The Attucks Theatre Discovery Music Series Announces Fifth Season Lineup
The Attucks Theatre Discovery Music Series
Announces Fifth Season Lineup:
Discovery Indie Series: Discovery Blues Series:
Tift Merritt Henry Butler
Bowerbirds Sharrie Williams
Ane Brun Joe Bonamassa
Billy Bragg Guy Davis
Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon Otis Taylor Band
& Red House Painters
Will perform in series of ten intimate concerts,
SEPTEMBER 19th-NOVEMBER 8th, 2008
Norfolk, VA: The City of Norfolk’s Seven Venues and the Virginia Arts Festival, in association with the Crispus Attucks Cultural Foundation, will present their fifth Attucks Theatre Discovery Music Series at the historic Attucks Theatre with a lineup of ten notable performers from September 19th through November 8th, 2008. The Discovery Indie Series will host five artists this year to include Tift Merritt, Bowerbirds, Ane Brun, Billy Bragg and Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon. The Discovery Blues Series will host five blues artists to include Henry Butler, Sharrie Williams, Joe Bonamassa, Guy Davis and the Otis Taylor Band.
Tift Merritt Sept 19, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Indie Merritt's soothing, soulful vocals never go off the diva deep-end with stylistic flourishes, but you can hear the somber yearning in her voice as she muses about living and loving in modern day America. After a Grammy nomination and Top Ten albums in The New Yorker and Time Magazine, Tift Merritt took hiatus with a piano in Paris and came home to Texas with her best and most personal songs to date. Merritt’s heartening songs magically balance the grit of youthful passion with the grace of coming of age. “I first heard Tift Merritt some years ago during a writer’s night at a small club. She stood out like a diamond in a coal patch, and everyone there knew she carried a promise of great things to come.”- Emmylou Harris
Henry Butler Sept 20, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Blues An eight-time W.C. Handy “Best Blues Instrumentalist - Piano” award nominee, Henry Butler knows no limitations. Although blinded by glaucoma since birth, Butler is also a world class photographer with his work displayed at exhibitions throughout the United States. Playing piano since the age of six, Butler is a master of musical diversity. A local legend in New Orleans, who rarely tours other parts of the country, it’s not an exaggeration to say that Henry Butler is a piano genius who has yet to be discovered by the masses. What makes him great is that he constantly pushes himself in new directions as a musician. “ He is the pride of New Orleans, a visionistical down-home cat and a hellified piano plunker to boot...He plays the piano like Art Tatum, but when he starts singing he sounds like Paul Robeson.” - Dr. John
Sharrie Williams Oct 4, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Blues
Sharrie Williams knows how to sing the Blues…. because she’s lived the Blues. Born and raised in the projects of Saginaw, Michigan, Sharrie grew up surrounded by music and singing her entire childhood, being raised in a musical family. Sharrie Williams puts the spirit and fervor back into blues music and is a 2008 Blues Music Award Nominee. Her dynamic voice and stage presence will have you rockin’ your shoulders all night long. “The way this woman works a room must be experienced in person. She isn’t just singing the Blues. She is the blues. It comes right out of her mouth and hits you in your soul!”- Randy Chandler / In Performance Magazine
Bowerbirds Oct 11, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Indie
Moore, Tacular and multi-instrumentalist Mark Paulson create truly organic folk songs, full of haunting melodies and honest lyrics without layers of production. This trio from Raleigh, NC shares a rural and simple way of life that is reflected in their music. The songs could be written underneath a moonlit sky, joyously sung around a campfire, and performed without the use of any electric amplification. This is pure, whimsical and perfectly unrefined melodic poetry. “We look forward to an intimate show replete with beautifully vulnerable, melancholic tunes embroidered with languid male and female vocals, deliberate violin and guitar parts, sparse percussion and the occasional accordion.”- Chicago Tribune
Joe Bonamassa Oct 18, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Blues
Hailing from Utica, NY, Bonamassa could play the blues before he could drive a car. By age eight, he opened for B.B. King, and at age 12, he was playing regularly around upstate New York. In 2007, Joe Bonamassa was named the Best Blues Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine’s readership in their annual Reader’s Choice Awards. The year continued with the release of Sloe Gin, Bonamassa’s seventh solo album and, as of March 2008, it had spent more than 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. Back to the Attucks, following a sold out performance last year, Bonamassa is not to be missed. “This kid deserves to be in the same class with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Hendrix and Jeff Beck!”– Ted Nugent
Ane Brun Oct 25, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Indie
Ane Brun is a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist originally from Norway. European audiences have been hypnotized by Bruns’ cinematic lyrics of lost love and deception since her 2003 debut. She has won two Norwegian Grammys and after much success in Europe, takes a trip to the States just for the Discovery Series. “This Norwegian girl with a guitar has a whiff of the coffeehouse about her, but it’s a good coffeehouse. Most compelling of all is her voice -a mix of Bjork’s unpredictability and Joni Mitchell’s directness.”- Time Magazine
