He has opened for artists from Anita Baker, Arlo Guthrie and Aretha Franklin to the late comedian George Carlin, Shawn Colvin and the Milk Carton Kids, but Vance Gilbert remains decidedly down-to-earth.
Considered by many to be an integral part of the national folk scene, Gilbert performs Feb. 24 at Front Porch Music in Valparaiso.
“I’m a mixed bag,” said Gilbert via phone from Arlington, Massachusetts, where the folk singer-songwriter lives.
“I had a friend tell me once that going to see me is as if James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin and Chris Rock had a baby. That’s what you’re coming to see. It’s a lot of fun. I’m comedic in ways. The songwriting is pretty on the money.
“That’s the most important thing I do — the songwriting and singing. There’s even some poetry as a bit of a backdrop.”
Gilbert (www.vancegilbert.com) originally aspired to be a jazz singer but changed course after discovering the storytelling of acoustic folk music.
“Even the jazz standards that I found myself being drawn to really told the story,” said Gilbert, citing the craft of songs such as Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” and collaborations by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
“It’s a story from top to bottom. It’s a portrait that gets painted. There’s something about that aspect of songwriting and song examination and song enjoyment that really spoke to me. The fact that there was a story involved is what brought me to folk music.
“Even if the story doesn’t make any sense, stories are often evocative of something. There’s a story in there somehow.”
Gilbert’s 2015 release “Nearness of You” harkens to that connection.
“My latest album is actually an album of jazz standards. It’s just me, two microphones and all the old jazz tunes I’ve loved over the years,” he said.
“Before the end of this year I will have a new Vance Gilbert album with freshly written Vance Gilbert songs.”
His songwriting is featured via the tune “Dinosaur in Your Bathtub” on “InFINity” by Trout Fishing in America, the musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. The 2001 release was nominated for a Grammy Award in the best musical album for children category.
Gilbert’s time on the road has included opening more than 140 shows for Carlin.
“He was brilliant,” said Gilbert, noting that the comedian often spent time backstage playing piano and singing.
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“Watching him work the stage was sheer art. It really was. Just the pattern he used, walking from one corner of the stage to another. He was an active act. He didn’t stand in front of a (microphone) stand.”
More recently Gilbert toured Australia where he had the opportunity to play guitar for 104-year-old choreographer Eileen Kramer. He also has been the opener of choice for comedian Paul Reiser and the musical group the Subdudes.
“I like making the crowd and myself all feel like we’re all inadvertent friends and that can be me and 50 people, me and 500 people or me and 5,000 people. I don’t mean to force it on anybody but I really love having that sense of familiarity be the cornerstone to what I do,” Gilbert said.
“By the time I’m done with my set I would like to think that I’ve sung to the human condition and that everybody is if not on the same page at least on the same shelf in the library. If that takes the songwriting or some comedy or some dulcet singing — whatever that takes — I’m on board with.”
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Vance Gilbert
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 24
Where: Front Porch Music, 505 E. Lincolnway, Valparaiso
Tickets: $15
Information: 219-464-4700; www.frontporchmusic.com