Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn

Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 7pm at Spruce Peak Arts

Don’t miss fifteen-time Grammy Award winner Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, this spring at Spruce Peak Arts! “King and Queen of the Banjo” Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn will be performing from their second album ECHO IN THE VALLEY. With one eye on using the banjo to showcase America’s rich heritage and the other pulling the noble instrument from its most familiar arena into new and unique realms, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn’s second album is simultaneously familiar and wildly innovative.

About Béla Freck and Abigail Washburn
“The king and queen of the banjo” (Paste Magazine), have a musical partnership like no other. Béla Fleck is a fifteen-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres, and Abigail Washburn a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player who re-radicalized it by combining it with Far East culture and sounds. The two met at a square dance, began collaborating musically and eventually fell in love. Over the years, they played together most visibly in the Sparrow Quartet alongside Ben Sollee and Casey Driessen and informally at a pickin’ party here, a benefit there, or occasionally popping up in each other’s solo shows. Fans of tradition-tweaking acoustic fare eagerly anticipated that Béla & Abigail would begin making music together as a duo.

Fleck has the virtuosic, jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an iconic instrumentalist and composer with bluegrass roots. His collaborations range from his ground-breaking standard-setting ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones to a staggeringly broad array of musical experiments. From writing concertos for full symphony orchestra, exploring the banjo’s African roots, to jazz duos with Chick Corea, many tout that Béla Fleck is the world’s premier banjo player. Washburn has the earthy sophistication of a postmodern, old-time singer-songwriter who has drawn critical acclaim for her solo albums. She has done fascinating work in folk musical diplomacy in China, presented an original theatrical production, and has contributed to singular side groups Uncle Earl and The Wu-Force. In addition to being named a TED Fellow in 2012, Abigail was recently named the first US-China Fellow at Vanderbilt University, in addition to Carolina Performing Arts/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s DisTil Fellow for 2018-2020.

On stage, Fleck & Washburn will perform pieces from their Grammy-winning self-titled debut as well as their new record, Echo in the Valley (Rounder 2017). With one eye on using the banjo to showcase America’s rich heritage and the other pulling the noble instrument from its most familiar arena into new and unique realms, Béla & Abigail meet in the mean, head-on, to present music that feels wildly innovative and familiar at the same time. Whether at home, on stage or on record, their deep bond, combined with the way their distinct musical personalities and banjo styles interact, makes theirs a picking partnership unlike any other on the planet.

Rhonda Vincent

Thursday, January 11, 2023 at 7pm at Spruce Peak Arts

Judy Collins- Holidays and Hits

Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 7pm at Spruce Peak Arts

Acclaimed folksinger, songwriter Judy Collins brings her Holidays and Hits to Spruce Peak Arts December 21st. In her 50-plus years in music Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting, personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism. In the 1960s, she evoked both the idealism and steely determination of a generation united against social and environmental injustices. Five decades later, her luminescent presence shines brightly as new generations bask in the glow of her iconic 55-album body of work, and heed inspiration from her spiritual discipline to thrive in the music industry for half a century.

The award-winning singer-songwriter has garnered several top-ten hits gold- and platinum-selling albums and is esteemed for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions. Her stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now from her landmark 1967 album, Wildflowers, has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Judy won Song of the Year at the 1975 Grammy Awards for her intimate version of Send in the Clowns, a ballad written by Stephen Sondheim for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music.

Her 55th release, Spellbound, finds Judy enjoying an artistic renaissance. Spellbound is an introspective and impressionistic album, and it marks the first time ever she wrote all the songs on one of her albums. The album revisits the thrilling 1960s Greenwich Village years; recreates breathtaking moments in the wilds of Colorado during Judy’s childhood; snapshots her hellraising years; and frames quiet moments of nature from just a few years back.

Joan Osborne

Friday, December 15, 2023 at 7pm at Spruce Peak Arts

Don’t miss Joan Osborne, this December at Spruce Peak Arts. Osborne is an 8-time Grammy nominee and multi-platinum selling recording artist. Her 1995 album Relish was a critical and commercial success and spawned the international hit single and video “What If God Was One Of Us“. She directed the video for Relish’s second single St. Teresa and created the artwork for the album’s physical package. She has traveled the U.S. and the world for over twenty-five years performing in clubs, theaters, arenas and stadiums, with her own band and as a featured vocalist.

Her extensive career highlights include founding her own independent label, Womanly Hips Records, in 1991; Duets with Luciano Pavarotti, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris, Isaac Hayes and many others; Touring with the post-Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead and with Motown’s Funk Brothers; a Co-headliner for Lilith Fair tour; Performing for The Dalai Lama at his monastery in Dharmsala, India; Featured artist at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, and much more. Her new album “Nobody Owns You” is set to be released September 8, 2023. 

Shemekia Copeland

Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 7pm at Spruce Peak Arts

Award-winning blues, soul and Americana singer Shemekia Copeland possesses one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time. She is beloved worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty and humor of her revelatory music. Winner of the 2021 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, 8 Blues Music Awards, a host of Living Blues Awards, and 4 Grammy nominations, Shemekia connects with her audience on an intensely personal level, taking them with her on what The Wall Street Journal calls “a consequential ride” of “bold and timely blues.” The Houston Chronicle describes her songs as “resilient pleas for a kinder tomorrow.”

Born and raised in Harlem, New York in 1979, she first stepped on stage with her famous father at New York’s Cotton Club when she was eight. As soon as Copeland released her Alligator Records debut Turn The Heat Up in 1998 at age 18, she instantly became a blues and R&B force to be reckoned with. The New York Times and CNN, among many others, praised her talent, larger-than-life personality, dynamic, authoritative voice and true star power.

Jake Shimabukuro

Friday, October 6, 2023 at Spruce Peaks PAC

“The Jimi Hendrix of the ‘ukulele”, You haven’t heard the ukulele until you hear Jake Shimabukuro play it. Over the past two decades, Jake has proved that there isn’t a style of music that he can’t play.  What’s remarkable about his transcendent skills is how he explores his seemingly limitless vocabulary – whether it’s jazz, rock, blues, bluegrass, folk or even classical – on perhaps the unlikeliest of instruments: the ‘ukulele. Jake has taken the ‘ukulele to points previously thought impossible, and in the process reinvented the applications for this tiny, heretofore underappreciated four-string instrument.

His incredible journey has taken him from local phenom to YouTube sensation, from playing tiny clubs to headlining the world’s most prestigious concert venues like the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House. He’s performed with iconic artists including Willie Nelson, Bette Midler and Jimmy Buffet, to name a few, and has released a string of award-winning, chart-topping albums. Jackson Waldhoff joins him on both the “Jake & Friends” project released in 2021, and on tour! 

Anders Osborne Duo

Saturday, September 2, 2023 at 7pm at Spruce Peaks Arts

Anders Osborne’s six-string virtuosity, inventive musicality, and poetic songcraft underpin an ever-expanding three-decade catalog. Joined by musician Jonathan Sloane, Osborne’s sought-after songwriting resounds through Keb Mo’s GRAMMY® Award-winning Slow Down, Tim McGraw’s number one “Watch The Wind Blow By,” and covers by Brad Paisley, Jonny Lang, Edwin McCain, Aaron Neville, and more. His live and in studio work spans with everyone from Eric Church, Toots and the Maytals, and John Scofield to The Meters, North Mississippi Allstars, and Galactic. His extensive touring history and vast body of work has garnered acclaim from USA Today, Guitar Player, Relix, Offbeat, and more.