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The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Sunday, February 5, 2023
Doors open at 7pm | Show begins at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20 (purchase tickets here)
Jake Blount’s music is rooted in care and confrontation. He is a scholar of Black American music, speaking ardently about the African roots of the banjo and the subtle, yet profound ways African Americans have shaped and defined the amorphous categories of roots music and Americana. His 2020 album Spider Tales (named one of the year’s best albums by NPR and The New Yorker, earned a perfect 5-star review from The Guardian) highlighted the Black and Indigenous histories of popular American folk tunes, as well as revived songs unjustly forgotten in the whitewashing of the canon. Each song Blount plays is chosen for a reason – because it highlights important elements about the stories we tell ourselves of our shared history and our endlessly complicated present moment. The more we learn about where we’ve been, the better equipped we are to face the future – a future imagined by connecting Black tradition with the environmental crisis, centering the questions, “What would Black music sound like after climate change renders most of the world uninhabitable? What gods would this community praise, and what stories would they tell?” The answers come through the bedrock of Blount’s voice, channeling the ragged triumph of a people still standing after centuries of continuous confrontations with Death.
Minimum ticket price is $20 but you can name-your-own price above that if you’re feeling it. 100% of ticket revenue goes to our artists (you can see where any fees go in the check-out breakdown). Yep, all of it. Folk All Y’all is volunteer-run and subscriber-supported. Shows are presented in partnership with Crosstown Arts at The Green Room in Crosstown Concourse.
About The Green Room: Operated by Crosstown Arts, The Green Room is committed to providing the best possible environment for the two most important components of a musical performance: the artists’ work and the audience’s listening experience.
About Folk All Y’all: Intimate, attentive performances by exceptional singer-songwriters, proudly presented in Memphis, Folk All Y’all is a public, nonprofit listening room series supported by our pledges from our community.
