Songwriter Sessions Intimate Acoustic Concert

Front Row sustaining members get free admission!
If you’re in the Front Row, email Jesse (jricke@commonchordqc.org) to claim your tickets.

Genre: Acoustic, Singer/Songwriter
Doors: 7:30pm / Show: 8:00pm
Tickets: $18 in advance / $20 day of show

Featured Songwriters: Mark Ridolfi, Carol Montag
Host: David G Smith

Seating: All-seated in-the-round. Intimate, listening room show. Each ticket purchase guarantees a seat.

Age Restriction: All Ages (Under 19 must be accompanied by an adult)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Mark Ridolfi

Song collector Mark Ridolfi has curated off-beat folk covers for decades, while occasionally crafting original story songs for guitar circles, open mics, community festivals and some barroom gigs. As a lifelong journalist, Ridolfi builds songs around specific events, emotions and observations.

His 2010 song, “Drawn by Love,” won the Bettendorf Library Civil Rights songwriting contest, and celebrates the thousands of couples drawn by love to Iowa after the Supreme Court opened marriage to all. A new song, “Beyond the Hollow,” pines for unfulfilled longing.

Ridolfi heeds Guy Clark’s maxim to be specific, but leave room for listeners. And if they start singing along, even better.

He and his wife, Sandy, live in Rock Island, Ill., where he has enjoyed a place in the St. Joseph Evening Meal monthly song circle for 20 years.

Carol Montag
www.carolmontag.com

“Upon hearing her music I was stunned and couldn’t wait to write about her. Once I even rented a bus and took a bunch of Des Moines Register reporters and editors to hear Carol sing. Carol has a true gift! Powerful, beautiful, harmonic, soulful, real. I’d match her voice and ability to engage an audience with any female vocalist anywhere”. – Julie Gammack, former Des Moines Register columnist

“Carol has a touch of homespun about her, but she takes the stage like a pro.” – Chuck Mitchell 

“A singer of new songs written by her for her. She cannot be categorized, she must be heard.” – Burlington Arts Council 

Performing singer/songwriter Carol Montag has been described by folk music legend Tom Paxton as a “genuine discovery” and “the best thing to come out of Iowa since Bonnie Koloc.” Her influences include Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Eva Cassidy, Julie Andrews, James Taylor and many others. She has recorded four solo albums and two Christmas CDs. She is due to release her new album titled “Strange Ballet” in early 2025.

Carol has opened for or shared the stage with Arlo Guthrie, Michael Johnson, Jim Post, Greg Brown, Priscilla Herdmann, David Wilcox, John Gorka, John Stewart, Cliff Eberhardt, Larry Groce, and Three Dog Night. She was commissioned to write music for Ballet Iowa and Ballet LaCrosse and performed live with both companies. Carol was invited by the former US Ambassador to Cambodia, Kennet Quinn, to perform at the 2010 World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony. Past performers at the ceremony include such notables as Ray Charles, John Denver, and Simon Estes. Carol recently won The IndieFEST Film Festival Award of Recognition for her music video titled “Strange Ballet”. She was also a finalist, 2015 IMMERSE Artist/Writer Competition – GMA (Gospel Music Assoc.) Carol performs original songs, traditional and contemporary folk, and songs from the Great American Songbook on acoustic guitar and piano.

David G Smith
www.davidgsmithmusic.com

David G Smith developed and hosts the Songwriter Sessions series, inviting top-tier local and touring songwriters to share their songs with the Quad Cities. Having hosted shows at Nashville’s Bluebird Café for over 15 years, David has created a true listening room experience in the Quad Cities. An internationally acclaimed songwriter, four of David’s albums and four of his singles have reached #1 nationwide on various US charts, to include “River Gonna Talk” and “To Be Human”, from his recent album Witness Trees, both of which reached #1 on the Radio Guitar One Americana Chart. His last four albums were accepted for Grammy consideration. David “draws you in with his lyrics and keeps you there with his heart.”