Martha Redbone presents her Roots Project in her Broad Stage debut on Saturday, April 9 at 7:30pm. A performance not to be missed, Billboard Magazine described Martha Redbone as "a true original; the kind of artist who sets trends, as opposed to following them."
With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as a Native and Black woman and mother in the new millennium, Martha Redbone gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures and celebrating the human spirit.
Redbone is a Native & African-American vocalist/songwriter/composer/educator. She is known for her unique gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African American father and the resilient spirit of her mother's Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music.
Tickets starting at $35 are available at
thebroadstage.org or by calling 310.434.3200, or visiting the box office at 1310 11th St. Santa Monica, CA 90401, beginning three hours prior to performance. The Jazz & Blues Sponsors are Richard and Lisa Kendall.
About Martha Redbone
Martha Redbone's album "The Garden of Love- Songs of William Blake", produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder/Grammy Winner John McEuen is an unexpected twist- "a brilliant collision of cultures" The New Yorker - features Redbone's magnificent voice, Blake's immortal words and a masterful cornucopia of roots music (blues, gospel, bluegrass, soul and traditional Southeastern Woodlands). Featured on All Things Considered the album released on her own imprint Blackfeet Productions rose to the Top Ten on Amazon Folk Charts for many weeks and has become the bedrock of her live shows bringing audiences to their feet with her fiery old time mountain gospel singing and foot-stomping energy.
Redbone and her long-term collaborator/husband, composer/pianist/producer Aaron Whitby are called "the little engine that could" by their "band of NYC's finest blues and jazz musicians" Larry Blumenthal-Wall Street Journal. From grassroots beginnings at powwows across Indian Country and in the underground clubs of NYC Redbone has built a passionate fan base with her mesmerizing presence and explosive live shows. Her debut "Home of the Brave" - garnered extremely positive critical attention while her sophomore album "Skintalk" described as the soulful sound of "Earth, Wind and Fire on the Rez" J Poet, Native Peoples Magazine took her music to Europe and the Far East. Albums "Skintalk" and "The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake" are recognized in the Library Collection and "Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture" exhibits in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.
Redbone is Composer for the Public Theater's 2019 production of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuff", a revival/reimagining of the 1976 classic choreopoem by the late Ntozake Shange. Redbone joined the all women-of-color Creative Team to celebrate the author's historical work and legacy, enjoyed a 4-week extended run through December and received rave reviews with notable mentions for Redbone's original compositions and score.
The Redbone and Whitby's newest work is Bone Hill - The Concert, an interdisciplinary musical theater work that brings to light an important piece of American history that has never been told. Inspired by the lives of Redbone's family in the hills of coalmining Appalachia. A multi-racial Cherokee/Shawnee and African American family, they are permanently bonded to their culture, identity and the mountain despite its violent past and the ever-changing laws of the land that attempt to extinguish them. Commissioned by Joe's Pub/NEA and Lincoln Center for the Arts Bone Hill- The Concert is touring extensively nationwide and is a recipient of the NEFA National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant and National Performance Network Creation Fund.
Other theatrical commissions include compositions for the Goethe Institute / New York Theater Workshop collaboration: "Plurality of Privacy"; "Primer for a Failed Superpower," directed by Rachel Chavkin; a Chinese-American musical collaboration "Flood in the Valley" which premiered in Beijing in 2018; New Musical work Black Mountain Women currently in development at the Public Theater.
Over the years Martha has performed and recorded with many great artists including; Bonnie Raitt, George Clinton, Judy Collins, Joan Osborne, Steven Van Zandt, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Nona Hendryx, Lisa Fischer, Steve Martin, David Amram, Tony Trischka, John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Carter Cash, Ben Sollee and Tom Chapin amongst many others.
Martha guest lectures on subjects ranging from Indigenous rights to the role of the arts in politics and Native American Identity at many institutions including New York University, the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to name a few. Redbone includes workshops and motivational talks with grade school children as part of her touring schedule on numerous reservations including Red Lake, MN, Cherokee, NC, Yuma AZ and Menominee, WI, among others. An exemplary ambassador for both Native and African-American Youth for the National HIV/Aids Partnership, she was awarded the Red Ribbon Award for Outstanding Leadership presented on World AIDS Day at the United Nations in 2005.
Currently Martha advocates for Why Hunger's Artists Against Hunger and Poverty program which raises and awareness of poverty and hunger in the United States and abroad. Redbone is an Advisory Board member of the ManUp Campaign, the global youth movement to eradicate violence against women and girls for whom she served as the indigenous affairs consultant and creative advisor. She is particularly proud of her accomplishment in having the Campaign's Board of Directors include an Indigenous North American contingent (independent of the USA) to the roll call of 50 countries taking part in their Youth Leadership Summit held at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Redbone is serves as an Advisory Board member of The Carlisle Indian School Project, a 2016 Fellow of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and is the 2018 MAPfund and 2018 Creative Capital awardee.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Martha Redbone
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