"the sun" music hall & cultural arts center |
| Saturday, October 4, 2008 -- Afromotive 8pm Tickets - Tickets $12 Advance, $15 Day of Show Buy Tickets  “It's sounds like James Brown's band went to Africa.” Bringing funk music back to its African roots is precisely what the Afromotive is doing with their style of afrobeat music. Based in Asheville, NC, this large ensemble stays true to the elements that started afrobeat music- West African rhythms, song forms, and instrumentation- while bringing the music to the 21st Century through strong song writing, improvisation, and heavy beats. Thirty-third generation djembe player Adama Dembele from Cote d‘Ivoire, West Africa brings his vast musical knowledge and touring experience to the Afromotive. These traditional West African rhythms combined with a mentality for upbeat funk music is what the Afromotive brings to its audiences. They have created a sound that crosses musical and ethnic boundaries. On their debut album "Scare Tactics," The Afromotive takes the raw energy of their live performance into the studio. This album is an elaboration on the language of afrobeat music, yielding a truly unique sound that is rooted in tradition. |
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Saturday, October 11, 2008 |
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Friday, October 24, 2008 |
| Saturday, October 25, 2008 |
| Sunday, November 2, 2008 -- Railroad Earth 8:00pm Tickets - $20 Advance, $24 Day of Show - On Sale September 22! Buy Tickets  It's been said that “there's no place like home;” a sentiment that really rang true with Railroad Earth during the recording of their new album, Amen Corner. Compared to the sterility and stress of a commercial studio—where the cost-clock ticks and the pressure of performing under a budget looms large—recording at home is like heaven on earth… and Amen Corner captures that feeling from beginning to end. “This recording experience was a dream,” says Todd Sheaffer, singer, songwriter and the musical fulcrum of Railroad Earth. “It was the kind of thing I've been waiting to do my entire life.” Amen Corner (June 10, 2008 / SCI Fidelity Records), the band's fourth studio album, was written and recorded at Sheaffer's 300-year old farmhouse in the rural New Jersey countryside. In November 2007, the band moved their gear in and started doing what they do best: making music. “We thought, ‘Let's get in there and see what happens,'” says Railroad Earth bassist, Johnny Grubb. Amen Corner may be the early creative pinnacle of a gifted young band, and has all the makings of an Americana classic. It's a collection of crisp and crafted Americana and acoustic roots sides that resonate in all the right places. Each of the tunes breathe both on and between the notes. They hit you immediately, but then linger like a good buzz. |
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Saturday, November 8, 2008 |
| Sunday, November 9, 2008 -- Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad 7:30pm Tickets - $12 Advance, $15 Day of Show Buy Tickets  Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is relentless reggae sound. Roots reggae and experimental dub. North American International Body Music. From New York City to Jamaica; throughout North America - Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is bringing heavy vibration to well pleased rooms. Indoors and outdoors, night and day, GPGDS performs original music for all to find ground in. Giant Panda played 180 shows in 2007, including a three week stint in Jamaica. Their explosive live show and impeccable musicianship are a force to be reckoned with. Consistently rewarding weekly events and endless touring have earned GPGDS a strong following. GPGDS is receiving regular airplay on Sirius and XM Radio's reggae station “The Joint” as well as several college and indie stations all over the country. Giant Panda is honored to have performed in concert with reggae greats Toots & The Maytals, The Wailers, Lee Scratch Perry, King Yellowman, Culture, Morgan Heritage, The Meditations, Don Carlos, Mad Professor, and Edi Fitzroy. GPGDS has been joined on stage by members of Brazilian Girls, Thievery Corporation, Umphrey's McGee, John Brown's Body and String Cheese Incident. Giant Panda continues to put on concerts in their hometown of Rochester, NY featuring other modern American powerhouses such as Dub Trio, and Toubab Krewe. The band's first album Slow Down was recorded at Ithaca, NY's legendary Pyramid Sound Studios. Released in 2006 "The album's 12 cuts work on a nearly physiological level to calm you down and cheer you up" says Tim Karan of Rochester Insider. Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is a fully growing independent unit of friends, family, & truth seekers - committed to connecting great people with great music. Roots & dub for your meditation. |
