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January 13, 2010
Lensic Presents An Evening of the Blues with Eric Bibb & Ruthie Foster February 13, 7PM

Lensic Presents
An Evening of the Blues
with
Eric Bibb & Ruthie Foster

February 13 at 7 p.m. at The Lensic

Santa Fe – The Lensic Performing Arts Center is proud to present two blues and soul singer/songwriters at The Lensic on February 13: Eric Bibb and Ruthie Foster. With their new concert collaboration called “Thanks for the Joy,” Bibb and Foster stand at the forefront of a new generation of the blues.

In this show, Eric Bibb will perform solo and Ruthie Foster with her band. The tour title is drawn from a song that Eric wrote for Ruthie for her 2009 release, “The Truth According to Ruthie Foster,” which hit #1 on the Roots Blues chart. Ruthie also sang on Eric’s last studio album, “Get on Board.”

About Ruthie Foster

Ruthie released “The Truth According to Ruthie Foster” in February 2009. Recorded in Memphis, the album blends gospel, blues, folk and soul—all of the sounds Ruthie heard growing up in her home state of Texas. A soloist in her uncle’s choir at 14, Ruthie continued her musical education in college where she studied music and audio engineering while fronting a blues band that played in biker bars from San Antonio to Dallas. A stint in New York (with Columbia Records) and the U.S. Navy gave Ruthie both the opportunity to hone her songwriting and the desire to stay true to her artistic roots. [Please see attached Ruthie Foster bio and press release for more information.]

On “The Truth According to Ruthie Foster,” produced by Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama, Charlie Musselwhite), Ruthie is backed by blues and folk veterans: Robben Ford on guitar, keyboardist Jim Dickinson, organist Charles Hodges, bassist Larry Fulcher, drummer Rock Deadrick and trumpeter Wayne Jackson. Her special blend of these related music forms has drawn comparisons to Aretha Franklin, Tracy Chapman and Joan Armatrading.

About Eric Bibb

The story is as legendary as Robert Johnson at the crossroads, as old as the blues itself. A traveling musician has a chance encounter in the most unlikely of places with something mystical and powerful, and everything changes. Suddenly, everything is up for grabs, and the music – already rich and historically resonant – takes a whole new direction.

So it was for itinerant troubadour Eric Bibb one night in a London hotel after a gig just a few years ago, when he was approached by a fan carrying a guitar case. Inside the case was a relic from the past that made the hair on the back of Bibb’s neck stand on end: a 1930s vintage Resophonic National steel-body guitar that had belonged to Delta blues legend Booker White. In a moment that could only be described as intoxicating, Bibb found himself holding Booker’s guitar, and catching a brief but revealing glimpse of all the stories locked within it. The encounter inspired a song, and the song became an entire album – one that captures the spirit of the original Delta blues of the early 20th century and reinterprets it for a new era. “Booker’s Guitar” is set for release on January 26, 2010, on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group.

Born in rural Mississippi in 1909, Booker White, an older cousin to B.B. King, was a Delta blues singer and slide guitarist who made the bulk of his recordings between 1930 and 1940. He was imprisoned in Memphis in 1937 for allegedly shooting a man, but he jumped bail and made it all the way to Chicago before being captured and sent to Parchman Farm, a notorious Mississippi prison. He was released two years later, but after recording a few more songs, his music career faltered. He disappeared into obscurity for the next two decades, but was rediscovered during the folk-blues revival of the early ‘60s.

Bibb is a native New Yorker with deep roots in the American blues and folk tradition. The son of 1960s folk and musical theater singer and television personality Leon Bibb, Eric’s uncle was the jazz pianist and composer John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Paul Robeson was his godfather. As a boy, he was surrounded by major musical figures of the times. By age 19 he was playing in Parisian restaurants, and has been based primarily in Europe ever since. [Please see attached Eric Bibb press for more information on “Booker’s Guitar.]

Event Details:
The Lensic presents “An Evening of the Blues” with Eric Bibb and Ruthie Foster, February 13 at 7 p.m. at The Lensic Performing Arts Center.

Ticket info: $15-$30; students $10-$25; discounts apply for Lensic members

Press Information: Please contact Emily Crawford, Director of PR & Marketing, to arrange for interviews and photos at 505-988-7050 ext. 211.

About The Lensic Artistic Presentations
Since 2001, the nonprofit Lensic Performing Arts Center has had great success in presenting and producing artistic performances. The Lensic’s year-round programming is integral to fulfilling the organizational mission to present local, national and international artists in diversified, cross-cultural performances. Since its opening, The Lensic has increased its independent production and presentation schedule, which includes the Lensic Presents Series, a year-round effort to present diverse programming that showcases national talent.

Examples of Lensic Presents Series performances include: The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Peter Boal & Company, new work by The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Word for Word theater-company, Roadside Theatre/Zuni Project, Joe Goode Performance Group, Children of Uganda, the Golden Dragon Acrobats, the Kronos Quartet, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD simulcasts.