Colin Black

COLIN BLACK is an Americana/folk singer-songwriter hailing from the Gulf Coast of Alabama – by way of central Illinois, via New Orleans, recently back after five years living in Europe, and now based in Washington, D.C. (Yep, it’s a long story.)  With a style evocative of such songwriters as Townes Van Zandt, Greg Brown, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen, Colin’s songs are at once deeply personal and incredibly accessible.

Born in 1974 in Peoria, Illinois, Colin grew up in a small town beside the Illinois River. As a teenager, he began spending his summers in the small Gulf Coast community of Josephine, Alabama. Miles from the nearest city, the most common entertainment was acoustic music – song circles and late night jams in which locally renowned and unknown musicians alike would grab their guitars and mandolins or just sing along to everything from old folk standards to songs by Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Nanci Griffith, the Grateful Dead and many others. Colin has since lived in many places across the United States and around the world, but it was this musical genesis on the Alabama Gulf Coast that most dramatically shaped his approach to writing and playing music. Almost twenty years later, Colin’s songs are a reflection of his own life – born in the American Midwest, inspired by the great folk songwriters of the 20th century, steeped in Gulf Coast musical community, and broadened by a life of travel, Colin’s songs reveal his own truly “Americana” identity.

Colin has been playing acoustic guitar and writing songs for nearly twenty years. He has a unique style on harmonica and also occasionally plays lap steel, cuatro, or whatever else he can get his hands on. His emphasis, though, has always been on songwriting – finding words and a melody to tell a story or capture a moment.