| Saturday, November 15, 2008 -- Scott Miller 8pm Tickets - $12 Advance, $15 Day of Show - On Sale September 22nd Buy Tickets  The songs and albums of songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Scott Miller have always possessed a strong sense of place. Citation, Miller's third release with Sugar Hill Records, is no exception. It sports songs that emerge, breathing heavy, from the broken-in seats of the vehicle that gives the album its name (one interpretation of the title, anyway) and that roar down the highway, songs set stateside and on battlefields, songs that seem to spring from the pages of historical biographies. And, perhaps ironically or perhaps fittingly, he had to go two different places to create the album. First was the Fort Sanders area of Knoxville, just west of downtown, where Miller rented an apartment to write songs for the album. And then he traveled to Memphis to work with legendary producer, musician, and character Jim Dickinson. _In the '70s, the Fort Sanders area had an active arts and music scene, but 30 years and short memories have conspired to steal the vibrancy. "Old mansions knocked down, burned up, and replaced with giant apartment buildings. The streets filled not by hillbilly hippies, but by rich kids with healthy hair, perfect teeth, their parent's SUVs, and their arms permanently bent up to their ears holding cell phones," is Miller's description. "By going back there, maybe I was looking for some kind of lost inspiration." The songs that Miller wrote while staying in the room that he dubbed "the Maid's Quarters" suggest that he found what he was looking for, be it courtesy of the ghost of one of those hillbilly hippies or of Miller making the time to tap into his rich experiences and boundless curiosity. "Freedom's a Stranger," jokingly dubbed "Summer of '89" by Miller, moves from Springsteen tapes in steamed-up cars to mortgages as a way to express the passing of time while trying to ward off the dousing of dreams. For "The Only Road," he accepted a chorus offered to him by Maid's Quarter visitor and former V-roys mate Mic Harrison and built a memorable, tragic tale around it. The lively "Say Ho" is about Sam Houston, who, as history and Virginia buff Miller is quick to point out, "was a Virginian, an East Tennessean, and then a Texan. Don't forget it." With close to a record full of songs in his pocket it was time for Memphis, where Dickinson had chosen working with Miller over doing a Stephan Seagal blues record. (Sometimes you just have to let a statement like that speak for itself.) "I really went down there with an East Tennessee chip on my shoulder, ready to do battle and justify 'The State of Franklin,' which is what East Tennessee was for a short time," Miller says. For the most part, Miller hung close to the studio, and, as he did during his Fort Sanders stay, tried to draw inspiration from wherever he could get it. "I would stay in the studio and write, just sit there and drink beer," he recalls. "I'd hang out, and these guys would just come walking through. I met a ton of people." Among those passing by were Otis Redding's trumpet player, a gentleman who had survived the plane crash that took Redding's life, and Justin Timberlake. ("I swear to God, the guy emanates a light," Miller offers.) For added measure, Miller stayed in the same hotel that the Replacements stayed in when recording Pleased to Meet Me with Dickinson._The atmosphere clearly agreed with Miller as well as members of his kindred spirits, The Commonwealth. Bassist Jeremy Pennebaker, multi-instrumentalist Eric Fritsch, and drummer Shawn McWilliams constructed a wall of sound that could make one think that Beale Street had temporarily been replaced by E Street. The Commonwealthers roared through their parts during a whirlwind four-day stay, leaving rockers like "Only Everything," "8 Miles a Gallon," and "Jody" in their wake, not to mention a rowdy and timely cover of "Hawks & Doves," the title track of the 1980 album from Miller favorite Neil Young. "The only thing that Jim (Dickinson) said was 'It'd take me another two weeks to get y'all to slow down to a normal rate,'" laughs Miller. "You know, 'cos we're a live band, and we just came in and blistered through everything." That exchange with Dickinson highlights the rapport that was established. The pair shared an appreciation of obscure folk records and, says Miller, "he was very impressed that I knew who Jerry Kennedy was." Miller continues, "He was demanding and as tough as you'd think he'd be, but I found a good kindred spirit there. He was a folk musician too; that's what he did. And he wrote obnoxious songs. He brought in some tapes of his stuff when he was younger, the same thing I'd do at Hawkeye's. If you can't run half the people out of the room, then your show's not going to be worth it, you know?" Across the 11 songs on Citation--none, by the way, threats to run anybody out of the room--Miller is, as ever, hard to pin down. You can find him embracing pessimism and fate ("This is a train-ride start/You know where it's ending before you depart," from the lovely album-closing "Long Goodnight") and preaching optimism and hope ("If you're not going to make your dreams epic? Why bother to dream anything at all"). "Well, I am 'where' I am, I guess," he says. "And I try and write what I know." And, damn, if that's not the perfect place for Scott Miller. |
| Thursday, December 4, 2008 -- Richie Havens
7:30pm Tickets - $32 Advance and $35 Day of Show - On Sale September 22nd Buy Tickets  "This acoustic soul giant truly seems to be getting more inspiring and graceful with age." - Billboard Magazine RICHIE HAVENS is gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music. His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since his historic appearance at Woodstock in 1969. For four decades, Havens has used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom. |
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Saturday, December 13, 2008 |