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Live at the Library with Nigel Wearne

Toledo Lucas County Public Library welcomes all to our concert series, Live at the Library, a series featuring musical talent as they tour the country. This month, we welcome Nigel Wearne.

This month's performer is singer-songwriter Nigel Wearne. 

Nigel Wearne saunters after dark in the music of the night, blending blues, jazz and Americana-noir.  Hailing from Gunditjmara country in the deep south of Australia, he's a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist with diverse influences such as Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones.  A deep thinker and truth seeker with a penchant for all things peculiar, he sings of human frailty, grace and the cosmos; songwriting that cuts to the bone. 

Nigel has toured Australia, New Zealand, the US, UK and Canada and he's had a huge year... in 2023 he toured the US three times, the UK twice and played a bunch of festivals including the MerleFest (USA), AmericanaFest (USA), Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion (USA), Mile of Music (USA) and Old Settler's Music Festival (USA). 2024 has seen a UK winter tour and Official Showcases at UK Americana Music Week and Your Roots Are Showing (Ireland), with a return to the US later this year. 

His sophomore album, Black Crow garnered wide critical acclaim including a 4-STAR review in Rolling Stone, a nomination for Best Country Album at the Music Victoria Awards and it debuted at #1 on Australia's AMRAP Charts. His latest offering The Reckoning received a nomination for Best Blues Work at the 2023 Music Victoria Awards, a 4-STAR review in the Weekend Australian and had two songs awarded Honorable Mention (top #10) in the International Songwriting Competition. 

Rollicking, rumbling, sneering and reflective, The Reckoning is a full band explosion of songs, stories and musical mayhem; Gretsch electric guitar, horns, reeds, Hammond organ, drums and bass. All the while, Wearne's crooning, cutting, monolithic vocal keeps lyricism and poetry at the forefront.  Think after dark jazz club meets Ennio Morricone with a dose of soul. An enlivening experience that inhabits the after-dark realms of blues, jazz and rock 'n roll; this is Americana-noir.