"Gee's Bend Night" featuring Willie Kind and the Liberators with the Gee's Bend Singers (July 11)
$10 General Admission • $6 with Membership or student ID
Born on a cotton plantation in 1943, the son of poor sharecroppers, Willie was drawn to the blues at an early age. He made his first guitar out of bailing wire when he was seven and has been playing ever since. Cotton picker, moon shiner, juke joint owner, civil rights activist and social worker – Willie has done them all and now is one of the most popular blues musicians around. He plays big stages and festivals but always returns to his beloved Old Memphis, a small and mostly African-American community in the Black Belt Prairie region of Alabama northwest of Gee’s Bend. Willie King is one of the true innovators of the blues in the tradition of Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker. His music is powerful – an exciting, danceable mix of rural juke joint blues, soul and boogie, all in his own distinctive style. King's lyrics preache a message of peace, togetherness and social justice for all people around the world.
www.willie-king.com and www.myspace.com/williekingblues

The show will open with a powerful a cappella performance by the Gee’s Bend Singers.
It is impossible to know how far back in time quilt making and singing go in the community of Gee’s Bend, but what is certain is that both are integral parts of the community’s history and date back as far as anyone can remember. And the two are inseparable. One is not likely to find a woman or group of women piecing or quilting a quilt and it not be accompanied by song.
For that matter, one is very likely to hear songs in all aspects of daily life in Gee’s Bend. In local churches songs fill the air and men and women working outside sing back and forth to break the monotony of the work at hand. At funerals, baptisms, weddings, and all other occasions, music fills the air.
Until very recently, all music in the churches was a cappella. In recent years, especially as congregations and pastors get younger, churches have added pianos and other instruments to their services.
But the older style music still survives.
In 1941, Robert Sonkin went to Gee’s Bend to record the music in the community. That music featured church songs, field songs, songs performed by small groups of men and women throughout the community.
That music remained in the Library of Congress until 2002, when Tinwood Media released two volumes of music from Gee’s Bend. Those CDs, released as “How We Got Over: Sacred Songs of Gee’s Bend,” featured the music from 1941 and newly recorded music from 2002.
Since 2002, a number of women from Gee’s Bend have been traveling the country, promoting the communities quilts and teaching the world about Gee’s Bend and their way of life. One component of those trips that has remained constant is the presence of music. In addition to the quilt trips, singers from Gee’s Bend have performed at various venues throughout the country (and Canada), from places as diverse as the Kansas City Repertory Theater, the US State Department, and San Francisco’s Symphony Hall.