Jon and Li Waterman ~ 2025 April 2 ~ Falmouth Public Library, Falmouth, MA Jon Waterman, vocals, storytelling, guitar; Li Waterman, bass guitar. Review We have seen niche performer Jon Waterman once before, at an outdoor concert at the Bourne Library. He writes songs set in a historical context; in this case, the theme was "A Journey through the Roots of Popular Music." Each song received a brief introduction setting the song into a moment of history of the U.S. At first I thought the songs were covers of songs from the great American songbook, but it turns out they were originals with the occasional quote from a familiar popular song. It's a real skill to be able to write a song that sounds like a traditional song but has emerged from the talents of the modern day writer. The other time we saw Jon perform, he was by himself, but tonight he was accompanied by his talented and personable wife Li Waterman. She played a bass guitar that looked exactly like a regular acoustic guitar; I had never seen such a thing before. Her playing added a very enjoyable dimension to the sound. The duo are using the name Sultana as a stage name when they play together so be on the lookout for that name. It looks like they have a series of shows coming up at libraries with different themes. I think the Railroad in Song theme sounds interesting and I may try to get to that one next. The Falmouth Public Library has a series of concerts and public programs in a meeting room downstairs. Due to limited capacity they ask attendees to register ahead of time. A convenient fifteen minute drive, a parking space in front of the door, and a very entertaining and historically interesting hour of live music; who could ask for anything more?
Li and Jon Waterman
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of the concert