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Shareef Ali | Songwriter                       Become a fan on Facebook Add Shareef Ali as a friend on MySpace
NEWS AND UPCOMING SHOWS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 9:00 PM
at El Rio
3158 Mission Street, San Francisco
with Bright Blues

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ALBUM RELEASE WED. SEPT 1st at the HOTEL UTAH! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, Shareef Ali & The Radical Folksonomy will formally release their album The Once And Future Boyfriend. A release party will be held at the Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. The album will also be released digitally at shareefali.bandcamp.com. Details TBA.

Track Listing:
  1. Come Closer (PRE-RELEASE)
  2. Sweeter Things (PRE-RELEASE)
  3. The State Of The Garden
  4. Broken Record
  5. World's Oldest Profession
  6. Married To The Sea

The Story So Far

"Shareef and Dylan agree, sometimes when things get a little nutty you just gotta toss on the cowboy hat and sing some country songs...[His] songs draw their power from the raw emotional honesty in his lyrics and his singing - he lays it all out up there and it's a beautiful thing...if people still say 'keeping it real', that's what Shareef does."

- J.J. Schultz, host of the Hotel Utah open mic, San Francisco, CA

Shareef Ali is a songwriter, composer and performer living in Oakland, California, performing at venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with his outstanding backing band, The Radical Folksonomy. Poignant and revealing verse reminiscent of Leonard Cohen or Conor Oberst is set against sweet harmonies and counterpoint by singer Jay Thompson, the warm country twang of guitarist Guy Brown's Telecaster licks, elegant textures by jazz pianist/flautist Erika Oba. A delicate trust is forged between artist and audience, "a feeling that he's building fragile, intricate worlds inside a wind tunnel, fully aware that they may be caught in a gust at any moment," Britnelle Bell writes.

Shareef Ali's parents traveled from opposite corners of the globe to raise their two children in the American Midwest, landing in St. Louis, Missouri. Shareef began performing his original songs at sixteen before attending Oberlin College, where studied Music Composition with Randy Coleman, Lewis Nielson and Richard Hoffman. "Amor Combate", Shareef's setting of Pablo Neruda's "Oda y germinaciones", was featured at the 2004 Midwest Composers' Symposium held at the University of Michigan.

Shareef Ali moved to the Bay Area in 2007 and the next year recorded a five-song solo acoustic demo, Music From And Inspired By Our Doomed Love Affair. Since then, he has performed both solo and with The Radical Folksonomy at such venues as the Rockit Room, House Of Shields, Grant & Green, Socha Café and Bazaar Café in San Francisco and Mama Buzz Café and Nomad Café in Oakland; he has also been showcased as the Featured Act at the Hotel Utah open mic in San Francisco and Starry Plough open mic in Berkeley. Shareef Ali and The Radical Folksonomy will be recording an EP in Spring of 2010 followed by a mini-tour of the Pacific Northwest in July.

Recent show history

2010
2009

Contact Shareef Ali, Songwriter at shareef@shareefali.com.

Want to book a show?
Shareef Ali and the Radical Folksonomy are available to play at your venue, café, coffee shop, gallery or warehouse; we are also able to perform at events such as festivals, house parties or house concerts, as well as benefits and fundraisers. E-mail shareef@shareefali.com.

Like to hear about upcoming shows, new recordings and the like?
Join the email list (totally private):
Emails are only sent once every few weeks; every effort is made to be informative, clever, interesting or otherwise amusing. For up-to-the-minute coverage, follow Shareef Ali on Twitter, friend him on MySpace or become a fan on Facebook.

Want to hear more music?
Shareef Ali and the Radical Folksonomy will be releasing their debut EP The Once And Future Boyfriend on Wednesday, September 1st at the Hotel Utah. In the meantime, be sure to check out Shareef Ali's YouTube channel and TheUtah.org for performances of songs that haven't been done in the studio yet. If that's not enough, you can always email shareef@shareefali.com and ask for the combination to the vault.

Love what Shareef Ali does, and wish to support it?
While Shareef is adamant that everyone is welcome to enjoy his work regardless of ability to pay for it, donations are certainly accepted and deeply appreciated. Shareef Ali is a working musician and any support, no matter the amount, helps him to keep creating and sharing his work with the world.
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Creative Commons License

All content, including but not limited to songs, lyrics, music, audio, video, images and text, © 2008-2009 by Shareef Ali Elfiki, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.