Category: American Routes

New Breed Brass Band

“The way I see it, the future of the New Orleans brass band tradition is in their hands.”—Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews

New Breed Brass Band live and breathe the culture of New Orleans, infusing funk, rock, jazz, and hip-hop into a custom-made enhancement of second-line brass-band tradition. With a founding core of five New Orleans natives, the band made their street debut as a nine-man unit in 2013. Since then, they have showcased their originality opening for such diverse bands as the Fray, Red Baraat, Dr. John, the Waterboys, and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. New Breed Brass Band are certain to sweep the audience away with the spirit of NOLA!

Ranky Tanky

Loosely translated as “Get Funky!” or “Work It,” Ranky Tanky is a band of South Carolina natives who keep the Gullah musical tradition alive and fresh with a repertoire of playful game songs, heartbreaking spirituals, and delicate lullabies. “Gullah” is a West African word meaning “a people blessed by God,” and is a storied culture prevailing on the Sea Islands of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. In 1998, four musicians (Clay Ross, Kevin Hamilton, Charlton Singleton, and Quentin Baxter) came together to form a seminal Charleston jazz quartet. Now, united by their years apart and a deeper understanding of home, these accomplished artists are joined by one of the most sought-after voices in the Lowcountry, Quiana Parler, to celebrate a “Heartland of American Music” born in their backyards.

Release the Hounds: An Evening with Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge | Aoife O’Donovan

Experience a  night of intrepid songwriting and acoustic innovation, beginning with Aoife O’Donovan at center stage. O’Donovan draws from her catalogue of songs, played as she wrote them: with just her acoustic guitar and voice. The Washington Post describes her singing as “almost too gorgeous for its own good.” Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge follow with a masterly acoustic performance typical of the virtuosic duo, known for pushing the boundaries of folk, bluegrass, and jazz. Showcasing, as the New Yorker writes, a “familiarity with the fretboard . . . so extravagant and capacious that they bring flourishes to this music that it simply hasn’t enjoyed before,” the duo’s performance is sure to astound. The evening concludes with all three on stage together in an aural hootenanny.

New Orleans Swamp Donkeys

Featuring an all-star cast of fresh, brilliant musicians from around the country, the versatile New Orleans Swamp Donkeys perform jass, blues, vaudeville, original music, modern jazz adaptations, and many other New Orleans–derived styles. After selling out the Blue Note NYC in 2014, the Donkeys released two new albums: Swamp Donkeys (all pre-1930s covers) and Donkey Business (all original material). The group gained international Internet fame when their version of the Game of Thrones theme garnered over a million views. This melting pot of American musical cultures brings people together from all walks of life. Welcome to the most exciting, soulful, foot-tapping, New Orleans–style band to storm the planet in years.

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton may be one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists whom you have not heard of. . . yet. Only in his 20s, Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional blues, folk, country, and jazz into the here and now. He additionally mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. A world-class talent and a uniquely colorful character, he is “virtually the only music-maker of his generation—playing guitar, banjo, piano, and violin, among other instruments—to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and ‘30s” (Wall Street Journal).

The Jones Family Singers

The Jones Family Singers—consisting of five sisters, two brothers, and their father—have been tearing up churches and festivals for over two decades. Praised by Rolling Stone and NPR as “a must-see act” at South by Southwest in 2014, the band delivers high-energy performances that showcase the connection between gospel, rock, and soul.

“Modern practitioners of a long musical tradition . . . infusing their joyful, reverent songs with elements of vintage soul and R&B.”—Wall Street Journal