Inga Swearingen, a SLO treasure whose career has taken her all over the world, will perform in concert in conjunction with her new album release.
Swearingen is the winner of the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival Shure Vocal Competition, tours across the United States and overseas, appears as a regular guest on the national radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” hosted by Garrison Keillor. Yet, with the success of her career and the travels it has taken her, Swearingen has always known her home – whether it’s people or a place she loves. Her highly anticipated fourth album, Let Me Call This Home, speaks of the yin and yang pull of home, having a longing for it, and wanting to leave it to ultimately come home again.
“Sometimes home is a place, other times it’s a person. You can long for it, or want to leave it. And songs can take you home or take you far away,” said Swearingen. “There is a constant to my sense of home, and it’s also ever changing. I love the people I love, and no matter where I am, I carry them with me and I am home. But I also must leave to be able to come back. The songs on this album express this pull and yearning.”
Swearingen compares the building of this album to building a house. Pouring a good foundation musically translates into laying/putting down solid grooves on which the songs are built. The album easily interchanges time signatures and feels, giving the arrangements sophistication and intrigue, but always serving the mood and message of the song. Continuing the analogy, walls are then built with rich harmony that is sometimes complex and dissonant and other times simple and nostalgic. These solid beginnings of songs can support well-crafted melodies that are the roofs over houses where loved ones gather and experience the many facets of life. It all comes together to create a space that invites you to kick off your shoes and stay awhile in this house of jazz, blues and pop.
Swearingen brings the debut of Let Me Call This Home to the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande on Saturday, Aug. 27 at 7:30 p.m. (there is no opening act for this concert). Afterward, Inga will sign CD’s at a reception in the lobby. Tickets are $25 and include a CD of Let Me Call This Home. They can be purchased online at www.ClarkCenter.org or by calling the Box Office at (805) 489-9444. Tickets are also available at Boo Boo Records at 978 Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo, by calling (805) 541-0657 or at www.booboorecords.com.
