Fresh lyrics accompany Redbone’s timeless roots music

Redbone

 

PULLMAN, Wash. – With music acclaimed by the New Yorker magazine as “a brilliant collision of cultures,” the Martha Redbone Roots Project will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, in Washington State University’s Jones Theatre in Daggy Hall.

Reserved seating costs $20 for adults, $16 for seniors (60+) and $10 for students and youth.

Redbone’s music flows equally from her father’s North Carolina gospel legacy and from the Appalachian folk and Piedmont blues favored by the matriarchy that raised her on a rich journey from Clinch Mountain, Va., to Harlan County, Ky., and beyond to Brooklyn’s Dodge City-esque mean streets.

On her most recent album, “The Garden Of Love: Songs of William Blake,” Redbone takes the words of the great Romantic poet and sets them in the Appalachian Mountains, bringing her uniquely soulful voice to hollered melodies, lullabies, ancient chants and inspired hymns.

Though noted for purveying the wilder shores of rhythm and blues on her prior releases, “Home of the Brave” and “Skintalk,” in “Garden of Love” Redbone, who is of Cherokee, Choctaw, Shawnee and African-American descent, proudly retraces the path of her uniquely American mixed heritage back to its earliest sources.

The result, produced by Grammy Award–winning Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder John McEuen and David Hoffner, is a wondrous folk, country, gospel and blues reading in which the songs feel like timeless mountain classics with lyrics that are strikingly fresh and relevant.

Possessing a voice that guitarist Vernon Reid describes as “the very sound of the dreams of hills and rivers – homebound and restless,” Redbone is sure to please established fans of Americana and curious newcomers alike.

Redbone, a junior Funkadelic, indie soul pioneer, has sung alongside greats including Bonnie Rait, Pete Seeger, Rita Coolidge and George Clinton. She received the Best R&B Album of the Year award for “Skintalk,” in 2007 at the sixth annual Independent Music Awards.

Tickets may be purchased in advance at TicketsWest outlets; by phone at 800-325-7328; and at the Beasley Coliseum box office, open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday. Additional fees apply to online and phone purchases. Same-day tickets may be purchased at the Daggy Hall ticket office beginning two hours before the performance.

Patrons can save 20 percent by buying Martha Redbone Roots Project tickets as part of a WSU Performing Arts series subscription. The performance is included in the concert series, fall series and full series packages, which may also be purchased through TicketsWest. WSU Alumni Association member discounts are available.

WSU Performing Arts brings world-class performances to the Palouse, presenting live theater, music concerts and family entertainment in Daggy Hall’s Jones and Wadleigh theaters. The 2013-2014 season ranges from Irish traditional music and Hawaiian slack-key guitar to a steampunk-inspired musical and Shakespeare-inspired comedy.

For more information – including full details about each event, ticket prices and packages – and a Jones Theatre seating chart, visit the Performing Arts website.

 

Contact:

Gail Siegel, WSU Performing Arts, 509-335-8522, gsiegel@wsu.edu