Neal Hagberg, It’s Not As Simple As It Seems
Neal Hagberg, award-winning singer/songwriter with the Neal & Leandra folk duo, will present a concert at Gustavus Adolphus College on Saturday, March 8, to release his new solo cd, It’s Not As Simple As It Seems. Hagberg’s performance is part of a week-long residency in which he will present a series of homilies at Morning Worship each day in Christ Chapel and conclude with the solo performance in Jussi Bjorling Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Neal & Leandra became household names in the folk music world with the release of their signature song, Old Love, in 1992. Old Love, a folk/ballad which speaks of life-long love and the wonders it holds, quickly became the most requested song on MPR’s Morning Show and launched Neal & Leandra’s career.
It’s Not As Simple As It Seems is not Old Love.
This new project is unlike anything the audience has ever heard in Neal’s music. As he refuses to reduce issues of social justice, human rights, cultural stereotyping and religion to sound bites, the fourteen songs on Neal’s cd put a human face on the suffering we experience and, subsequently, cause to each other in the world. The songs are meant to cause conversation and contemplation. In a very real sense, Hagberg expects this recording to be provocative. No topic is off-limits: war, homophobia, abortion, religious fundamentalism or even forgiveness and grace.
Neal Hagberg’s performance of the songs on his new cd, It’s Not As Simple As It Seems, begins at 7:30 in Jussi Bjorling Recital Hall on Saturday, March 8. With funding through the Office of the Chaplain and the Johnson Endowment for the Arts, this performance will be presented free and open to the public.