Join US on February 29th for an evening of live music headlined by the
musician, composer Kemp HARRIS, with opener Butter Cutters Kemp Harris
defies categorization. He is a singer and songwriter, a master weaver
of American musical styles. He’s an actor, activist, author, and
storyteller, and an award-winning educator who has taught young public
school students for more than 40 years.
“It’s all about communication,” Kemp says. “Everything I
do.”
Born in segregated Edenton, North Carolina, and transplanted to
Massachusetts, where he bounced between relatives’ homes, Kemp
learned to adapt to whatever world he found himself in - a talent that
has come to define him as a person and an artist. He began writing
songs at 14 and recording them in college, using a pair of old
cassette players to track parts, and has been delighting music lovers
ever since with his earthy, soulful creations.
Kemp’s most recent album, Edenton, featuring vocals from the
legendary Holmes Brothers, is a modern blues journey that fuses the
personal and the political, the sacred and the profane, to haunting
effect. Edenton’s title track, a bittersweet valentine to his
birthplace, explores a simpler time in a racially-divided town with
the clear-eyed grace that is a hallmark of Kemp’s work.
Whether he’s performing a rousing soul tune backed by a 14-piece
orchestra in a grand concert hall or a hushed meditation alone at his
piano, Kemp speaks truth the only way he knows how: by baring his
soul. Considering the state of the world, it is no wonder Kemp is back
on the road playing to the biggest audiences of his life - selling out
rooms from Northern New England to New York City and enjoying a wave
of new fans who have discovered this seasoned Renaissance man via word
of mouth.
Kemp’s powers of observation, his unique gift for shining a light on
the modern world and what it means to be alive, have only deepened
over a lifetime devoted to the most basic and profound of pursuits:
human connection. Whether he’s in the classroom, on a film set,
leading a workshop, or performing on the concert stage, “at the end
of the day,” Kemp says, “I’m an old black man telling stories
and spreading the love.”
The Butter Cutters
The Butter Cutters—born out of the Bird School of Music—is a
six-piece local San Francisco string band. Featuring Bird owner and
producer Lane Murchison on guitar and vocals, Peter Winarsky on
mandolin, Jesse Maynard on upright bass, and Dean Reina on guitar,
Hanne Tidnam and Margaret Blodgett on vocals, tenor guitar, and
ukulele, the band puts their own spin on both classic and modern songs
with their mellow folk vibes and vocal harmonies.
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01/03/2020 Last update