Songwriters in the Round January 13, 2011

Craig Carothers, Don Henry and Steve Seskin: Three friends—top songwriters all—bring their impressive repertoires to us for an evening of hilarious stories and superlative music.

Steve Seskin is an inspiring performer and songwriter, and one of the most successful writers in Nashville today. While his songs—an eclectic blend of humor and pathos, love songs and looney tunes—have been covered by scores of famed artists (John Michael Montgomery, Waylon Jennings, and Tim McGraw, to name but a few), there is nothing like seeing Steve cast his spell in live performance. Few performers can face an audience with only an acoustic guitar and hotwire its emotions; that's exactly what happens at Steve's concerts.

Craig Carothers' intelligent love songs, with their memorable blend of weary cynicism and heart-on-sleeve romanticism, have won him a solid place among Nashville's songwriters, with tunes recorded by folks like Trisha Yearwood and Kathy Mattea. As a singer-songwriter, Craig has played nightclubs and concerts from Los Angeles to Stockholm for over two decades. In the last few years alone he's driven 80,000 miles to play in more than 50 cities in 20 states: when you figure in the airplanes and rental cars, it adds up to a lot of scenery and a lot of songs.

The wry, engaging song-stories written by Don Henry tend to be both funny and thought-provoking, and he sings them with extraordinary tenderness, humor, and sincerity. A much-awarded writer (he co-wrote Kathy Mattea's Grammy-winning hit, "Where've You Been"), Don is known for the richly etched characters that people his tunes, each with an engrossing story to tell, full of unexpected twists and moments of revelation.

Official Website: http://www.142throckmortontheatre.org