2016 Juno Nomination “Traditional Album of the Year”
Pleasanton, Calif. Multiple award-winning Canadian banjoist, composer, producer, and self-proclaimed “instigator” Jayme Stone brings together some of North America’s most distinctive and creative roots musicians to revive, recycle and re-imagine traditional music. Jayme Stone’s LOMAX PROJECT is live in concert at Pleasanton’s intimate Firehouse Arts Center theater on Friday, April 15, at 8:00 p.m.
Focusing on songs collected by folklorist and field recording pioneer Alan Lomax, the repertoire includes an incredibly wide variety of traditional music: Bahamian sea shanties, African-American a cappella singing from the Georgia Sea Islands, ancient Appalachian ballads, fiddle tunes, prison songs, and more.
The Firehouse Arts Center concert is a rare opportunity to experience this incredible music live, and performed by award-winning musicians at the top of their game. In fact, the LOMAX PROJECT album, released last year, was just nominated (in February) for a 2016 Juno Award for “Traditional Album of the Year.”
The musicians: Jayme Stone (banjo, voice), Moira Smiley (voice, accordion), Sumaia Jackson (fiddle, voice), Joe Phillips (bass, voice).
Reserved seating tickets are $17 – $27. Tickets can be purchased online at www.firehousearts.org, by calling 925-931-4848, and in person at the Box Office, 4444 Railroad Avenue, Pleasanton. Box Office hours are Wednesday – Friday 12:00 noon-6:00pm and Saturdays 10:00am-4:00pm, and two hours prior to the performance. Free lot parking is available at all times.
Two-time Juno-winning banjoist and composer Jayme Stone is the consummate collaborator, unearthing musical artifacts and magnetizing extraordinary artists to help rekindle these understudied sounds.
The Lomax legacy: Alan Lomax was a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. He is perhaps most famous for his work in the penitentiaries and plantations of the Mississippi Delta where he returned many times between 1933-1985 to listen, record, document, and absorb. He repeated these explorational journeys to hundreds of other obscure places across the Caribbean, Europe, North Africa, and into other rural US locations. His films, recordings, and writings opened up the world in an intimate, passionate way. What Alan Lomax ultimately had in mind was “the renewal of the forgotten springs of human creativity,” says Anna Lomax Wood, noted anthropologist and Alan’s daughter.
Huffington Post says: “(Lomax Project) places new wonders alongside old favorites, for a listening experience that’s fresh and fun no matter how familiar you are with Lomax’s collection.” And the Edmonton Journal calls Stone “a musical evangelist… (who) loves using fresh approaches to get people hooked on wider musical traditions.”
The Firehouse Arts Center is dedicated to inspiring passion through the arts. The center is comprised of the 227-seat Firehouse Theater, the 2000 square foot Harrington Gallery, classrooms and rehearsal space, the grand atrium lobby, and the famous interior glass bridge. With world-class performing and visual arts, exciting interactive programs for all ages, and a state-of-the-art venue which opened in 2010, we combine the sophistication of the culturally rich Bay Area arts landscape with the hospitality and intimacy of our own home town. The Firehouse Arts Center is located at 4444 Railroad Avenue in downtown Pleasanton. Media: Jane Onojafe, jonojafe@cityofpleasantonca.gov, or 925-931-4855
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