John McCutcheon Delights Audience at Gordon Center

John McCutcheon is no musician. Yes, he plays the piano, guitar, banjo, Jew’s harp, and hammer dulcimer, not to mention has 34 albums with a wide range of musical influences and sounds.

But calling him a “musician,” or even a “folk musician” simply does not cut it. He’s much more than that.

  Most of the 250-plus in attendance the Peggy and Yale Gordon Center for Performing Arts on Saturday night to see him on stage would agree. His charisma and sincere nature shined through in his performance, which was complete with music but also wit, humor and humanity.

McCutcheon began the evening by telling a story about growing up in northern Wisconsin, and how he had trouble in school as a kid. But as he told his story, he strummed along, minstrel-style on the banjo, which became a ballad of John Henry.

McCutcheon’s stories were the glue of the evening, which was jam-packed from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m, including an intermission. McCutcheon ran the gamut in his repertoire, from old spirituals to original songs and poems.

Suzie Schamberg came to the Gordon Center from Silver Spring. She and her husband Rob Schamberg saw McCutcheon many times when they lived in California.

Saturday was their first show since moving east. After debating how many times they’d seen him exactly, Suzie said she couldn’t pick a favorite performance.

“They all stand out," she said. "His performance is always changing.”

A highlight of the evening was McCutcheon’s witty “Ode to Krispy Kreme,” a story of the delight he gets from seeing their glowing neon red “Hot Now” sign in the window. But his humor did not stop with baked goods; tales of “The Red Corvette” brought smiles and laughs to audience members. McCutcheon is well known for his children’s songs including “Kindergarten Wall” and “Happy Adoption Day,” as well as his cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Mail Myself to You.”

McCutcheon even played a few numbers of his album of baseball songs “Sermon on the Mound,” including “Doing My Job.” He covered songs by Woody Guthrie and Tom Paxton, who was at the Gordon Center in October with Janis Ian in October. He is musical as he is lyrical, while playing a John Philip Souza march on the dulcimer.

He echoes the great American folk singers, and is a great reminder of why folk music is still relevant and important in today’s musical culture. Towards the end of the  night, he received among other audience requests a question of how he got started in folk music.

He told a story of himself as a boy, and in his rush to get to little league practice, could have cared less about anything else going on in the world. Instead, his mother had him sit down to watch Martin Luther King’s March on Washington. The drive within King’s struggle was the starting point for McCutcheon to combine social activism with song.

McCutcheon took time out of the act to give two books to an audience member who volunteered with a local non-profit. Jonathan Lowenberg, who works with Progressive Unlimited, received the books, “The Yellow Star” and “14 Cows for America,” both written by McCutcheon’s wife Carmen Agra Deedy.

“He’s a mensch,” said Lowenberg, who knew McCutcheon’s music, but had never seen him live. “After that I have to see where he’s playing next.”

McCutcheon will be performing at festivals and concert venues nationwide throughout the next year. Dates can be found on his website at folkmusic.com.