The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
The Kate offers a week full of music
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center has a full roster of concerts, starting Saturday night with True Blues with Corey Harris and Cedric Watson, followed by Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe Feb. 11, The Monkees star Mickey Dolenz Feb. 12, and the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys Feb. 14.
For tickets and information, visit the box office at The Kate at 300 Main St., Old Saybrook, visit www.thekate.org or call 860-5100453.
True Blues
True Blues with Corey Harris and Cedric Watson perform Saturday at 8 p.m.
Featuring two of the most vivid voices in “modern-Delta” blues — guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and MacArthur fellow Corey Harris, who has carved out his own niche in blues, and four-time Grammynominated fiddler, singer, accordionist and songwriter Cedric Watson — team up for this special show. True Blues chronicles the extraordinary living culture of the blues in an evening of music and conversation. True Blues vividly brings to life this crucial wellspring of American music.
Corey Harris is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader who has carved out his own niche in blues. A powerful singer and accomplished guitarist, he has appeared at venues throughout the world and began his career as a New Orleans street singer. In his early twenties he lived in Cameroon, West Africa for a year, which had a profound effect on his later work.
One of the brightest young talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole and Zydeco music over the last decade, Cedric Watson is a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist and songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential. Originally from San Felipe, Texas, Cedric made his first appearance at the age of 19 at the Zydeco Jam at The Big Easy in Houston. Just two years later, he moved to south Louisiana, quickly immersing himself in French music and language. Over the next several years, Cedric performed French music in 17 countries and on 7 full-length albums with various groups, including the Pine Leaf Boys, Corey Ledet, Les Amis Creole with Ed Poullard and
J.B. Adams, and with his own group, Bijou Creole.
Karl Denson’s ‘Tiny Universe’
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe starts at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11. Denson, a singer and saxophonies, fronts the Tiny Universe as if he’s preaching the gospel. His energy and spirit are contagious while his songwriting serves a larger message of fellowship — across generations, genders, religions and cultures. Not surprisingly, he’s none too pleased with the current state of political discourse. Thus the reason why KDTU’s new album, ‘Gnomes & Badgers’ (Seven Spheres Records), is Denson’s hardgrooving answer to these tragically divisive times. Tiny Universe consists of Greyboy bassist Chris Stillwell and former Greyboy drummer Zak Najor, as well as David Veith and Kenneth Crouch on keyboards, Chris Littlefield on trumpet, Seth Freeman on guitar and lap steel, and DJ Williams on guitar. The concert will be taped in front of a live audience for the Connecticut Public television series, “The Kate.”
Micky Dolenz
Micky Dolenz performs Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. After selling more than 65 million records worldwide as the star of “The Monkees” television show, Dolenz has continued to make his mark in other areas of the entertainment business, through his varied career as an actor, director, writer, producer and performer.
He first established himself as a performer at age 10 when, under the stage name of “Mickey Braddock,” he starred in his own first television series, “Circus Boy,” which aired on NBC and then ABC from 1956 to 1958. As a teen, he guest-starred on a number of television shows. As he graduated high school and began attending college in the mid-‘60s, Dolenz also learned to play guitar. He soon began to perform with a number of rock ’n roll bands, including one called The Missing Links. In the fall of 1965,
Micky was one of 400 applicants who responded to a trade ad that announced auditions for a new television show about a rock band. He auditioned for “The Monkees” by playing and singing Chuck Berry’s legendary rocker “Johnny B. Goode,” and wound up chosen for the show along with three other actors: Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork.
In 2018 and 2019, Micky embarked on a tour with fellow Monkee, Michael Nesmith, across the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand. Micky continues to stand tall as a paragon of taste and accomplishment in the rough-and-tumble world of show business and entertainment.
The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 14. Formed in the Smoky Mountains, the band members are no strangers to hard work, and are as much at home riding in their 1965 GM Tour bus as they are crawling underneath to fix it when it needs maintenance. But they take pride in being ambassadors of their genre, and the group has brought their music from rural bluegrass festival stages to the rock clubs of Europe, with stunning results. Their debut Rounder Records album, “Toil, Tears & Trouble,” was nominated for Best Bluegrass Album at the 2020 GRAMMY Awards. The band previously was named International Bluegrass Music Association's 2018 Emerging Artist of the Year Award.