GALAX– Martha Redbone Roots Project will perform as part of the “Deep Roots, Many Voices: Summer Outdoor Concert Series” at 7 p.m., Saturday, July 27, in the Blue Ridge Music Center’s outdoor amphitheater on the Blue Ridge Parkway just south of Galax. The group Zoe & Cloyd will open the show.
Redbone is known for her unique mix of roots music, which incorporates folk, blues, and gospel. Her sound is influenced by the folk and mountain blues traditions she experienced growing up in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky and the eclectic grit of her teenage years spent in pre-gentrified Brooklyn.
Inheriting a powerful voice from her gospel-singing father and a resilient spirit from her mother’s Southeastern Indigenous culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American roots music with songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Black and Native American woman navigating the 21st century.
Redbone works in partnership with her husband and longtime collaborator Aaron Whitby. He is a London-born pianist, composer, and producer. He cowrote and produced Redbone’s award-winning albums Home of the Brave, Skintalk, and The Garden of Love. The duo’s work gives voice to issues of social justice, connecting cultures, and celebrating the human spirit.
Zoe & Cloyd pair soaring harmonies and heartfelt songwriting to seamlessly combine bluegrass, klezmer, old-time, and folk music with sincerity and zeal. Their innovative “klezgrass” style springs from the rich traditions and complementary styles of fiddler and vocalist Natalya Zoe Weinstein and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist John Cloyd Miller.
Descending from a lineage of klezmer and jazz musicians, Weinstein trained classically in her home state of Massachusetts before moving south in 2004. Miller, a 12th generation North Carolinian and grandson of pioneering bluegrass fiddler Jim Shumate (Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys), is a first place winner of the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest.
Zoe & Cloyd released their fifth studio album, Songs of Our Grandfathers, in 2023. The project is an homage to their roots and has been enthusiastically received with feature articles in Bluegrass Unlimited, No Depression, and The Bluegrass Situation.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 12 and younger. Advance tickets are available at BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org. Tickets can be purchased on the evening of the show at the admission gates.
Parking opens at 5:15 p.m. and is free. The gates open at 5:45 p.m. The concert begins at 7 p.m.
The Bluffs Restaurant will offer homestyle food and beverages for purchase during the concert. Visitors may bring their own food and beverages into the amphitheater. Alcoholic beverages are not permitted.
The Music Center is accessible to people with disabilities and offers assistive listening devices for use during concerts. To use a free device during a concert, guests can email info@blueridgemusiccenter.org in advance of the show.
The presenting sponsors for the series are W.L.A. Trucking and Yadkin Arts Council.
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