Preview: John McCutcheon at the Eighth Step at Proctors GE Theatre; Friday, Nov. 14, 2025
Playing weddings may pay musicians well; everything else, not so good. Drunks invade the stage to sing along or holler for “Free Bird!” Two musicians I know stopped playing weddings by destroying their tuxedos, but I digress.
For John McCutcheon – playing the Eighth Step at Proctors GE Theatre Friday – playing a Nashville wedding won a priceless endorsement when the father of the bride praised him. Johnny Cash said of McCutcheon, “This is just the most impressive instrumentalist I’ve ever heard.” – amid a congregation that included Chet Atkins, Ricky Skaggs and other eminent musicians.
John McCutcheon. Photos provided
While heading to see him Friday at the Eighth Step at Proctors GE Theatre – which I recommend – there’s another McCutcheon distinction to remember. He actually scored a hit song, or at least a folk-level hit: “Christmas in the Trenches.”
Wedding or no wedding, everybody always expects musicians to play the hits. And McCutcheon will likely sing “Christmas in the Trenches” Friday because Its humanist message, the heart-warming tale of a WWI holiday truce between enemies, could hardly be more timely.
But that expectation might unfairly limit the actually unlimited McCutcheon.
He plays hammered dulcimer, banjo, guitar, autoharp, fiddle and more at “most impressive” levels; and he’s made 45 albums of songs while producing 20 albums for other artists.
Like Pete Seeger, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and many others who traveled the rural south to discover traditional music, the Wisconsin-born McCutcheon roamed for rifts and tunes. “While in his 20s,” Wikipedia reports, “he travelled to Appalachia and learned from some of the legendary greats of traditional folk music, including Roscoe Holcomb and Tommy Hunter.”
McCutcheon also excels at story-telling, both in his songs and in introducing them.
“John McCutcheon plays for us every two years, and it’s always a big occasion,” as Eighth Step Executive Artistic Director Margie Rosenkranz told me. “He’s been nominated for seven Grammys over his career (some are children’s music, some instructional), and is still writing some of the best songs of an exceptional career…We hope for a great audience, which always brings out the best in our performers.”
Show time for John McCutcheon at the Eighth Step at Proctors GE Theatre (432 State St., Schenectady) is 7:30 p.m. Tickets $32 advance, $35 on Friday; $55 front and center; this includes 6:30 p.m. onstage meet and greet with McCutcheon. http://www.eighthstep.org. 518-346-6204.
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