Sandburg Songbag Concert Series

Andy Crawford and Harry Tonchev will perform on Sunday, August 11 at the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site in Galesburg as part of the Sandburg Songbag Concert Series. This guitar and bass duo will be sharing tunes from the Great American Songbook and beyond.

Andy Crawford is the managing director of the Rootabaga Jazz Festival/Knox Jazz Year and Adjunct Instructor of Music at Knox College, where he directs the Cherry Street Combo and the jazz bass and guitar studios. A bassist, Andy performs regularly with multiple groups throughout the state and has been featured on dozens of recordings. Crawford is a former Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala and returns there annually, leading student immersion groups

Harry Tonchev is a Bulgarian-American jazz guitarist who currently lives and works in the Chicago area. He holds a B.A. in Music Performance from the University of Central Oklahoma and a M.S. in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University. While living in Oklahoma, Harry performed with the Oklahoma City Jazz Orchestra, OKC Lyric Theatre, Brian Gorrell and the Jazz Company, and many other jazz and rock groups.

The August 11 Songbag performance by Crawford and Tonchev will be in the Sandburg site’s barn at 313 E. Third Street in Galesburg. The show starts at 4:00 p.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. with a break for refreshments around 5:00 p.m. A donation of $5 per person is suggested. The 2019 Sandburg Songbag concerts are made possible thanks to a grant from the Mark and Celia Godsil Family Fund, a Donor Advised Fund of the Galesburg Community Foundation, and the Community Impact Fund at the Galesburg Community Foundation. The concert is presented by the Carl Sandburg Historic Site Association and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Carl Sandburg Songbag concerts for the remainder of 2019 include:

Sept. 8: Barry Cloyd, singer, songwriter
Oct. 13: Sally Weisenburg and Don Bernbaum, blues and jazz
Nov. 10: Jera Faraipanahi Scott and Carol Jean Trulson, acoustic guitar and keyboard

Carl Sandburg was a collector and performer of America’s folk songs. The series is named in honor of Sandburg’s book “The American Songbag,” published in 1927. The Carl Sandburg State Historic Site includes the home where the famed poet and biographer was born. For more information, visit www.sandburg.org.

The Sandburg site is operated by the Illinois Department Natural Resources.