2008 Woodie Awards
Cartwright crashes 'Monday Night Live' for performance
Dana Johnson
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Intermission
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"Monday Night Live" was privileged enough to have him play this Monday with Adam Linz on bass and Alden Ikeda on drums. Together they form the trio known as GloryLand PonyCat.
Cartwright has performed with a variety of popular musicians, and in the summer of 2003, he received a McKnight Composer's Fellowship.
He was also named City Pages Jazz Artist of the Year in 2004. Currently, he performs with both GloryLand PonyCat and the quintet, Curlew.
Beginning by learning to sing in church and teaching himself guitar, Cartwright has come a long way.
Currently living in Minnesota, his musical roots come from all around the United States.
"I've been here (St. Paul) for about eight years now, so I feel pretty used to it," Cartwright said. "I came from all over. I was born in Mississippi. I lived in New York City a long time and then I moved from Memphis (to Minnesota) because of my wife."
Cartwright has recorded 17 albums since 1992 along with a handful of other recordings and compositions.
His most recent being "A Tenacious Slew," which was recorded in November 2006 with Christ Parker, Adam Linz, Alden Ikeda, JT Bates, Christina Bladwin and Anne Elias.
Cartwright is one of those musicians who others connect with on all different levels. Linz told his story Monday night about how he met Cartwright and why they ended up playing together.
"When I was a kid I knew who George was through an uncle of mine," Linz said. "I was actually seeking out George for composition lessons. I called him up and I said 'I want to take composition lessons with you' and he said 'what instrument do you play' and I said 'I play double bass' and he said 'well forget about the lessons, just come on over and we'll play.' So for me it was a huge deal because I had known about George since I was about 12-years-old. I had known his music, and I kind of looked up to him as a composer and a performer."
Cartwright can be found playing shows across Minnesota in any given month. His next show is at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.
For more information on Cartwright and all his musical projects visit www.georgecartwright.com.
His music is available for purchase at Cuneiform Records and can be heard on the Web site as well.
Though next semesters "Monday Night Live" schedule has not yet been announced for the rest of this semester, Fat Kid Wednesdays will be playing Dec. 3, and The High Strung String Band will be performing Dec. 10.
As always tune into KVSC 88.1 or UTVS channel 21, or both for a surround sound effect, Mondays from 10 to 11 p.m. to hear these musicians broadcasted live.