Kathy Mattea
April 20 – 8:00 pm
Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts
Kathy Mattea made her name with a string of country hits stretching across the second half of the ‘80s and through the turn of the ‘90s, winning Grammies and CMA awards along the way. But her music always pushed against the confines of Nashville’s rigid boundaries and her voice is one that could sing a shopping list and make it heartfelt and soulful. In January, the West Virginia native recorded her next project, an album of coal mining songs, and she’s become a voice for social activism, including involvement with Al Gore’s “The Climate Project.” Her current band is a stripped-down, acoustic aggregation that emphasizes the rootsy, Americana side of her music.
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John Williams & John Etheridge
April 23 – 7:30 pm
Roper Performing Arts Center
John Williams is one of the best known classical guitarists, and not just because he has the same name as a famous film composer. This John Williams studied with Segovia, but he’s no starched collar purist. From the rock setting of his 1971 album, Changes, through his classical-jazz-rock fusion band, Sky, in the ‘80s, he’s been unafraid to challenge convention. He and British jazz-rock guitarist John Etheridge (longtime member of Soft Machine) joined forces a few years ago for The Magic Box, an exploration of the African guitar tradition. This get-together promises to cover a wide musical swath. It surely is not your father’s classical guitar repertoire!
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Christine Lavin
April 28 – 7:30 pm
Virginia Beach Central Library
With song titles like “If You Need Space, Go to Utah” and “Sensitive New Age Guys,” Christine Lavin stood out from the gaggle of singer-songwriters that appeared during the “new folk” movement of the 1980s. She now has seventeen albums of her own, a bunch of compilations she’s produced to showcase artists she admires, outings as the founder of Four Bitchin’ Babes, and a children’s book based on her song, “Amoeba Hop.” Her latest, One Meat Ball, is a collection of songs about food that includes a 96-page cookbooklet.
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Dianne Reeves
May 1 – 8:00 pm
Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts
A bout with the flu cancelled her original Christmas show in Peanut Town, but Dianne Reeves was able to schedule a makeup date smack dab in the middle of the busy spring season. A jazz vocalist par excellence, Reeves won her fourth Grammy and came to the attention of a wider audience with her on-camera performance in Good Night and Good Luck. Her precise phrasing, distinctive vocal timbre, and striking command of both melody and lyrics promise to make an evening in her presence special indeed.
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the subdudes
May 11 – 5:00 pm
Town Point Park
A great band at a great price—free! The subdudes return to the scene of many outdoor musical triumphs for the second TGIF party of the spring, bringing along their rich mix of blues, funk, gospel and R&B as filtered through their unique New Orleans-goes-to-Colorado lens. Propelled by ace tambouriner Steve Amadie, Tommy Malone and gang always serve up a rich and spicy musical gumbo.
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The Mammals
May 29 – 7:30 pm
Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts
Billing themselves as “subversive acoustic traditionalists,” The Mammals started out six years ago blending rowdy, deconstructive versions of old folk songs with their own sometimes-political (“The Bush Boys”) compositions. Their folk music pedigree is legit—banjoman Tao Rodriguez-Seeger is Pete Seeger’s grandson, fiddler Ruth Ungar is the daughter of Jay Ungar of “Ashokan Farewell” fame. The group’s third album, Departure, finds them moving further past the established boundaries of folk music, maturing as songwriters while selectively choosing covers that range from Nirvana to Porter Wagoner.
copyright © 2007 Jim Newsom. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
