It’s fair to say millions, possibly even billions, more people have heard Arnold McCuller than have heard of Arnold McCuller.
If you’ve heard the music of Phil Collins, or Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Beck — the list goes on and on — you’ve heard Mr. McCuller.
Not to start on too bossy a note, but do go out and catch all five plays and musical productions of the African American Theatre Festival being performed, mostly, at the Vineyard Playhouse and running this week through early September.
The festival began this past Wednesday with Root, a one-woman play written and performed by Vanessa German and directed by Heather Arnet. The play travels from 1980s Los Angeles to the Civil Rights marches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to drug-saturated Juarez, Mexico to a battered and drenched New Orleans.
For Joshua Nelson, sing unto the lord a new song is more than just a commandment. The Isaiah 42:10 verse is a challenge for him and all Jews to continue to bring something new to the table.
Kosher gospel music is just that.
The words together may seem strange at first, but then Mr. Nelson, the self-proclaimed prince of kosher gospel, explains how pairing soulful music with Hebrew prayers gives Judaism a new layer.
Paul Barrere is laughing. It’s 9:30 in the morning, after a show in the Poconos, and the saucy, funky guitar player is basking in the afterglow of another night being a catalyst in one of America’s longest running musical hybrids. While Little Feat has never had the commercial success of Southern California contemporaries Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt or the Eagles, they have remained a secret handshake among a musictocracy that truly knows the good stuff.
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum is hosting a Civil War concert featuring American troubadour Bill Schustik on Thursday, August 11, at 5:30 p.m. at the Federated Church, 45 South Summer street, Edgartown. The concert is being held in conjunction with the museum’s ongoing exhibit We Are Marching Along: Martha’s Vineyard and the Civil War.
Kid Natured
Mr. G. is coming. And who is Mr. G. you ask? He is the man your children want to see.
Performing songs like Sneaky Chihuahua, Lost Your Teach and Pizza for Breakfast, the man born Ben Gundersheimer is like a pied piper of sorts. He has won 10 ASCAP awards and toured internationally, appearing with Dan Zanes, Lunch Money and Secret Agent 23 Skiddoo. Don’t pretend you don’t know what those names mean and that you don’t sneak some listens even after the kids have gone to bed.