All taking place at the Portland Center of Arts Place in Portland, Indiana, from “A Night on the Town” performance series, concert goers can call 260.726.4809 or go online to: www.artsland.org for more information as well as purchase tickets specially packaged at $55 for adults or $27.50 for students. The offer is valid through January 16, 2016.
Hear a guitar duo on Friday, February 5, 2016 with Loren and Mark. They first met in 2005 when they spent a few days working with Tommy Emmanuel at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch guitar camp. Mark was a college kid, just completing his degree in classical guitar at the University of North Carolina and Loren was already a seasoned performer, but it was his first serious look at acoustic guitar. They kept in touch and met up again in Nashville, 2010 at the Chet Atkins Guitar Festival where they really first started playing together; in fact wherever they could from in the hallways, in the kitchen, in the hotel rooms and beyond.
Within a couple of days, the director of the festival had had so many remarks about the duo not being included in the scheduled concerts; he added them to the final Chet Atkins tribute show on Saturday night. After a standing ovation and several invitations to perform at various festivals, they decided to make a full time go of their act.
Since the beginning of 2012, Loren and Mark have toured across the USA, Europe, Canada and New Zealand; thusly, is generating a rapidly growing fan base around the world as well as have received multi awards for their music.
On Friday, February 26, 2016, Red Priest is the only early music group in the world to have been compared in the press to the Rolling Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones and the Cirque du Soleil. This acoustic foursome has been described by music critics as ‘completely wild and deeply imaginative’, with a ‘red-hot wicked sense of humor’ and a ‘break-all-rules, rock-chamber concert approach to early music’.
The Mipso will be on the stage on Sunday, March 13, 2016. When Mipso’s 2013 debut, “Dark Holler Pop”, rose to #8 on Billboard’s Bluegrass charts, the success surprised a lot of people, including the four Mipso’s members. “We didn’t know so many people would buy it,” expressed mandolin player Jacob Sharp, “and we definitely didn’t know we were a bluegrass band.” However, the grass has gotten greener because they have performed over 300 shows and welcomed frequent collaborator Libby Rodenbough’s voice and fiddle to the fold.
Wrapping up the series, on Saturday, April 9, 2016, it will be a combination of Brazilian forro and American bluegrass. Matuto are part of a broader, loosely defined movement of hard-to-define acoustic innovators, musicians savoring their own heritage as they commune across genre and cultural bounds. Coming from different parts of the country, Ross and Curto first met in Brooklyn’s genre-defying music scene. After laying down tracks on each other’s albums, they headed to Recife together and became fast friends as they played music, listened to local ensembles, held workshops in favela community centers and won over local fans.
Friendship and co-creation honed the original Matuto idea. They turned what could have been little more than a side gig into a serious musical venture. “Our sound has really gelled,” said Curto, “and our style had become more codified, from a musical stand point, especially in the use of the accordion and fiddle.”
