An Evening with David Berkeley

  • Uncommon Ground Lakeview

    3800 North Clark Street
    Chicago, Illinois 60613
Ticket Price $20.00-$30.00 This event is now over
Description

We are now requiring proof of vaccination with ID before entering our venue. Masks are always required when not eating or drinking. 

THIS IS AN INTIMATE, SEATED DINNER SHOW! WE OFFER FULL FOOD & DRINK SERVICE THROUGHOUT THE SHOW. CHECK OUT OUR DINNER MENU!

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Seating: 7:15pm / Show: 8:00pm / All Ages
GA Reserved Seating ~ $15 advance / $20 day of show
VIP Reserved Seating ~ $25 advance / $30 day of show

DAVID BERKELEY
Songwriter and author David Berkeley writes songs capable of both breaking and mending the heart. The San Francisco Chronicle calls him a “musical poet,” and the New York Times praises his “lustrous, melancholy voice with shades of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake.” Berkeley’s gift as a songwriter and storyteller is that he sees both the tragedy and comedy in life, managing to both reveal the sorrow and the blazing beauty at the heart of the human condition. It’s a duality that audiences experience at all of Berkeley’s shows as well, as he tells uproarious stories between cathartic songs.  He was a guest on This American Life and has won many songwriting awards and honors including ASCAPs Johnny Mercer Songwriting Award. Berkeley has released six studio albums, one live album, and authored two books. His 2017 release was a never-before tried concept: a novella comprising ten intertwining stories and an album of ten accompanying songs (one for each story). His 2018 EP was a profoundly relevant set of political love songs called The Faded Red and Blue. Berkeley is back with his most important work yet, his intimate and poignant Oh Quiet World, written during the lockdown after his family escaped Spain due to Corona.

In March of 2020, Berkeley and his family decided to leave Madrid, where they had been living for the year, as Corona numbers began to skyrocket. They packed in haste, leaving much of what they had acquired over the year behind, and managed to get on one of the final commercial flights out. David had planned to leave it behind, but on their way out the door, he grabbed the half-century-old secondhand Spanish guitar he had bought in the city. It was lucky he did, for it was on that guitar that he wrote all the songs for his latest release, Oh Quiet World. David and his family self-quarantined in a friend’s empty house near the Rhode Island coast. He set up a makeshift studio in the attic and began writing and recording songs. “I wrote a song a day that first week back,” Berkeley explains. “Songwriting gave me a way to process my fears and frustrations. It gave me a purpose, something small I could contribute.” The songs are his most stripped back, supported by his wife and children’s singing and the most barebone arrangements with touches of horns, accordion, and banjo. Despite the hard topic, Oh Quiet World manages to find hope through the hard times. The whole album plays like a prayer, beginning with the call to “wake up in the early light,” and ending with the word, “amen.”

In addition to his solo career, he is also one half of the wildly creative Trans-Atlantic costumed duo Son of Town Hall who’s debut LP earned wide praise. Berkeley’s music has also been remixed by many of the world’s top EDM DJs. He tours extensively all over the country and world and has opened/toured with Dido, Don McLean, Ben Folds, Billy Bragg, Ray Lamontagne, Nickel Creek and many more. He was a Kerrville New Folk winner, a New Song and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Finalist. He’s performed on Mountain Stage, The World Café, the Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, XM Loft Sessions, Acoustic Café, to name a few. Berkeley lives with his wife and two boys in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“Berkeley crafts his songs like watercolor paintings. Intimate and introspective, his gentle yet colorful melodies are graceful and resonate long after the last note fades.” – Creative Loafing, Atlanta

“If you're into literate soulful singer songwriters, David Berkeley is the Gabriel García Márquez of beautiful-voiced troubadours.” – KRUU 

WEBSITE  |  INSTAGRAM  |  SPOTIFY

Venue Details

Uncommon Ground Lakeview

3800 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60613 Uncommon Ground Lakeview
Uncommon Ground

We host intimate, seated dinner shows with full food and beverage service throughout the night. We suggest arriving 45 minutes before show time so you can place your dinner order with your server. Check out our full menus HERE and enjoy the show!

UNCOMMON GROUND HAS HAD A FOCUS ON MUSIC AND LIVE ART EVENTS SINCE IT FIRST OPENED AS A LITTLE COFFEE HOUSE IN 1991. OUR PERFORMANCE PROGRAM INCLUDES LIVE SHOWS EVERY WEEK! THE GOAL FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, WAS TO BE GROUND ZERO FOR EMERGING LOCAL & NATIONAL TOURING ARTISTS EACH NIGHT. OWNER MICHAEL CAMERON BOOKED ALL OF THE ENTERTAINMENT FROM 1991 UNTIL 2007 & STILL OVERSEES THE MUSIC PROGRAM WITH OUR PART TIME MUSIC DIRECTOR, MARIA SCHROEDER. 

WE HOST ONE OF THE BEST OPEN MICS IN THE COUNTRY EVERY SUNDAY, WHICH IS SPONSORED BY SHURE & GREENSTAR ORGANIC BREWERY. MANY OF OUR TALENTED NIGHTLY PERFORMERS HAVE GONE ON TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM. WITH UNCOMMON GROUND'S INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION, YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU MIGHT CATCH IN OUR INTIMATE ACOUSTIC LISTENING ROOMS.

ALL SALES ARE FINAL! WE ARE NOT ABLE TO PROCESS ANY REFUNDS OR EXCHANGES FOR EVENT TICKETS.


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