Billy Bragg Oct 30, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Indie This Essex, UK native’s work is similar to the protest songs and sentiments of both Woodie Guthrie and Phil Ochs. Bragg sculpts poetic songs from a rare alloy of politics and lyricism. His performances have helped preserve folk music’s capacity for both social and political relevance. His music career has lasted more than 30 years, and he has collaborated with artists such as Johnny Marr, Leon Rosselson, members of R.E.M., Michelle Shocked, Less Than Jake, Kirsty MacColl, and Wilco. “Experiencing Billy Bragg in the intimate setting of the Attucks Theatre is sure to be one of the musical highlights of 2008.”– Jeff Maisey / The Virginian-Pilot
Guy Davis Nov 1, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Blues
Davis is a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer. But most importantly, Guy Davis is a bluesman. Davis’ creative roots run deep. Though raised in New York City, he grew up hearing accounts of life in the rural south from his parents — legendary actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Most recently Guy had the honor of appearing in the PBS special on Jazz and Blues artist, the late Howard Armstrong. And he was an honored guest at the Kennedy Center Awards, in which his folks received their medals, alongside other recipients like Warren Beatty, Elton John and composer John Williams from the President of the United States. “Taylor’s greatest tribute to his iconic parents is to be every kind of great artist wrapped in one.”- Jerome Langston / Portfolio Weekly
Mark Kozelek Nov 7, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Indie
San Francisco singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek, of the bands Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, goes solo. With unfeigned sincerity, his wistful, intense and textured vocals wash over pensive love songs and rise from the heavy repercussions of past heartbreaks. It is here, as a solo artist, that Kozelek emits his most intense and intimate performances. “Whoever booked Mark Kozelek is my new hero! Mark is, hands down, one of the most important musicians in my life.”- Joshua Wright / The Boot
Otis Taylor Band Nov 8, 2008 7:30p $20/$15 adults & students Indie
Retired from blues music from 1977 to ‘95, this former Colorado antiques dealer is back at it again! While Otis Taylor’s music discusses heavyweight issues like tyranny and injustice, his personal style is lighthearted. Cassie Taylor, his oldest daughter, has sung in the band and played bass since she was 12. In addition to traditional touring and recording, Taylor spearheads a Blues in the Schools program called "Writing the Blues." Conceived by his wife, he appears at elementary schools and universities around the country to offer advice, enlighten, and mentor students about the blues. “One of the best contemporary blues experimentalists; he has taken the banjo to places it’s never been before!”- Paul Shugrue / WHRO’s “Out of the Box”
Subscription packages are $140 for all ten shows and are on sale now. They can be purchased through September 1st by calling Ticket Master at (757) 671-8100; at the Scope Box Office, Monday through Friday, 10am – 5:30pm; or online at www.TicketMaster.com. The total Series Package Subscription includes huge savings off single ticket prices, exclusive access to the Discovery Series libation lounge where subscribers will enjoy complimentary wine, beer, soft drinks and snacks during intermission, reserved seating in the center front orchestra (single tickets are general admission for non-subscribers), discounts from downtown Norfolk restaurant, bar and retail supporters and a free Discovery Series t-shirt. Single tickets for the Discovery Music Series go on sale August 15th and are $20.00 for adults and $15 for students per show. For more information, visit www.SevenVenues.com.
ABOUT THE DISCOVERY SERIES:
In the fall of 2006, the City of Norfolk’s Seven Venues presented the inaugural season of the new Discovery Music Series at the historic Attucks Theatre with a lineup of four of the nation’s premiere indie singer/songwriters. The series included Rhett Miller, Amos Lee, The Avett Brothers and Dar Williams, who concluded the season. In the spring of 2007, the Discovery Series re-launched with five gifted artists including Josh Ritter, Mindy Smith, Greg Brown, Hem and Josh Rouse. With a growing subscription base, the Discovery Music Series continued into its third and fourth seasons in the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2008. By the fall of 2007 a blues element had been added to the series. This amounted to an exciting array of dynamic and deeply personal live music performances to include both indie artists and blues artists such as John Lee Hooker Jr, the Cowboy Junkies, and Eric Bibb. As Seven Venues embarks upon the fifth season of the Discovery Music Series, patrons will hear voices guaranteed to keep them coming back for more!
ABOUT THE ATTUCKS THEATRE
Located on historic Church Street, one of the most important and oldest thoroughfares in Norfolk, Virginia, the Attucks Theatre was originally known during it’s heyday as the “Apollo Theatre of the South.” Designed by African American architect Harvey Johnson, the theatre opened in 1919, and showcased a host of legendary performers such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Mamie Smith, Nat King Cole, and Redd Foxx.
The Attucks Theatre is named in honor of African-American Crispus Attucks, the first American patriot to lose his life in the 1770 Boston Massacre. For 34 years, the theatre remained a vibrant performing arts facility, but ceased functioning in 1953. In 1977 the United States Congress deemed The Attucks Theatre a National Historic Landmark and after a restoration period of three years, the theatre was reopened in 2004 by a partnership between the City of Norfolk’s Department of Cultural Facilities and the Crispus Attucks Cultural Center.
