George Pennington
at Sparkman Wharf
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George began performing around his home town of Tampa, Florida at age 11. It wasn’t long before George was summoned into a lifelong love affair with the mercurial dark magic that is the blues guitar. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix were two early influences who inspired George to delve deeper into both the classic rock and traditional blues lexicons. Soon, Pennington was forming his own bands and writing songs. Weekend rehearsals and jam sessions in garages with friends eventually turned into a formal study of music at the University of South Florida.
At USF, George developed his passion for classical music, education, and scholarship. During his junior and senior years, George worked with his professors in an educational band which used only iPads called, “Touch”. While in Touch, George presented at the College Music Society Conference in Santa Fe, at the Missouri Music Educators Association, and at the TedX USF event. George was nominated for the Truman Scholarship, the Rhodes Scholarship, and the Fulbright Scholarship for his work in progressive music education.
In addition to his performing career, George is also a dedicated teacher. George has directed a high school a cappella group, “The Beatitones”, has taught private guitar lessons, and has administered a rock and roll summer camp. George has been a featured clinician for the Florida Music Educators Crossover Festival in 2016 and 2017. George was selected to be one of 25 participants in the GRAMMY Museum’s “GRAMMY Music Revolution Project” in its inaugural class of 2013. From January to March 2017, George was the director of a twelve week concert series called, “George Pennington’s School of Music” where he organized public masterclasses, music history lectures, and presented public classes on topics like “Music Theory and Composition”, “Music of the Piano”, “Opera”, “Music of Guitar Heroes”, and more.
In 2019, George was awarded an Artists’ Grant by the Hillsborough County Arts Council.
George has done guitar demo videos for Michael Kelly Guitars, Cort Guitars, and Washburn Guitars.
George has had the opportunity to tour around the United States playing with various projects. George has performed at Suwannee Hulaween 2017, Soulshine Farm Music Festival, Orange Blossom Jamboree (as an artist and professional wrestler), Spirit of the Suwannee Southern Soul BBQ, Jam Spirit Fest, Cotee River Seafood and Blues Fest, Rockwood Music Hall in the East Village, WMNF’s April Fool’s Little Manatee River Jam, Peace Love and Blueberries Fest, WMNF’s Americana Fest, Myakka River Jam, Zen Awakening Fest, and Zen Fest.
George has performed a support set for the “Experience Hendrix” concert tour which featured guitarists Eric Johnson, Zakk Wylde, Eric Gales, Dweezil Zappa, Buddy Guy, among others. George has performed alongside GroundUP artist Roosevelt Collier and opened up for the Albert King Guitarist of the Year Winner and International Blues Challenge Winner, Selwyn Birchwood.
George released his debut EP, “Electric Boogaloo” on June 14th of 2019. Subsequently, George has released another single, “The Ghost is Me”.
