrote the song “Of This World” with Becca Christel — recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary on their final album, “In These Times.”
Eggleston and Carper were both 1990 finalists in the “Sing Out!” songwriter competition held at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, and both sang backup with David Bromberg on his Northwest tour.
What’s more, Carper toured throughout the United States with the Missouri Repertory Theatre as guitarist in Peter Glazer’s musical “Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” which was recently produced by Vashon Repertory Theatre.
Eggleston worked on the same show at Chicago’s Briar Street Theatre in the 1990s, and Eggleston’s 2019 play, “The Cyclone Line” — detailing the Dust Bowl experience of her father, as a child in Oklahoma — was directly inspired by “American Song” and the music of Woody Guthrie.
“Janis was the root cause of making ‘Cyclone Line’ happen, in a way,” Eggleston said. “I first saw ‘American Song; in 1983, with Janis on guitar. I was so blown away that I got tickets for my parents — and the play got Dad talking about his dustbowl memories for the first time. Hence, all those songs and eventually my play, as well as Vashon Repertory’s production of ‘American Song’ — all of it — came from that.”
For more information or to reserve seats for the May 5 concert, contact kat@kateggleston.com. Find out more about the artists at janiscarper.com, tracyspring.com and kateggleston.com.
