The McCrary Sisters, Lizz Wright and Mumu Fresh Join A TRIBUTE TO BOB DYLAN at The Town Hall

The McCrary Sisters, Lizz Wright and Mumu Fresh have been added to the lineup of A Tribute to Bob Dylan, in partnership with the Bob Dylan Center®, on September 30, 2022 at 8pm. Presented by The Town Hall (www.thetownhall.org) and T Bone Burnett and curated by multiple Grammy- and Oscar-winning producer, songwriter and artist Burnett, the show will feature performances by a diverse array of artists, each performing songs written by Dylan spanning the Nobel laureate's illustrious career. This concert event will commemorate Dylan's landmark 1963 debut at the Hall, and all proceeds will benefit The Town Hall.

In addition to The McCrary Sisters, Lizz Wright, and Mumu Fresh, the artists scheduled to perform at A Tribute to Bob Dylan include (in alphabetical order) Sara Bareilles, Bill Frisell, Margaret Glaspy, Joy Harjo, Joe Henry, Julian Lage, Punch Brothers, plus special guests.

Founded and built in 1921 by The League for Political Education, a suffragist organization, The Town Hall became world renowned for its civic events and for its history of debuts and inclusivity. While the 20s and 30s at the Hall were best known for classical music debuts like that of Isaac Stern, Marian Anderson and Pablo Casals, the 40s and 50s were known for both classical and jazz concerts, including the debuts of Billie Holiday, Glenn Gould, Leontyne Price and Nina Simone.

Bob Dylan's debut in 1963 marked an important milestone in both his career and the trajectory of the hall. Dylan's Town Hall debut moved the young Greenwich Village based singer-songwriter uptown and to the largest hall he had performed in at that time. For The Town Hall, it is a major milestone of the Hall's turn to protest music and the folk revival of the 60s and 70s. After Dylan came performances at The Town Hall by Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen and more.

The McCrary Sisters have a musical relationship with Bob Dylan that goes back to Regina's studio sessions for Dylan's first Christian album Slow Train Coming (1979).

"To be a part of this amazing tribute to Bob Dylan is a great honor," said Regina McCrary. "We had the pleasure of sharing the stage and studio with Bob Dylan for six years and to now come back and honor him is truly a gift. Being able to celebrate him and to have my sisters, The McCrary Sisters, with me makes it even greater."

T Bone Burnett's relationship with Bob Dylan stretches back to the 1970's when he was invited to be a guitarist on Dylan's legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour. T Bone's connection to The Town Hall goes back almost as far, including numerous performances on stage, and his production of concert events like the 2013 production of Another Day, Another Time, presented by the Coen Brothers in celebration of their film Inside Llewyn Davis. That show featured Elvis Costello, Joan Baez, Patti Smith, Rhiannon Giddens and many more, and this concert event will present a similar lineup of exciting artists

"Town Hall has been the location of many fateful moments, and I'm grateful for the invitation to celebrate one of those historic evenings on the 60th anniversary of Bob Dylan's first concert there," said T Bone Burnett. "He sang twenty four songs that night, all of which have been woven into the fabric of our culture. We are going to play a few of those songs, and we are also going to celebrate the sixty years of songs that have followed that night.

"As The Town Hall reflects on its role in New York City and the world, we are turning to the great artists and movements that have shaped who we've become," said The Town Hall's Artistic Director Melay Araya. "There's no one more befitting of celebration than Bob Dylan, whose lyrics have carried us through personal and social tragedies and transformation repeatedly over the last six decades. We can think of no one better to partner with than Dylan's close collaborator and friend of our hall: the legendary artist T Bone Burnett."

The Town Hall is proud to partner with the newly opened Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the show, an exhibition at the hall and the educational component to the celebration. September's tribute is the Bob Dylan Center's first public event out of state.

Steve Higgins, Managing Director of The American Song Archives in Tulsa, which oversees the Bob Dylan Center, said, "We are thrilled to be partnering with T Bone Burnett and The Town Hall to help present such an exciting and prestigious celebration of Bob Dylan's impact on our culture in the decades since he first performed on Town Hall's stage. T Bone has curated a great lineup of artists, and the event promises to be a wonderful evening of music."

