Two Way Street Coffee House is Chicagoland’s most beloved folk and acoustic music venue, presenting weekly concerts and community events for over 50 years!  The show starts at 8pm (CT) and the doors open at 7:30pm. (Suggested donation $10).  We will also host this concert virtually.  You may access the livestream on www.twowaystreet.org, on our Facebook page or on our YouTube channel.

On Friday, November 29, 2024 Two Way Street Coffee House Friday Night Concert Series presents Jim Gary.

From the Kerrville Folk Festival “New Folk” stage to Nashville’s Bluebird Café’s Sunday Writers’ Night to the here and now, Jim Gary has been delighting audiences with his charming wit, “very solid” songwriting (Kevin’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews) and “one of the warmest and richest voices on the local scene” (Maple Street Chapel Concert Series).

Jim Gary grew up is southeastern Michigan listening to all the great sounds of the ‘60s – Motown, Beatles and all those great Jimmy Webb songs. Picking up a guitar at age 14, he started learning chords and moved on to fingerpicking the songs of John Denver, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot. During this time (as well as through high school), Jim was writing songs – dozens of them with some “keepers” showing up along the way.

Since then, Jim Gary has performed around the Midwest opening for Carrie Newcomer (Wisconsin Singer Songwriter Series), Hot Soup (Lake County Folk Club), Anne Hills (Maple Street Chapel), and Josh White, Jr. (The Abbey Pub).  Jim opened the annual Christmas Benefit at WSSS with Willy Porter and Michael Johnson.  Jim has also shared the stage with Tricia Alexander, James Durst, and Jack Hamilton. All along, Jim has been writing hundreds of songs (more and more “keepers”) with “My Main Man” receiving an Honorable Mention from Just Plain Folks – an internet community of over 40,000 musicians and writers.

Jim’s first full-length CD “Midnight Muse” came in 1996 (produced and engineered by Victor Sanders at Lakeside Media in Chicago). “Midnight Muse” is a “delightful collection of songs” (Bob Janis, WDCB’s “Folk Festival”) with a dozen original songs ranging from folk ballads to the uptempo full band “Go with the Flow” and “Winds of Fortune” to straight-up country “Mama’s Cheatin’” to a light jazz showtune-ish “Girl in the Gossamer Gown”.

Jim Gary lives in the Chicago area, has recorded a CD of Michael Smith songs (“I Wanna Be Like Mike”) and continues to write and perform. Jim released a 2nd CD of original music, Big Door… Little Wonder in 2014, and that same year placed 3rd in the Great River Folk Festival’s Songwriting and Performance Contest in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

If you can’t join us in person, you can still tune in virtually to catch the show! Make your donation HERE to Jim.  Visit www.twowaystreet.org for more information.