George Wirth

Artist Information

Biography

A lifelong resident of the New Jersey Shore, George Wirth is a singer-songwriter with a gift for telling human stories shaped by imagery and narrative. He has been introduced to audiences and shared performances with friends Rod Picott, Amanda Shires, Abbie Gardner and Red Molly. His song, “Eisenhower Summer, 1952” was published in Sing Out magazine and is included on the CD from that issue. Another song, “Old Dancing Fool”, was recorded by Red Molly and appears on their “Love and Other Tragedies” CD. He has performed at The New Jersey Folk Festival, The Clearwater Music Festival in Asbury Park and has received numerous Asbury Park Music Award nominations, including Top Male Acoustic, Best Local Release and Best Song. George is the winner of the 2010 Asbury Music Award in the Top Male Acoustic category, and has also won the Jersey Acoustic Musicians Award for Top Male Songwriter and Album of the Year for both 2010 and 2011. He has released two well-received albums of original music, “The Lights of Brigantine” (2006) and “The Last Good Kiss” (2010), which features guest performances by Amanda Shires, Abbie Gardner and Janey Todd.

"We get a lot of music at Whole Wheat Radio and enjoy most of it. But once in awhile we get something that stands out. Something you can't forget. Something you want to put on your CD player and listen to over and over again, just to catch the lyrics ... but then you slip into the beauty of the music and miss some lyrics. Doesn't matter. You know you're listening to something real. Something good. Very good. The reason you fell in love with acoustic folk music to begin with. I highly recommend it."
Jim Kloss, Whole Wheat Radio

“The Last Good Kiss is as fine a piece of writing as I have encountered this year. These are real people with complex emotions, and they matter. I suppose that means that this is folk music, and a fine example of what it should do.

Album review, Darius Rips
http://oliverdiplace.blogspot.com/

“George Wirth is one of the area's best songwriters. With vivid descriptions, his songs come to life with characters that live and breathe in ways few songwriters can match. His first record, "The Lights of Brigantine" was one of the best records I've heard in the past decade. His latest disc, "The Last Good Kiss", was released over the summer and is just as good.”

Gary WIen, Author of "Beyond The Palace"
http://newjerseystage.blogspot.com/

More Information:
Website: http://www.georgewirth.net/
Contact: mail@georgewirth.com

Instrumentation

George Wirth: guitar, vocals, harmonica

Discography

"The Lights of Brigantine", 13 track CD.

"The Last Good Kiss", 14 track CD.

Streaming audio at:

http://georgewirth.net
http://cdbaby.com/cd/georgewirth

Official Website

http://georgewirth.net/

Links

• Facebook
• Bandcamp - George Wirth
• George Wirth - Words and Music
• CDBaby - George Wirth

Audio

• The Last Good Kiss
  Listen  
• Make You My Home
  Listen  
• I Will Not Go Down Easily This Time
  Listen  
• In Your Arms
  Listen  
• The Weight of Sin
  Listen  

Lyrics

• The Last Good Kiss
• 

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Shoreworld: George Wirth: ‘The Last Good Kiss’ [+ Show ]
  

  —by John Pfeiffer, Aquarian Magazine, April 13, 2011 Listening to George Wirth has always been a ...—by John Pfeiffer, Aquarian Magazine, April 13, 2011
  
  Listening to George Wirth has always been a Sunday morning pleasure. His writing has a comfortable, homegrown pace with reflections of tradition and yesteryear vitality that beam across his platters like charged particles from the aurora borealis itself. His narrative point flashes polar-lit displays of emotion and ionospheric tales of life lessons learned through blood, sweat and tears.
  
  Wirth doesn’t shy way from his heroes and they’re obvious on his latest disc, titled The Last Good Kiss. Springsteen and Dylan give organic way to Warren Zevon phrasing and Levon Helm delivery. These influential greats all come gloriously to mind when listening to Wirth chugging down the gritty tracks of his vagabond existence. Like any good engineer, his choice of top-shelf conductors is key to a great musical journey, adding coal smoke essence of the past with the modern day streamlined style that these journeymen bring to the table.
  
  Made up of 14 songs, The Last Good Kiss features portrait performances by resonator queen Abbie Gardner, who graces two songs, and Amanda Shires, who soothes the soul on another pair. Add in the lush vocal viewpoint of Janey Todd and the backwoods Dobro of Jim McCarthy and you’ve got a serious grouping of talent pulled along by the engine of Wirths back porch delivery.
  
  The Last Good Kiss is George Wirth’s second full-length release and his finest achievement to date. At 64, George Wirth has spent only a quarter of his life in the professional arena, but his magnetic sound has caught up to and surpassed most other writers in record time, culling from a lifetime of elation and quiet desperation of the everyday man.
  
