For Jonathan Edwards, performing is an intimate experience.
It may seem odd that singing in front of a couple hundred people would be considered intimate, but there’s a connection between a performer and an audience that creates a memorable experience.
“The performance of art — whether it’s theater, singer-songwriters, or bands — if it’s live and in-person,” Edwards said recently, “there’s just a sense of community and reality and authenticity that you can’t get out there in the auto-tuned world of the media.”
Edwards, whose history of performing around New England and in Maine stretches back five decades, is appearing at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at Johnson Hall in Gardiner.
“I’ve had 50 years of this,” he said. “It’s just been incredible. I am so filled with gratitude and appreciation for the fact that it’s been 50 years. I have managed to hold on to the excitement and energize a lot of fans. I have been able to keep whatever gifts I had — my ability to play, hold a crowd and hit the high notes. A lot of my friends have not.”
Edwards earned widespread recognition as a singer-songwriter in the early 1970s with “Sunshine” followed by “Shanty” — which a number of radio stations across the country play every Friday at 5 p.m. to kick off the weekend. In the early days, he was on the road, playing 250 nights a year. These days, he schedules between 50 and 80 dates, depending on what else is going on. Most of those are in smaller spaces, and some are house concerts. His most recent album,”Tomorrow’s Child,” came out in 2015.
Edwards finds performance is very much a two-way street.
“It’s a tricky balance. It’s important for the songs I sing to approach them with vulnerability, but I have to balance that with will power and energy and strength,” he said.
And as much as he gives to audiences, he has found they give back.
“They want you to do well and succeed, and I feel intensely and viscerally that it’s a motivating factor,” he said. “Whenever I threaten to hang up my guitar, people tell me how much my music has meant to them or the longevity of my career has meant to them. All of that informs who I am and what I write about and what I choose to perform.”
That intimacy, he said, is a precious thing.
Tom Snow, a pianist and composer and Bates College lecturer who has worked with and for Edwards for about six years and who will appear with him at Johnson Hall, said he’s never seen Edwards give a bad performance.
“From my observation, to his great credit and as a wonderful example and great reminder, he never just punches his time card,” Snow said. “When he’s singing one of his hits for the umpteen millionth time, he sings it with honesty and integrity. Plenty of people would not make that effort.”
The relationship-building has been part of the equation since the very start of Edwards’ career. His first solo gig, probably at Boston College, was in an auditorium packed with people waiting for the headliner Patrick Sky.
“I was petrified. I could barely speak. Upon climbing up the stairs to the stage, I heard someone yell, ‘You suck!'” he said. “I said, ‘Thank you very much. Usually people say that after my second song.'”
His wife tells him he can be too flip with his personality on stage, but he said drawing a line can be hard when you give it all.
This is at least the second time Edwards has played Johnson Hall.
Mike Miclon, Johnson Hall’s artistic executive director, booked Edwards shortly after he started in Gardiner in 2013. Edwards had performed three times at the theater that Miclon had managed in Buckfield.
“I knew his agent and I booked him in even before the season started to show the public the kind of caliber of performers we would switch to,” he said.
The reaction, he said, was strong.
“People got very excited, and since then a number of people have been asking me, ‘When will you get him back?'” Miclon said.
Every time he plays a room, Edwards said, he tries to bring something new to it.
“Having hung around this long, there’s a certain panache that comes with being 70 and having joined people and having them join me all these years,” he said. “It’s a responsibility and an absolute joy.”
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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