The City’s second free in-the-park concert is coming up on August 17. The performers will be Maria Muldaur along with the Campbell Brothers.
The collaboration is being called “Spirit and the Blues.” The Campbell Brothers are the leading practitioners of what is known as Sacred Steel, an African American gospel music, that combines powerful electric pedal steel guitars with vocals.
Originating in the African American Pentecostal tradition, specifically the House of God Keith Dominion Church, the music is a high-spirited and electrifying style of traditional gospel that has been performed in the churches for more than six decades.
The Campbells have given the music a new and powerful twist. Their interpretations, which bring electric blues and rock into the mix, are just now beginning to emerge from the church and onto the mainstream musical scene.
Featuring the growling, soaring, shouting and swinging sounds of their pedal steel guitars, they’ve amazed audiences at venues around the country from the Hollywood Bowl to Symphony Space, the Kennedy Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as on the Jay Leno Show and NPR.
In 2004, guitarist Chuck Campbell received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s highest honor in the field of Folk and Traditional Arts. For more information on the Campbell Brothers, you can check out www.campbellbrothers.com.
The Campbells, along with Maria Muldaur, will hold a free and open to the public conversation about their musical styles and influences at the Art Center. The talk will begin at 3 p.m. and everyone is invited to come.
The show will start at 7:30 p.m. and it will be a great opportunity to get together with family and friends for a great evening of music under the stars. You can bring your own picnic supper or try a variety of culinary treats available for purchase from the Slanted Porch.
The Art’s Council’s galleries and Art Bar will be open following the performance. There will be two new exhibitions on view at the Art Center. Las Vegas artist, Chris Bauder, will be showing “Don’t Tear My Playhouse Down in the E.L. Wiegand Gallery. Also on view, in the Classroom Gallery, will be “Chimera and Chicanery,” a new series of works by well-known Reno artist, Michael Sarich.
For information on the concert, you can call Churchill Arts at 775-423-1440.
Kirk Robertson covers the Churchill Arts Council scene.