  His previous releases include The Lights Of Brigantine (2006) and the song “Eisenhower Summer, 1952,” was published in Sing Out magazine and included on the CD from that particular issue. Another song, “Old Dancing Fool,” was recorded by Red Molly and appears on their Love And Other Tragedies CD George has also received numerous Asbury Park Music Award nominations, including Top Male Acoustic, Best Local Release and Best Song. George is the winner of the 2010 Asbury Music Award in the Top Male Acoustic category, and has also won the Jersey Acoustic Musicians Award for Top Male Songwriter and Album of the Year for both 2010 and 2011.
  
  Wirth covers a lot of ground on The Last Good Kiss, visiting everything from sheer toughness and survival on the rebellious opening track, “I Will Not Go Down Easily This Time” to the reflective spirituality on “Weight Of Sin.” Wirth is a master here, focusing the listener with his intense viewpoint. Words of ‘Wirthdom’ such as, “This world will keep you guessing and the road will take its toll, the residue of living will leave its mark upon you’re soul” really leave you to ponder your existence through the message of this stark faith healer that sums up with, “And when I see myself reflected, in your eyes I’m resurrected, and I swear I feel, a little lighter in my shoes.”
  
  CD title cut, “The Last Good Kiss” has been this critic’s favorite since its release. Amanda Shire’s fiddle supplies beautiful, sad melody as Wirth strums acoustic, telling the tale of the good thing left behind. Filled with the solitary thoughts of missed opportunities and memories of the last real chance at love given to a man lost in a personal haze of habit and the regret that follows. Bittersweet recollections mix with the sad realization that sometimes, no matter what you may have to lose, a man just can’t change the road he is on.
  
  My favorite cut on the disk is the beautifully crafted “Make You My Home.” Featuring the warm and emotional resonator stylings of Abbie Gardner (Red Molly). This is the standout performance of the gentleman farmer I’ve known Wirth to be. Gardner’s playing can bring tears to the eyes of anyone caught in her mellow-toned path. Soulful and country melodic, Gardner pushes Wirth’s storytelling ramble to the forefront, shimmering in the background until she quietly steps up for the beautiful and desolate road worn chorus. Acoustic guitars weave lush chordal tapestries and harmonies sooth the very soul on this reflective gem.
  
  Wirth’s vocal is effective and straight to the point on the Janey Todd composition “Dreamland.” George’s voice is poignantly weary as he sings, “I drove home another nail, in my coffin today. Shiny steel politely waiting to take me away.” Lyrics that I’m quoting are some of the smartest I’ve heard and are a joy to share. Jim McCarthy’s resonator sighs and groans with timeworn, wooden tones as screeching calloused string rubs chirp up and down neck with rhythmic soul. Janey Todd’s vocal slides in from left field, adding a beautiful contrast and honey-smooth harmony to the patented Wirth rasp. The pair sounds perfect together in a Lucinda Williams/Steve Forbert styling.
  
  The realization of loneliness, escape and hope for something better on “Water On Water” kicks off with the line, “It’s rainin’ down like bullets, goin’ on two weeks, this house might make it, if she don’t spring a leak.” Reminiscent of “Highway Patrolman” by Springsteen, “Water On Water” is a beautiful and isolated focus on getting out of a flood-ravaged town somewhere in the mind of everyone that’s looking to start over in a life that’s just never going to work out for them.
  
  The shuffling two-step feel of “Memorial Drive” encompasses many of our local heroes and zeros faring better and worse on the Asbury Park battlefield. Tales of lonesome poets, race wars, broken ribs and busted guitars make way for the winners, losers and characters that keep this town on the lips of everyone from waitresses to rock stars. I like Wirth’s no nonsense approach on gentrification, and the movie-like dramas that are played out daily in a town used to “death by misadventure, down on Memorial Drive.”
  
  Wirth’s humble tone is perfectly matched with his compositional vision on this disk, pushing breathy vocal guidance at the listener’s sensibilities with the nonchalance of a man waving at you to come sit on the stoop. Think about Springsteen’s Nebraska, and the imagery it exudes and you‘ll get the picture of where Wirth is going here. Wirth is soft but bell clear with his tone and it works as the focus throughout. He never rushes a chorus or short changes the listener in a verse on The Last Good Kiss.
  
  Taking his time, he patiently builds his song, demonstrating his knack for lyrical story setup, chord progression choice and his soft, semi-gruff voice. There’s nothing worse than having to decipher lyrics and meaning from a song too junked up with stuff to have those key ingredients stand out. No worries about that here, as production is crisp and the focus is on Wirth’s worthy words of wisdom. Say that fast 10 times.
  
  The Last Good Kiss is a heartfelt collection of stylish recollections from the mind of a musician that has witnessed the glory and tragedy of our fleeting human existence, and in the end, makes it all right to still be here and living in his own hard-earned way. It is the everyday dance of life and the outcome of all our choices, both good and bad, on this fast-moving stage we call life. Pick up this great American disk to hear to the rest of the songs I didn’t have room to list here.

