Club Passim Iguana Music Fund Winner Bethel Steele Returns to The Burren Sunday, July 28

Boston’s Bethel Steele, Americana singer-songwriter and Passim’s Iguana Music Fund winner, will be returning for a show at the Burren back room in Somerville on Sunday, July 28th. Sweet-voiced Bostonian Mark Lipman,  opens the show at 8pm.

Bethel Steele is a touring singer-songwriter whose music is something of an amalgam of Lori McKenna, Ani DiFranco and Neil Young. With a smoky alto and a playing style that ranges from driving rhythm guitar to delicate finger-picking, Bethel’s songs find the intrinsic beauty in whiskey-soaked one night stands, the stories of thrill-seekers and the unrelenting passage of time.  Steele’s writing has been hailed as “deep and inspired” by Italian reviewer Remo Ricaldone (www.bcmai.it) and No Depression contributor John Apice raves, “an inspired artist and would fit in anywhere, anytime with the best this music industry has to offer.”

In the month of June, Bethel participated in the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival (Kerrville, TX) as a New Folk Finalist and also announced selection to Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s Emerging Artist Showcase (August 2nd, Hillsdale, NY) and CT Folk Fest’s Songwriting Competition (September 7th, Hamden, CT).

These honors and awards in 2013 are part of a great year for Steele who received rave reviews of a new album “Of Love and Whiskey” (released June 2012) and was awarded a grant from Boston’s famed Club Passim’s “Iguana Music Fund” that provides grants of $500-$2000, to a select number of artists as they pursue their careers.

Steele’s current release “Of Love and Whiskey” was produced by Neale Eckstein, of Fox Run Studio/Fox Run House Concerts in Sudbury, MA and Jagoda, NYC percussionist of Swamp Cabbage and released to radio by Trespass Music. “Of Love and Whiskey” reached the #17 position on the Folk-DJ Top Albums in June 2012 and the #16 position in the Roots Music Report’s Top Folk Albums in July. The record has been included on a number of 2012 ‘Best-of’ lists including those by DJ’s Joltin Joe Pszonek of WMSC 90.3FM, Montclair, NJ and Jim Canales of WWSP 90FM out of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

The Burren is located at 247 Elm St., Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts.  Admission is free, but the suggested donation to the artists is $10 per person. For more information please visit BethelSteele.com