The first thing you notice about Jim McGrath is the easy competence with which he delivers his songs. The rich baritone has been seasoned over the decades and like a very fine wine — or whiskey — it is only now coming into its full flavor. The next thing you notice is that Jim never takes his eyes off his audience. He’s constantly on the prowl, looking to make contact with you and bring you his direct vision of the subject of the song he’s singing. It might take a little longer to appreciate what a masterful guitar accompanist he is, but Jim McGrath is the whole package.

A saloon singer extraordinaire, evoking an almost forgotten era when the fellow playing and crooning in the corner of your local pub was the only (and best) entertainment you'd find.

In these more complicated and noise-infused times, Jim stands out amid the karaoke and the juke boxes and the 54-inch plasma screen TVs and flat-out enchants his audiences, whether longtime fans or brand-new acquaintances. Three songs into a Jim McGrath set and you feel you've known him for years, and you want to know him and his musical stories even better.

A New Haven, Conn. native, Jim discovered the ties that bind Newport, Rhode Island to folk music during a hitch in the Navy there in the late 1950s. It was the beginning years of the Newport Folk Festival and coffeehouses and bars were hiring folk singers. When Jim's Navy hitch was up, he enlisted at the Hunt Club in Newport as an $8-a-gig performer, and he's never looked back.