MARBLEHEAD — Saturday Night in Marblehead will continue its concert series with a Jan. 20 concert at the Church of St. Andrew by New England songwriter John Schindler.
A resident of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, Schindler is originally from St. Louis. He was influenced early by that town’s rhythm and blues and his Oklahoma mother’s singing. After spending nine years in a Catholic seminary, where silence and Gregorian chant were a key part of his experience, Schindler moved to New England and became an itinerant musician. He has won both the 2003 Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Contest and the 2006 Rose Garden Coffeehouse Song Contest, and he has been a finalist in many other song contests.
“John Schindler is full of wonderful, insightful songs that will find their way into the repertoire of other folk singers. John’s songs really connect!” wrote Dick Pleasants of WUMB radio. Dan Gewertz in the Boston Herald wrote, “John Schindler knows how to translate life into wise, oddly witty songs.” Singer-songwriter Bob Franke, founder of Saturday Night in Marblehead, said, “John’s the best singer-songwriter I’ve run into in the last 10 years or so.”
Schindler has released two CDs: Memory Train, which was CD of the Week on Chicago’s WFMT’s Midnight Special, and Two-Step Man. For more about Schindler, visit www.reverbnation.com/johnschindler.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 8. Admission is $15 at the door. Saturday Night in Marblehead is located at the Church of St. Andrew, 135 Lafayette St. (Route 114), near the Marblehead/Salem town line. The church (www.standrewsmhd.org) is handicapped accessible.