Local musician Jason Webley will be presenting his May Day concert this upcoming May 1st on board the retired ferry Skansonia moored in Lake Union.

Jason is a gifted songwriter who somehow chose the accordian as his primary instrument, and uses his gifts to craft entertaining, poetic landscapes that express a kind of doom-laden Blakean mysticism. He’s a first rate ham as a performer as well, which means that his shows are never less than entertaining.

The last show he gave here (which, in an apparent tradition, was the Halloween show) was a full-scale theatrical production, involving set-peices, story-telling, zombies in costume, Jason leading the several hundred people in attendance at the show on a torchlight parade down University Way to the foot of Lake Union culminating in the ritual flaming destruction and rebirth of a giant puppet and two tower-like totems. After the torching of these objects, Jason departed in a small wooden boat, apparently accompanied by both Charon and la Belle Dame sans Merci, and has since been listed as “missing at sea” on his website. I wrote a detailed account of the show which may be read here.

Jason has two CD’s available for purchase via his website, both of which I heartily recommend. There are rumours floating that there will be another available at the May Day show as well. I look forward to seeing what wonders Jason has cooked up for us this time around.