The Town Hall's mission is to provide accessible world-class entertainment by new and established artists to a diverse audience; to inspire the youth in our community to appreciate and participate in the arts at The Town Hall and in schools through our Education Outreach Program; and to preserve and enhance The Town Hall as an historic landmark venue for the enjoyment and cultural enrichment for generations to come.

The Town Hall kicked off its centennial celebrations last summer at Bryant Park with a show led by Chris Thile that included artists Zakir Hussain, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Emily King and more. That program is currently airing on PBS All Arts and NJ PBS.

The Town Hall Sustaining Members will have exclusive access to complimentary tickets to the concert and other benefits according to their level. For information on how to become a Town Hall Sustaining Member, please visit http://thetownhall.org/centennial.

The Town Hall

Town Hall has played an integral part in the electrifying cultural fabric of New York City for more than 100 years. A group of Suffragists' fight for the 19th Amendment led them to build a meeting space to educate people on the important issues of the day. During its construction, the 19th Amendment was passed, and on January 12, 1921 The Town Hall opened its doors and took on a double meaning: as a symbol of the victory sought by its founders, and as a spark for a new, more optimistic climate. In 1921, German composer Richard Strauss performed a series of concerts that cemented the Hall's reputation as an ideal venue for musical performances. Since, Town Hall has been home to countless musical milestones: The US debuts of Strauss, and Isaac Stern; Marian Anderson's first New York recital; in 1945, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker introduced bebop to the world; Bob Dylan's first major concert in '63; and much, much more.

T Bone Burnett

With 50-years' experience in music and entertainment, T Bone Burnett has earned an unparalleled reputation as an innovative artist, songwriter, producer, performer, film and concert producer, record company owner and artists' advocate. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Burnett grew up in Fort Worth, Texas where he first began writing songs and making records as a teenager. In the mid-1970s, Burnett was traveling the country as a musician and record producer when he was asked by Bob Dylan to play guitar in his band on the now-legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour. That experience led Burnett to form the Alpha Band with David Mansfield and Steven Soles, making three acclaimed albums with the trio before releasing a string of critically acclaimed solo records in the 1980's. Toward the end of that decade, Burnett displayed his unique abilities to effectively meld music with film, producing the groundbreaking all-star music special, Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night.

Burnett has won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and 13 Grammy Awards. He's worked and collaborated with musicians spanning many genres, such as the aforementioned Bob Dylan, Elton John, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, B.B. King, Tony Bennett, k.d. lang, Elvis Costello, The Civil Wars, Taylor Swift, Ryan Bingham, Steve Earle and Leon Russell. Burnett's highly successful and acclaimed work in film throughout the past 30 years includes his collaboration with the Coen Brothers on The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Cold Mountain, The Hunger Games, Walk The Line, Inside Llewyn Davis and Crazy Heart, for which he also served as one of the film's producers. In 2014, Burnett staged the all-star concert event, Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating The Music Of Inside Llewyn Davis, at New York's Town Hall. The show was inspired by music from the Coen Brothers' film, set in the 1960's Greenwich Village folk music scene, and the event reunited the trio behind O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the highly successful concert events launched in conjunction with that film.

His extensive work in television includes serving as the Executive Music Producer and Composer for the HBO series True Detective, and the first season of the ABC television series, Nashville. In 2014, T Bone hand-picked a diverse group of artists to form a band and compose music for newly-unearthed Bob Dylan lyrics written at the time of the artist's historic Basement Tapes recordings. These sessions resulted in the Burnett -produced Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes album and the accompanying Lost Songs documentary on Showtime. Burnett was nominated for a 2017 Emmy Award for his work with Jack White and Robert Redford on American Epic: a multi-part, multimedia project that explores the history of music in America, as well as its global roots.

His work as a recording artist continues with an ambitious three-album series in collaboration with drummer Jay Bellerose and keyboardist Keefus Ciancia, The Invisible Light. The first volume, Acoustic Space, was released in 2019 and the second, Spells, will be released in August.

To post a comment, you must register and login.