• George Wirth - The Last Good Kiss [+ Show ]
  

  On The Last Good Kiss, George Wirth is generous with his music. I’ve gotten plenty to of albums with...On The Last Good Kiss, George Wirth is generous with his music. I’ve gotten plenty to of albums with just over a half hour of music on them, but this is twice that. The arrangements are spare, with voice and guitar featured, and other instruments adding light touches. There is one duet, Dreamland, and Make You My Home has a few lines of female background vocals. Add to that the fact that George Wirth is limited as a singer. He is not a young man, and his voice has a lot of weather in it. So he can’t belt it out, and his range is probably more limited than it once was. All told, this album could feel long indeed, but it doesn’t. Wirth knows exactly what he can and can not do, and he makes the most of his gifts. And his writing is brilliant.
  
  Wirth plays acoustic guitar, which he plucks or strums. He doesn’t take solos or try to wow the listener, but he knows what each song needs, and he supplies it. Abbie Gardner of Red Molly adds lap steel to one song and dobro to another. Amanda Shires plays fiddle on two songs. Dreamland has a dobro part from Jim MccCarthy and duet vocals from Janey Todd, who wrote it; Todd also adds a brief recorder part at the end. So that’s five songs with guest musicians, and the album has fourteen songs in all. Wirth plays harmonica here and there, and he adds a couple of unusual instruments as well. That’s Alright has a Papoose on it; this is a small-scale guitar which sounds something like a mountain dulcimer here. And Heaven’s Gate has a synth harmonium in the background. Taken together, Wirth seems to know that this is a long album which needs some variations in sound from song to song, but the focus his still on the guitar and vocals throughout.
  
  As I said, Wirth’s voice has a lot of weather in it. He sings in a gruff baritone with a definite scratch in it, and sometimes he speaks a few words before returning to the melody. He knows better than to force it, so this all sounds completely natural. Janey Todd has a smooth and breathy voice, so it’s surprising how well their voices blend on Dreamland. But the important thing to know about Wirth’s vocals is that, as with his guitar playing, he won’t wow the listener, but he puts across all of the varied emotions in his songs beautifully. In his writing, Wirth expresses the complex feelings of an older man, so this is key to the album’s success.
  
  The album opens with I Will Not Go Down Easily This Time, and Wirth takes the voice of Jesus to talk about what He sees at the Second Coming. Weight of Sin also has Jesus as the main character, but has more of the feel of a parable. And religious feelings also surface in Heaven’s Gate and Easter. But this is not a religious album, and in fact, Wirth expresses ambivalence about his faith in the course of the album. Certainly, he never gets heavy-handed or preachy. In Your Arms is a love song, but this is a love that has lasted a while, and the song also expresses amazement and gratitude. The Last Good Kiss is as fine a piece of writing as I have encountered this year. The narrator here contemplates a lost love as he operates a snow play. The musical setting is fairly tranquil, but Wirth’s words had me feeling the winter wind blowing, and the metaphor really works. Dreamland is the only song here that Wirth did not write, but it is fine choice to stand along side his originals. As performed here, the song is dialog, and a beautiful expression of yearning.
  
  The other thing to note about George Wirth’s writing is that it evokes a strong sense of place. Most of the songs are set at the New Jersey shore, particularly Asbury Park. I’ve been there as a visitor, but Wirth gives a voice to the townies. These characters are not idealized, but Wirth feels for them, and the listener can not help but do so too. Sometimes the sea breezes blow away their dreams, or the tide carries them back to a place they though they had left behind, but Wirth always gets you to do more than pity them. And you want to celebrate their successes. Above all, I think this is what comes through on this album. These are real people with complex emotions, and they matter. I suppose that means that this is folk music, and a fine example of what it should do. I will be keeping an ear out for more of George Wirth’s music in the future, and I hope to share that with you when it happens.

• Review of "The Lights of Brigantine" [+ Show ]
  

  "A Voice I (Happily) Can't Get Out Of My Mind" We get a lot of music at Whole Wheat Radio and e...
  "A Voice I (Happily) Can't Get Out Of My Mind"
  
  We get a lot of music at Whole Wheat Radio and enjoy most of it. But once in awhile we get something that stands out. Something you can't forget. Something you want to put on your CD player and listen to over and over again, just to catch the lyrics ... but then you slip into the beauty of the music and miss some lyrics. Doesn't matter. You know you're listening to something real. Something good. Very good. The reason you fell in love with acoustic folk music to begin with. I highly recommend it.
  
  

Setlist

Set lengths vary.....anywhere from 30 minutes to 120+ minutes as required, and are very flexible. Material is almost entirely original with a cover or two if the mood strikes and it feels right. Covers range from traditional to Dylan, Tom Waits, Springsteen, Steve Earle, etc.

Basic Requirements

Calendar