Rev. Robert Jones, Photo by James Fraher

A diverse line-up of Detroit artists including blues and gospel legend Rev. Robert B. Jones will perform a benefit concert for YMCA summer camp. The concert will take place on Friday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Marlene Boll Theatre of the Boll Family YMCA, 1401 Broadway, Detroit. A donation of $10 supports the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign supporting YMCA camp experiences.

Rev. Jones, a longtime Detroit acoustic blues and gospel musician, will be joined by the YMCA Deep River Choir. Special guests include hip hop artist Stevie Soul, performance poet Marsha Carter, and dancers and musicians from Freedom House Detroit. The concert will include traditional and contemporary American music as well as music and dance from Africa.

Recognized nationally for his work as a blues and gospel artist, Rev. Jones has also been awarded “Blues Educator of the Year” by the Blues Foundation in 2007 for his “Blues in Schools” education program. Along with YMCA Vice President of Arts and Humanities Gillian Eaton, he helped to create the YMCA Deep River Choir in 2007. The community choir is comprised of 30 singers from the metropolitan area and is directed by Bobbi Thompson, a member of the Central United Methodist music staff and former back-up singer for Motown recording artists. Known for its roots-based repertoire of gospel, blues, folk and Motown, the choir has gained a reputation for its originality and cultural diversity.

Stevie Soul is a Detroit improvisational artist who mixes live percussion, scat singing, blues, and soul using voice and body. He also teaches music classes for Art in Schools, the Y-Arts school outreach program. Poet Marsha Carter is also an instructor for Art in Schools, as well as a popular performer at many of the city’s literary events. She was a member of the Detroit slam team that competed in the 2007 National Poetry Slam. Dancers and musicians from Freedom House, a Detroit residence that houses political refugees awaiting asylum status in the U.S., will perform several traditional pieces from the Congo and Rwanda.

Proceeds from the concert will support Y Media Works Summer Institute 2010, the five week-long summer camp component of a year round media production and service learning initiative from Y-Arts Detroit.

Tickets will be sold at the door. For additional information contact Y-Arts at 313-223-2751 or visit the website at www.y-artsdetroit.org.

First Place winner Julianne, Second Place winner Dennis G. Donoho, and Third Place winner Ralston will perform at the Trinity House Theatre. Come hear these wonderful songwriters and performers in the best small concert venue in the Detroit area. For more information and reservations, go to www.TrinityHouse.org or call the theater at (734) 474-6304.
Julianne will be accompanied by Kris Kurzawa.

Trinity House Theater
38840 W. Six Mile
Livonia, MI 48152-2605

Chris Canas just released a new cd – “She’s Breaking Me”. The Chris Canas Blues Revolution will be celebrating with a big party and performance this Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at 9:30pm. 

Memphis Smoke, 100 S. Main, (at 11 Mile Rd, Royal Oak, MI. 
Spring has sprung and the Blues is HOT!

Friday, March 26, 2010 at 9:30pm – 2:00am
At Stonehouse

Christopher Leigh

The Boogie Chillens get back together for one more full night of Roots, Blues, & Boogie With Boogie Chillens alumni Nina Silki/White on vocal, Chris Leigh on guitar & vocal, Darryl Lee on bass and Matt Stahl on drums. Back by popular demand at the Stonehouse for one last show. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see & hear one of Motown’s favorite performing artists .

Stonehouse
19803 Ralston
Detroit, MI

David Nefesh, Photo by Rio Scafone / Feral Fotography

Lamb’s Songwriters Showcase
Featuring:
Host-John D. Lamb
Dave Edwards (from the Look) (Detroit Music Award nominee)
Bob Monteleone (from Black Market)
Emily Rose (DMA nominee)
David Nefesh (DMA nominee)
John Natiw & Rochelle Clark (Potter’s Field)
Chris Degnore

Named after the popular country singer’s hit single “I Love This Bar,” Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill will feature live country music and dancing and the occasional surprise performance by Keith himself, along with cowboy hats, a mechanical bull, and drinks in mason jars from an 85-foot guitar-shaped bar. The home-cooked, southern-style fare includes the singer’s own favorites, such as pulled pork sandwiches, honky tonk meatloaf, freedom fries and his signature fried bologna sandwiches and southern-fried Twinkies, to name just a few.

Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill
Great Lakes Crossing 4698 Baldwin Road
Auburn Hills, MI

The Howling Diablos perform at The Michigan Gallery’s after party at Alvin’s.
Photo by CKreationz

Incorporating the grit of local industry with the hard edged toughness of the inner city area that it took its name from, the Cass Corridor Art Scene was not only a vital art movement in Detroit in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but also grew to obtain national recognition as a major art movement of the era. As “the corridor” quieted down in the mid 1970’s, the post Cass Corridor “Cass Corridor Art Scene” found a new home in an old clothing store that had been turned into an artist run exhibition space, Michigan Gallery.

Michigan Gallery became a cornerstone of the Detroit art scene throughout much of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s. From its conception in 1973 until its ultimate closing in 1998, Detroit’s most thought provoking and provocative exhibitions were typically at Michigan Gallery.

As Carl Kamulski, one of the founders of this space, and long time its Executive Director, nears retirement after close to 40 years of teaching, HFCC’s Sisson Gallery has put forth a stunning exhibition to pay tribute to both him and to the importance of Michigan Gallery within the Detroit art community.

The Motor City Revue 2010 opened Wednesday, January 27, 2010. There will be a closing reception, called “Michigan Gallery’s Farewell Blast” on Friday, March 5, 2010 from 6:00 – 8:00pm at the Sisson Gallery. This event is free and all are invited. Refreshments will be served and a there will be a musical performance by “Two Guitars: Ron Butzu and Marc Machaud.” Following the reception there will be an after party at Alvin’s. Alvin’s is located at 5756 Cass Ave. in Detroit. The after party will feature the music of The Howling Diablos along with a performance by Satori Circus. Tickets for the after party are $5 in advance and $10 at the door. Along with advance ticket purchase one gets a collectable “Motor City Review 2010” button. Advance tickets will be available at the Closing Reception.

The Sisson Gallery is located in the MacKenzie Fine Arts Building on the main campus of Henry Ford Community College, located at 5101 Evergreen in Dearborn, MI.  The gallery is will be open from 10am – 6pm on M,T,W and TH and 10am – 3pm on F throughout the exhibition.  The gallery may also be open by special appointment during “off” hours.  For further information, contact Steve Glazer at 313-845-6485, 313-845-6476 or 313-671-2048 (during non-business hours) or sglazer@hfcc.edu.

Artists in the “2010 Motor City Revue” include
1. Richard Brinn (Co-Founder) “Satchels and Bags” others
2. Cyndy Weeks “Bomb My Boat” “If You See Kay”
3. Roy Steyskal (Co-Founder) First Show
4. Jim Lutomski “UFO” “Electric Glass” others
5. Dan Graschuck “Boys of Summer” “Artist’s Interpret Fantasy”
6. Marianne Letasi “Out of Solitude”
7. Michelle Spivak Perron (Gallery Director) “Signs of Life”
8. Tom Rudd “Michigan Stone”
9. Art Cislo First Show
10. John Murphy “MPA Show” “Earthen III”
11. Jim Dozier “MUCK-FUCK” (Males/Females Understanding Carnal Knowledge)
12. Carl Kamulski (Co-Founder) “Motor City Review” “Electric Glass”
13. Sergio DiGiusti “Carbonara” “Innocent Visions” “Apocalypse” others
14. Lowell Boileau “Air” “Micropointillism”
15. Steven Goodfellow “Micropointilism”
16. Jim Nawara “Water”
17. Robert Bielat “Michigan Poured Metal”
18. Gilda Snowden Various Shows
19. Joe Zajac “Clay” early show
20. (Bradley Jones) Studio at MG “Michigan Figurative”
21. Mark Chatterley (Various)
22. Tom Phardel “Sharon Que and Tom Phardel”
23. John Egner “John Egner Picks Detroit”
24. Dave Roberts “The Abstract Realists”
25. Sharon Que “Accumulated Knowledge”“Sharon Que/Tom Phardel”
26. Robert Quentin Hyde (“Robert and Ronald Quentin Hyde” others)
27. Sandy Zenisek (“Full House”)
28. Jim Pallas (“Motorcity Review”)
29. Charles McGee (“Artists Against Apartheid”)
30. Rolf Wojciechowski Various Shows
31. Iva Turner (“Up with Downriver” and others)
32. Bill Sanders (“Michigan Friends of Photography”
33. Vito Valdez (Dia De los Muetros, others)
34. Jerome Ferretti (“Up with Downriver” and others)
35. Susan Aaron-Taylor (“Susan Aaron Taylor/Victoria Stoll”)
36. Hugh Timlin (“Starting Point Stone”
37. Meighen Powell Jackson (Various)
38. Russell Taylor (Performance “Satori Circus”)

