Meegan Holland said songwriter Don Conoscenti has been all over the place in his career.
“He’s been a hard-rocker and an ice-cream scooper in Vermont for Ben and Jerry’s before they became famous,” she said.
Conoscenti will perform his trademark songwriting talent at 7:30 tonight at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St., in Lansing.
Mike Cutler, special events coordinator at Elderly Instruments, 1100 N. Washington Ave., in Lansing, witnessed a performance by Conoscenti at his store in November 2000.
“He’s got a very unique style and in the department of most singer/songwriters, he rises above most of them,” he said. “There are a lot of artists who write good songs or sing well and their guitar playing is secondary.
“(Conoscenti) definitely raises some eyebrows with his guitar style - most everyone who works in this store who plays guitar is impressed.”
Holland, concert presenter for the Creole Gallery, said Conoscenti’s latest album “Paradox of Grace” is a really interesting album to listen to.
“It touches on a lot of different spiritual topics,” she said. “If you look at him, he has this bald head and Buddhist strip of facial hair - he almost looks like a Buddhist.
“A lot of his music has some Zen-like meditations in it as well.”
Holland said he credits artists such as Ellis Paul, (of the Indigo Girls) and folk star Shawn Mullins on his albums.
“He’s worked with a lot of really big people and he loves being a singer/songwriter,” she said.
“He’s really been all over and has done a lot of different things in his life - it provides a really rich basis for the songs that he writes.”
Cutler said Conoscenti’s performance at Elderly Instruments was a very intimate setting.
“He is really personable and knows how to connect with the audience by telling stories and bringing everyone into his performance more than just doing a show,” he said.
“Especially here, it’s very intimate when people perform here anyway and that helped him connect with the audience.”
For more information, call (517)487-9549 or visit www.creolegallery.com.
