Buddy Miller, Jimmy Hall and Ashley Cleveland with Kenny Greenburg are among the performers who will perform gospel blues songs at a concert that is part of a semester-long study of “God in Music City” at Vanderbilt University.
“Tryin’ to Get Home: An Evening of Sacred Blues” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, at Downtown Presbyterian Church at 154 5th Ave. N. in downtown Nashville. The concert is open to the public. Contributions will be accepted at the door to benefit MusiCares and the Gospel Music Trust Fund, which provide assistance to members of Nashville’s music community facing catastrophic circumstances.
Also set to perform at the “Tryin’ to Get Home: An Evening of Sacred Blues” concert are Dave Perkins, Kevin Max, Odessa Settles and Phil Madeira.
“I love this music for its cultural depth,” said Perkins, who is organizing the concert. “Also, it is viscerally linked to our spiritual desires – our needs for salvation, justice, sustenance and health.
“Each of the performers has drunk from that well and this show is an opportunity for us to come together and perform it.”
The concert is part of a semester-long study of “God in Music City” by the Music and Religion and the South study group of Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Religion and Culture. Events – most open to the public – include lectures, a bus tour of local churches and panel discussions. (For more information, go to http://www.godinmusiccity.org).
The concert is also part of “An Emancipation Conversation,” a series at Downtown Presbyterian Church that includes an art show and film series.
A double CD, God in Music City: The Sounds of Religion in Nashville, Tennessee, has been released by Lime Pulp Records to complement the series. For more information, go to http://web.mac.com/gregory.barz/Lime_Pulp_Records/Home.html.
Media Contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu