Merkin Concert Hall Announces the 2012 New York Guitar Festival
By: Lauren Wolman Aug. 18, 2011
Announcing the 2012 New York Guitar Festival: Silent Films/Live Guitars. Featuring Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Dan Zanes, Keller Williams, Kaki King, Califone & others TBA
Some of today's most distinctive and influential guitarists premiere original scores for silent films by one of the greatest comic actor/directors in the history of cinema: Buster Keaton. Subscribe now for just $80 - that's only $20 per ticket!Tue, 1/10/12 at 7:30 pm
Dan Zanes (Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr., 1928)
Grammy winner Dan Zanes, a member of the 80s band the Del Fuegos and current front man for Dan Zanes and Friends, premieres his score for Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr., in which a young Mississippi steamboat captain falls in love with the daughter of his father's business rival.
Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth (Buster Keaton's Cops, 1922)
Kaki King (Buster Keaton's The Scarecrow, 1920)
Co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo is #33 on Rolling Stone's list of "Greatest Guitarists of All Time." Keaton's Cops is a short comedy about a young man who gets on the bad side of the Los Angeles Police Department and is chased all over town.
The sole woman and youngest artist on Rolling Stone's 2006 list of "The New Guitar Gods," Kaki King will perform her score for The Scarecrow, in which Keaton plays a young man whose pursuit of a farmer's daughter takes an unexpected turn.
Tue, 1/17/12 at 7:30 pm
Keller Williams (Buster Keaton's One Week, 1920) & Special Guest TBA
Music's "mad scientist" Keller Williams will perform an original score to Buster Keaton's One Week, a short comedy about newlyweds who receive a build-it-yourself house that can supposedly be built in one week.
Thu, 1/19/12 at 7:30 pm
Califone (Buster Keaton's Go West, 1925) & Special Guest TBA
Califone, the Chicago-based experimental rock band whose music the New York Times called "enthralling," premieres a score for Go West, in which a small-town young man, overwhelmed by a brief taste of life in New York City, tries his luck as a cowboy on a ranch.
Single tickets go on sale September 6.
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