For Immediate Release:Contact: David Kuehn, Executive DirectorCotuit Center for the ArtsPhone: (508) 428-0669Email: David@cotuitcenterforthearts.orgWebsite: ArtsOnTheCape.org

Americana Music Fest at Cotuit Center for the Arts, September 21

Cotuit Center for the Arts celebrates Americana music—and food—with an old-fashioned blues, brews, and BBQ “Hootenanny” on Saturday, September 21, from 5:30 to 10 PM. Tickets are $25.

The Tarbox Ramblers, the Bluegrass Gospel Project and Paul Rishell & Annie Raines, with their fiddles, banjos, harmonicas, and guitars, will transport attendees to the heart of bluegrass and gospel country, from the Mississippi Delta to the smoky blues rooms of Chicago. All three acts are veterans of the dynamic New England Americana music scene and regularly present their roots-inspired music to audiences in festivals and concert halls around the world.

The Cape Cod-based All Worn Out Jug Band will open the show, and Dave’s Cape Cod Smokehouse will offer sandwiches, ribs, sides, and smoked seafood, plus ice cream and coffee. Limited vegetarian options will also be available.

The Tarbox Ramblers is a Boston-based band that brings traditional Appalachian music, ancient blues, gospel and rock together in powerful, unexpected combinations. Their rough-hewn sound has been described as “a force of nature,” drawing rave reviews from Rolling Stone, All Things Considered, The New Yorker and many others.

String bassist Scott McEwen, drummer Robby Cosenza, and guitarist Michael Tarbox, the Ramblers interpret traditional music in inventive ways and write original songs, resulting in multidimensional performances that include backwater guitar, waves of percussion in call-and response drum-and-vocal songs, followed by timeless lightning-in-a-bottle laments.

Considered one of New England’s premier concert acts, the Bluegrass Gospel Project plays an eclectic mix of folk, pop, and bluegrass songs ranging from U2 to the Stanley Brothers, from Dylan to the Louvin Brothers, from Sam Cooke to Steve Earle, and from Bela Fleck to Brett Dennen. Though gospel music is no longer their primary focus, their playlist still includes a thread of spiritual sensibility and their songs that express common values held by people of all faiths and backgrounds; songs in which both serenity and optimism is found amidst the struggles visiting the human condition.

Paul Rishell & Annie Raines have been playing together since they met in a Boston bar in 1992. Rishell, a country blues guitarist, and Raines, an accomplished harmonica player, play a wide range of classic blues styles and their own originals throughout the United States and Europe.

The two have collaborated on a number of CDs. “Moving to the Country” (2000) have received the W.C. Handy Award for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year, and “Goin’ Home (2004) was nominated for two Handy awards. Their fifth project together, “A Night in Woodstock,” a live concert album, was released in 2008 as a CD and 2009 as a DVD.

Rishell’s music has been described as coming from “a place deep and resonant as Robert Johnson’s crossroads, where authenticity, soul, and a sense of purpose and commitment ring out in every note he sings and plays.”

Raines has been called the “queen of the blues harmonica,” and another reviewer wrote “She plays so good, it hurts.” Raines also sings and plays mandolin, piano, and other instruments.

The All Worn Out Jug Band is performs animated, eclectic sets that include Jug Band classics interwoven with American roots music from traditional folk to Cajun, country and gospel. They play washtub bass, dueling washboards, kazoos, whistles, as well as a jug, along with guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dobro, and an occasional concertina.

The band has been performing on Cape Cod for 12 years, at festivals and gigs from Falmouth to Provincetown. The current lineup includes Dr. Bud Brown, Jon Goward, Kevin Howard, Fred Jensen, John Kilroy, and Reverend Edmund Robinson.

Tickets for the America Music Fest may be purchased at artsonthecape.org or by calling 508-428-0669. Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit.

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What:

Americana Music Fest

Where:

Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit

When:

Saturday, September 21, 5:30 to 10 PM

Admission:

$25

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