This “Wednesdays at 8 with Lisa,” celebrates Earth Day in a special belated online multimedia event with singer/songwriter Fred Gillen Jr. and photographer Jim Metzger. Lisa and Fred will sing and fiddle while Jim shows images of trips from an environmental mission to Nepal that the three went on last summer. It’s a visual and aural treat not to be missed. Subscribe to Lisa’s email list on this website to be part of the Zoom chat, or watch on Facebook Live!

-

NYFA (New York Foundation For The Arts) grant recipient Fred Gillen Jr. has released eleven full-length albums, to great critical acclaim. He has performed all over the U.S. and Europe as a solo artist. From 2017 to 2019 he was music director of the Group The Greenheart, traveling to Nepal four times and India once, performing concerts to raise awareness of environmental activism. His songs have been featured on ABC's "All My Children," NPR's "Car Talk," CMJ's New Music Marathon Sampler, and in 2012 his version of Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home" was featured on "Pete Remembers Woody," a collection of Pete Seeger's spoken stories about Woody Guthrie. interspersed with various artists' renditions of Guthrie's songs. Like Seeger and Guthrie, Gillen's lyrics often reflect both the hope and despair of the human condition, while his music illustrates the diversity of influences in the air when he was growing up in the 1970's. His live performances are spontaneous and full of storytelling, and he enjoys audience participation.

-

Jim Metzger: When I was 15 my father asked me what I wanted to do as a profession and I replied “I wanted to be a photographer for Life Magazine”. He said “you can’t make any money doing that”.

I got a degree in Architecture from Cornell University in 1977 and have been practicing since I graduated. I will get it right one of these days. But the joy of photography never left and I now split my time working on residential Architecture and photography.

I have been able to combine photography with a deep seated commitment to environmental and political causes I discussed being able to travel with “The Greenheart” as the band photographer for several years. In 2017 James Dean Conklin said it was time. I have had the extraordinary opportunity to travel with this wildly talented environmental activist band to Nepal three times and to India once in the last three years. Being able to bring a visual message of peace and environmental justice to and from half way around the world has finally allowed me to realize the dream I had as a 15 year old boy.

-

I’m really looking forward to "being together" with you!

Donations are sliding scale/honor system, and the proceeds will go to all of the artists.

Venmo: @Lisa-Gutkin-1

Paypal: paypal.me/lisagutkinmusician