Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native Live to Play the CCA This September

Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native will be the Capitol Center for the Arts' Spotlight Café (Concord, NH) on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 8PM. The show is part of a tour promoting the release of their newest release, Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native.

Tickets are $15 - $20 (plus any applicable fees for phone / Internet sales) and are now on sale at 225-1111 or ccanh.com.

Ten years ago, Kentucky native Sollee came to prominence singing Sam Cooke while playing the cello. The NPR sensation was not a backwoods novelty. In the decade following Sollee has recorded roughly an album a year (and nearly that many EPs), in a daunting variety of settings. He has played with trance bluesman Otis Taylor, with banjo virtuosos Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck (in the Sparrow Quartet, with Casey Driessen), and collaborated with Jim James of My Morning Jacket, with DJs, acoustic musicians, visual artists, software specialists and environmentalists. He has composed ballets and music for films and for stage. He has cycled 5,000 miles by bike, towing his cello "Kay" behind him as part of the "Ditch The Van" tours.

Sollee describes his newest release, Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native (the name describing both the ensemble and the album) as a bluegrass record, fully aware that his is not the traditional view. "Bluegrass music is immigrant music," he says, offering his expansive definition across the kitchen table. "It's the music of Irish and Scottish musicians bringing their fiddle tunes; it is gospel music; it is African music; it is gypsy jazz; it is rock 'n' roll. It is all these things. What makes it unique and of Kentucky is that it was distilled by the people who lived here in Kentucky, and turned into something else."

Sollee convened his new ensemble in a cabin deep within the Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, south of Louisville. "We cooked for each other and we drank bourbon with each other and we wrote this music together. So it's kind of in and of a place."

Tickets for the September 23 event may be ordered by calling the Capitol Center for the Arts at (603) 225-1111 or online at www.ccanh.com. Tickets may also obtained at the Center's box office at 44 South Main St., Concord, NH, which is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11AM to 6PM. Beginning after Labor Day, the box office will be open on Saturdays from 11AM - 2PM.

The award-winning Capitol Center for the Arts (www.ccanh.com) inspires, educates, and entertains audiences by providing a quality venue for the performing arts as well as a wide range of professional-level, artistically-significant presentations. The Center is conveniently located off Rt. 93 in downtown Concord, New Hampshire and is close to several quality restaurants, shopping boutiques, and other area attractions. The facility first opened in 1927 as the Capitol Theatre, a prime stop on the Vaudeville circuit; it later became Concord's premier movie house and concert hall. After closing in 1989, it underwent a multi-million dollar renovation / modernization and reopened in 1995 as the Capitol Center for the Arts. Today, the Capitol Center is home to the 1304-seat Chubb Theatre, the Spotlight Café, The Governor's Hall ballroom, and the Kimball House, a Victorian mansion.

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