A unique gumbo of blues, jazz, and soul music: Online concert and artist talk.

The Martha Redbone Roots Project will perform songs that look beyond our immediate challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic and celebrate our resilience, giving hope in the face of the historical challenges faced by oppression with music as our elixir for healing.

In the years since the Martha Redbone Roots Project was formed with their folk-infused album The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake, the band has evolved to create an evermore inclusive and expansive take on American Roots music, pulling together the Southeastern musical traditions of Martha’s matriarchal lineage with the Appalachian mountain music of her childhood and the blues, jazz and soul music that grounds all modern American music. The songwriting team of Redbone and Whitby has looked to write a new body of protest music that speaks to our current times with a clear and profound vision of the land on which we stand.

Martha will be joined for this performance by long-time collaborator Aaron Whitby on piano, keys and beloved stalwarts, New York master musicians Charlie Burnham on violin, Marvin Sewell on guitar, Fred Cash on bass, and Rocky Bryant on drums.

The performance, recorded live at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will be followed by a live online talk with the artist.

Martha Redbone Roots Project

Biography:

Martha Redbone

Native & African-American vocalist/songwriter/composer/educator, Martha Redbone, is known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan Country, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African American father and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music. With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Native and Black woman and mother in the new millennium, Redbone gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures, and celebrating the human spirit.