Bernice Johnson Reagon (mother) and Toshi Reagon (daughter) come together to create a collaborative, live presentation of music and talk that celebrates the African American musical tradition and the role of art in the struggle for what is just and right. Independently these women have broken new ground charting the course of their lives as prolific, socially conscious recording artists.

Bernice Johnson Reagon began her work during the 1960s as a freedom singer, and continues to perform since retiring from “Sweet Honey In The Rock,” the internationally renowned a cappella ensemble she formed in 1973. A brilliant songwriter, Toshi Reagon is a powerful genre-bending musician, whether working solo or fronting her own dynamic band, “Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely.”

These artists will reflect on their lives in music and the civil rights movement, how the two worlds overlap and how they have used each to make better the other – and of course, to perform! This is a “don’t miss.”

$10 Members / $15 non-members, $10 each in groups of 10 or more. Tickets can be purchased online here: https://www.maah-detroit.org/reagon/index.php

Package deals are available with other great events such as Emergency (2/24), Sarah Jones (3/18) or Passing (3/28). For more information, please call (313) 494-5800.

Brought to you with the generous support of Bank of America, DTE Energy, and Masco Corporation.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48201-1443

http://www.CharlesHWrightMuseum.org

Christopher Leigh

Christopher Leigh & Detroit Roy host the Electrifying Jumbo Blues Jam as the brand new Leigh Roy Blues Band, come see new compositions performed written by Chris & Roy to be released on their first cd together this spring. Skeeto Valdez on drums, Darryl Lee on bass. Leigh Roy Blues show @ 9:00pm. Open mic @ 10:00pm.

The Token Lounge
28949 Joy Road
Westland, MI

Christopher Leigh

Christopher Leigh plays solo acoustic show then invites everyone to sing or play along with him all night long!

McCarthy’s Pub
1600 West Fort Street
Detroit, MI 48216-1915
(313) 496-0626

this weekend. The Antifreeze Blues festival Friday Jeremy Spencer Grand, McCarty , East, Garfield blues band, and John Latini Saturday Big Bill Morganfield(Muddys son), Larry McCray, Thornetta Davis and Laith Al Saadi.

Support the Detroit blues society

1/15/2010
The 16th Annual
Anti-Freeze Blues Festival
with JEREMY SPENCER
(from Fleetwood Mac)
and Grand/McCarty/East,
Garfield Blues Band &
John Latini
$25.00
Doors open 7pm

1/16/2010
The 16th Annual
Anti-Freeze Blues Festival
with BIG BILL MORGANFIELD
& LARRY McCRAY
and Thornetta Davis
& Laith Al Saadi
$25.00
Doors open 7pm

The Magic Bag
22920 Woodward Avenue
Ferndale, MI 48220

Event Hotline: (248) 544-303
www.themagicbag.com