Freewheelin' 1st Fridays Presents Pledge Drive Party wi/ Gabe Barnett & The Big House Rounder Band plus Midwest Paul Cook

Jackson Buck, host of KFAI's Wednesday afternoon show Freewheelin', invites you to the October installment of his monthly music series "Freewheelin' First Fridays" at the 331 Club.  Join fellow-KFAI volunteers and supporters in celebration of the conclusion of KFAI's fall pledge drive.

Musical guests this month are Gabe Barnett & the Big House Rounders plus Midwest Paul Cook. This is a FREE show; tips for the bands are welcome.

"In a land of 10,000 Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan wannabes, Gabe Barnett seems like the most fitting victim to compare to those folk icons. But to do so would imply something less than genuine about this fiercely independent, grassroots folk singer. He embodies the spirit of the wandering troubadour, to be sure, but there are no gimmicks or mimicry to his music. When he sings, he stands up tall and raises his eyebrows toward the ceiling, projecting his words into the room with the unabashed earnestness that so many indie-folk kids are trying desperately to achieve. Barnett has stumbled onto the key that could unlock and then unravel the whole neo-folk movement: If you want to seem sincere, you have to mean it. He works as a full-time musician, surviving off the meager profits of his songs, traveling with a guitar on his back, so when he sings about the evils of consumerism and the search for freedom, his words carry weight.