SHERIDAN OPERA HOUSE: TREVOR HALL, 6/27

22 Jun SHERIDAN OPERA HOUSE: TREVOR HALL, 6/27

The Sheridan Arts Foundation is proud to welcome California-based singer/songwriter Trevor Hall to to the historic Sheridan Opera House with his original blend of pop, reggae. The concert takes place,Wednesday, June 27, 8 p.m. (Doors, 7:30 p.m.)

Trevor Hall is touring the country this summer in support of his most recent release Everything, Everytime, Everywhere. He plays Telluride shortly after a gig  in Salt Lake with reggae legend Jimmy Cliff. Hall’s captivating live performances and growing popularity have led to sold out shows across the country.

If Hall’s 2009 self-titled Vanguard Records debut represented the young musician’s struggle with finding himself, his follow-up, Everything, Everytime, Everywhere, released in 2011, affirms he has grown into the man he had been seeking.

The warm linearity of Hall’s prior work gives way to a mature artist hitting his stride, from the easy reggae slide of the opening “The Return” and the anthemic “Brand New Day” straight through to the momentous closing track, “The Mountain.” Hall’s signature blend of catchy pop/rock songs infused with tasteful shades of reggae makes this diverse 25-year-old one of the most lauded up-and-coming musicians on the American music scene.

“With the last album, I was exploring more,” Hall says from his southern California home. “I was going through a struggle with myself, and all that grittiness came out. With this one I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had much greater conviction.”

On the album Trevor Hall, the singer wove Sanskrit chants into pop- and rock-laced tracks. Today he still cherishes the ideas of devotion and community, but such themes are less front and center. Hall is no longer inclined to sacrifice his music for a message. Rather, his music is the message.

Like two of his heroes, Ben Harper and Bob Marley, Trevor Hall has the ability to write universal songs that appeal to broad audiences. The strong focus on love in Everything, Everytime, Everywhere quickly burrows itself into our minds – even though the love he embraces is more celestial than earthly. Hall continually employs poetic metaphors to represent “internal heights,” the ability of each human to recognize his highest self, as on the epic track, “The Love Wouldn’t Die.”

“That song is my favorite on this record,” Hall says. “Musically it’s very different than what I usually do. It’s the second-to-last song, right before ‘The Mountain,’ which is this very triumphant journey of ascending a peak. With everything I do, that home stretch is the most difficult. The song is about living a spiritual life in a material world, of being a stranger in a strange land. At some point you get scared of being so different, and you want to conform and be like everybody else. But once you have a higher taste of spiritual life, everything else seems mundane. No matter how hard you try to fall asleep to this spiritual part of you, you can’t. That love won’t die.

Wise and accomplished beyond his years, Trevor Hall has done what great musicians do with their gifts: he created lasting art to inspire and comfort others. Everything, Everytime, Everywhere is the testament of someone trying to lift himself and those around him out of the doldrums that plague our everyday lives and today’s world. There are songs to fall asleep to, songs to wake up by, and songs to feel good about yourself. The songs encapsulate life and make anyone who hears them a part of Trevor Hall’s world. His music becomes part of your music.

Tickets for the evening are $25 (plus a nominal ticketing fee). Show time is 8 p.m.  Justin Young opens the evening. The concert is general admission,.  Seats are out. All ages are welcome.