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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New
Orleans Bred Folk-Bluesman Bringing His Band to Long’s Park
for a Free Performance August 22, 2010.
LANCASTER, PA -- In one of a few select appearances this summer,
“America’s great blues poet” (Austin American-Statesman)
Chris Smither & The Motivators will be coming
to Long’s Park Sunday, August 22, 2010. “A product of
the musical melting pot” (Associated Press), the New Orleans
bred singer-songwriter captured a 2008 Player’s Choice acoustic
guitarist award from Acoustic Guitar Magazine, coming in
one down from Eric Clapton.
Chris Smither and his band’s free performance
in the 2010 Long’s Park Summer Music Series will begin at 7:30
pm.
Sponsoring roots legend Chris Smither & The Motivators
performance is Wickersham Construction & Engineering, Inc.
Wrote The New York Times, “With a weary, well-traveled
voice and a serenely intricate finger-picking style, [Chris] Smither
turns the blues into songs that accept hard-won lessons and try
to make peace with fate.” In 2006, his song, Origin of Species
from the critically acclaimed album, “Leave the Lights On,”
ranked No. 42 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Songs. In
2007, he took home a Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.
Chris Smither spent most of his childhood growing
up in New Orleans where his father taught at Tulane University.
While studying at the University of the Americas in Mexico City,
a college friend introduced him to Lightnin’ Hopkins
through their Blues in My Bottle record. Returning to New
Orleans and Tulane, he discovered the other cornerstone of his music,
Mississippi John Hurt, by way of his “Blues at Newport”
album.
Smither released his first album, “I’m a Stranger Too!”
in 1970. Eleven studio albums and a lifetime of hard living later,
“Time Stands Still,” came out last September. Across the
four decades he toured worldwide and performed in clubs and at live
concerts and festivals. He also found his songs performed by Bonnie
Raitt (I Feel the Same from her “Takin’ My
Time” album), Emmylou Harris (Slow Surprise from
the “Horse Whisperer” soundtrack) and Diana Krall
(Love Me Like a Man on her “The Girl in the Other Room”
CD).
The pop culture icon also become a favorite of author Linda Barnes
as she crafted her private eye character Carlotta Carlysle into
a diehard Chris Smither fan in her 11-book series.
Even Israeli novelist Moshe Benarroch opened Keys to Tetuan
with a line from Smither’s song, I Am The Ride.
For his Long’s Park performance Chris Smither
will be joined on stage by The Motivators: multi-instrumentalist
David “Goody” Goodrich and percussionist Zak
Trojano. The trio first came together in 2008 when Smither was
asked to perform with a band at the Blue Highways Festival in the
Netherlands. The normally-solo Smither invited Goodrich and Trojano
to make the trip. Prior to going to Utrecht, the three performed
a few, under-the-radar rehearsal shows around Boston under the name,
“Leroy Purcell and the Motivators. In 2009, they regrouped
to performed together on Smither’s latest “Time Stands
Still” album.
Goodrich, a Berklee School of Music graduate, studied with jazz
greats Joe Henderson and Pat Metheny and performed
with Chris Smither on Grammy-nominated compilation,
“Avalon Blues” tribute to Mississippi John Hurt.
He produced Smither’s acclaimed “Leave the Light On”
album and performed with the Boston Music Award winning rock band,
Groovasaurus.
Zak Trojano, a skilled percussionist, arranger and producer in his
own right, has rhythm in his blood, learning to drum from his father—who
learned from his own father. Studying harmonic theory, composition
and performance at Skidmore College, he ventured into guitar and
piano in college, where he composed a rock opera for his diploma.
The 48th annual Long’s Park Summer Music Series is produced
and underwritten by the Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation.
The 13 weeks of award-winning, live performances are presented free
of charge at Long’s Park, thanks to generous sponsors, private
donors and proceeds of the Labor Day weekend Long’s Park Art
& Craft Festival. Season sponsors are Pennsylvania College of
Art & Design and Susquehanna Bank. Season media sponsors are
WARM 103 and 96.1 WSOX. Weather sponsor is WGAL-TV News 8. Building
sponsor is Wickersham Construction and Engineering, Inc.
Partial funding has been provided through a grant from the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts (PCA), a state agency funded by an annual state
appropriation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal
agency. PCA supplies funding to nonprofit, tax-exempt corporations,
a unit of government or a school district with arts programming
or services in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Long’s Park concertgoers are invited to bring picnics, blankets
and lawn chairs to the park. A selection of food purveyors will
also be in the park, offering a complete meal’s worth of family
foods and desserts. Long’s Park is an alcohol-free park.
Long’s Park is conveniently located at 1441 Harrisburg Pike
in Lancaster, just off Route 30 across from Park City Center. All
events are free of charge and held rain or shine, except in the
case of dangerously inclement weather.
Additional information and links to musical previews of Long’s
Park’s performers can be found at www.longspark.org
or on Facebook. For details on corporate sponsorships of the Long’s
Park Summer Music Series and to learn how to make individual and
corporate contributions, contact the Long’s Park Amphitheater
Foundation at www.longspark.org.
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