Tune in to our FB page for music from ACMA member Karen Cohen! Karen would have been opening for The Divebombers on July 11th on our ACMA stage…,sadly, that’s not going to happen BUT Karen will bring us some tunes that she would have played on our stage.
So mark your calendars to tune in to our ACMA public page for some great music.

Karen got her start playing the guitar with her sister, a few friends, and trying to sound out the chords from old records. She learned to fingerpick, at USDAN, a summer music camp on
Long Island NY. Then, too shy to sing and perform, she turned to the Visual Arts as a young adult.

In more recent years, Karen was able to gain confidence with the enthusiastic support of a wonderful community of musicians here in Southwest Florida.

During these “Guitar Revival” years, she was Affectionately penned “The Acoustic Queen”
at open mics and jam circles around the Punta Gorda, and Englewood areas.

She is a long time member of the Ghilcrest Guitar Army and has attended the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina over the past few years.

For more than a decade, Karen has worked on arrangements of Mississippi Delta Blues and Slide Guitar.

She began by emulating Rory Block, who is renowned for her authentic renditions of that genre. In Karen’s words…I had never heard a woman playing “old style” Blues before and it had a profound effect on me. I did not know women could play like that, so before I heard Rory Block, it never occurred to me to try. “

But Karen loves all kinds of music and, continues to expand her repertoire, now adding quite a few originals originals to her list.