Carolin Aiken in Concert, Hank Woji Opens
CAROLINE AIKEN | BIO
Named “The Best Acoustic Act” by Atlanta Magazine in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Caroline Aiken has a rich musical history that spans more than five decades. Her career includes recording and performing with Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls, as well as opening for Arlo Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Doc Watson, Randy Newman, Little Feat, 38 Special, the Beach Boys, Janis Ian, and Richie Havens. Caroline has appeared at regional and national festivals, radio shows, workshops, and concert series throughout the United States and abroad.
Her “sensual voice, masterful songwriting, expert guitar” (Victory Music – Seattle) helped anchor the city’s acoustic and folk scene. Along the way, she influenced and mentored up-and-coming artists, including the Indigo Girls and Shawn Mullins.
Georgia Music Hall of Fame
In 2015, Caroline released her ninth CD, Broken Wings Heal, featuring special guests Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, John Keane (Grammy-nominated producer and musician), Michelle Malone, Ike Stubblefield (legendary Motown B3 player), and Randall Bramblett (Bonnie Raitt, Steve Winwood, Allman Brothers). That same year, she embarked on a national tour opening for the Indigo Girls and continues to tour throughout the United States and Europe.
Caroline recalls being moved at age 12, “kicking and screaming,” from the village of St. Simons Island, Georgia, to Long Island, New York, clutching a guitar and a book of songs. Her musical journey continued from New York in 1969 to the West Coast in 1971, South America in 1973, the Pacific Northwest in 1975, and throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe from 1984 to the present. She calls it the “Perpetual Instructional Path Towards Gratitude” Tour.
“‘Singer/songwriter’ is an adequate description of Caroline Aiken, but it doesn’t tell you what you really need to know. It doesn’t even hint at the unseen work, thought, vision, organization, and management she puts into every performance. It doesn’t tell you that if she brings along a band, it’s going to be an enthusiastic but disciplined unit that’s committed to the total musical experience. And it doesn’t tell you that Caroline is an Artist with a capital A, whose seemingly effortless songs form a direct link from one soul to another. During the years I hosted It’s Friday!, it was my honor to present performances by Caroline at least ten times, and I never tired of basking in the glow of her work.”
— Robb Holmes, UGA Radio Show: It’s Friday!
Hank Woji, A self-described “Jersey Shore Ex-Pat turned West Texas Desert Rat,” Hank Woji cut his musical teeth as a bassist in the vibrant Asbury Park, NJ music scene of the 1980s & 90s. In March of 2001 Hank moved to Houston, TX and found his new musical voice as an Americana Singer Songwriter. But destiny turned a page and it was his chance move, in 2009, to the far West Texas desert town of Terlingua that has most reshaped his life and his music.
Critics have described Hank’s music as “acoustic-wielding, sharply observed, Americana all the way” and being “in the best tradition of the Texas troubadours like Guy Clarke, Townes Van Zandt and Butch Hancock” and that “His troubadour style also comes very close to the style of Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger, or as we heard on ‘Nebraska’ from Bruce Springsteen.”
Of his recently released 6th CD, Tony Award winning songwriter, Anaïs Mitchell says: “Highways, Gamblers, Devils and Dreams is a sprawling meditation on mythic American themes. Hank is a warm-hearted and precise troubadour of the old school.” The CD debuted in September 2023 at #5 on the Euro Americana chart and #3 on the U.S. FAI Folk Music chart, and his recording of “Terlingua Blues” was listed on Texas Monthly’s “Going To Big Bend Ultimate Playlist” in January of that year.
Over his 25+ year songwriter career, Hank has performed with such notable artists as: Jonathan Byrd, Spook Handy, Jaimee Harris, Joe Jenks, Bob Livingston, Grant Peeples, Sarah Lee Guthrie, David Amram, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Pete Seeger.
Hank tours nationally, performing regularly at festivals, coffeehouses, theaters, clubs and house concerts as a solo singer songwriter, in various duo and trio configurations, and with his full TexAmericana Jam Band – The Hank Woji Conspiracy.
Tickets for the show are available at the door. Door donations:
ACMA Members/$15
General Admission/$20
The Listening Room doors open at 6:30 pm and the concert begins at 7:00 pm