Tickets are now on sale for the Heritage Blues Quintet who will perform at the Art Center on Oct. 18.
They’ve been nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues album — “And Still I Rise” — which was also nominated for two Blues Music Best Awards — Album and Traditional Album. The lively group uses guitars, vocals, drums and harmonica to drive you down Highway 40 from Clarksdale to New Orleans, from chain gangs and juke joints to church pews.
They’ve been hailed as an inspiring testament to the enduring power, possibilities and boundless beauty of African-American Music.
The group will also conduct a free and open to public talk on blues musical styles and influences in the Center’s Art Bar at 3 p.m. on the day of the performance.
The group is headed up by Bill Sims, Jr. vocalist and multi-instrumentalist and includes his daughter, Chaney Sims, whose powerful vocals infuse a board spectrum of blues, roots music and selections from the American songbook with powerful emotions; Junior Mack whose stinging slide guitar work add a propulsive thrust to the group’s music; Kenny “Beedy-Eyes” Smith, Grammy winning drummer who is considered the top Chicago blues drummer on the scene today; and Vincent Bucher on harmonica who has played with some of the greats in the blues canon.
For more information on the group you can visit the band’s website, http://www.heritagebluesorchestra.com and here is a link to a video of their performance in Amsterdam: http://vimeo.com/67119957
Tickets are $17 for CAC members, $20 for non-members an can be purchased at Jeff’s Copy Express, ITT @ NAS Fallon or by calling the Churchill Arts Council at 775-423-1440.
Film series
“Road Chronicles I,” CAC’s fall film series continues tonight with a screening of the 1941 film “Sullivan’s Travels.”
It is the story of a successful director of escapist films who goes on the road disguised as a bum to make a socially conscious film about the poverty stricken and along the way hooks up with a down-on-her-luck aspiring actress. It was directed by Preston Sturgess and stars Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. Then film was named one of the top 10 films of the year by the National Board of Review.
Tickets are $7 for CAC members, $10 for non-members and may be purchased in Art bar beginning at 6 p.m. and the film will start at 7 p.m.
Kirk Robertson covers the arts. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.