In his song, The Tinker's Coin, Jack Hardy sums up his art, They can lock me up as best they can,/ Yet songs can never know those chains./ The song is sacred as the wind,/ We are just the harp that's singing. Jack has written some of today's finest music: tradition-based Celtic ballads, romantic love songs, and witty country western songs. His songs are steeped in history, politics, mythology, and symbolism, all in a performance seasoned with humor and heart. Born in Indiana, raised in Colorado, schooled in Connecticut, Jack gained notoriety in 1968 when, as editor of the University of Hartford newspaper, he was arrested and convicted of libeling (then) President Nixon, in a case later thrown out on appeal. He landed in New York, where his weekly songwriting workshops at the Fast Folk Café, had a major affect on folk artists such as Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Richard Shindell, and John Gorka, and led to the his founding and editing of Fast Folk Musical Magazine. Last year Jack released his twelfth album of originals, Omens (Prime). Singer-songwriter, Bob Hillman, opens.