BLUES AND TROUBLE: AMERICAN STORIES ON RECORD

The Margaret Stewart Lindsay Masterclass Series is proud to present

BLUES AND TROUBLE: AMERICAN STORIES ON RECORD

Sunday, February 9, at 2:00 pm

at First Parish in Wayland
225 Boston Post Road, Wayland MA

Featuring world-renowned blues masters Paul Rishell and Annie Raines

Welcome to the first in a series of masterclasses offered by Arts Wayland, thanks to a generous grant from the Margaret Stewart Lindsay Foundation, in co-sponsorship with First Parish in Wayland.

This event will blend fascinating storytelling with a thrilling performance to create a powerful, immersive learning experience. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time with and learn from true masters of their craft!

Here is a taste of what you can expect:

“Voice of Dead Man Heard By Eunice People,” read the headline in the Eunice (Louisiana) News on December 7, 1928, when friends of local accordionist Meus Lafleur gathered to listen to the new release from his first, and tragically his last, recording session only a few weeks earlier, for Columbia Records.

In the late 1920s, record companies in search of new markets tapped into deep veins of traditional rural music, including blues, Appalachian folk, bluegrass, “hokum,” Cajun music, and street-corner gospel. Songsters, troubadours, and the descendants of West African griots had traditionally been the messengers of their communities. The new technology preserved old songs and broadcast news of fires, floods, epidemics, crimes, and other current events in near-real time. Paul Rishell and Annie Raines will play a curated selection of recordings from that era and talk about how musicians’ stories of life and death both documented and defined American culture.

A live concert will follow with Paul and Annie performing vintage and original songs in the country blues tradition, including a few tales from their own musical journeys from the 1960s to the present time.

W.C. Handy Award-winners Paul Rishell and Annie Raines are simply one of the best and most innovative blues duos in the world, with a musical rapport and a wide embrace of styles, from Delta heartache to Chicago drive. Paul and Annie bring their magical combination of soulful vocals, National steel guitar and sizzling blues harp once again to the Bull Run. And we love it every time they do.

When 22-year-old harmonica ace Annie Raines first sat in with 42-year-old country blues guitarist Paul Rishell in a Boston bar in 1992, few in the crowd suspected that they were witnessing the beginning of a musical partnership that would span the next thirty years and counting. But after 31 years and six albums, Paul and Annie have become the blues' most dynamic duo, racking up hundreds of thousands of miles on the road in the U.S. and Europe, collaborating on original songs and releasing "I Want You To Know," "Moving To The Country," the W.C. Handy Award winner for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year, "Goin’ Home," which was nominated for two Handy Awards and the live recording "A Night in Woodstock," featuring special guests John Sebastian, Bruce Katz, and their own backing band, Mojo Rodeo (pronounced Ro-DAY-o). Each release earned them multiple Blues Music Award nominations.

As soon as they start playing, their great talent and good vibes lets you relax, forget your cares and smile like you haven’t done for awhile. Critics are smiling on them too. Reviewing their CD/DVD set, "A Night in Woodstock," Elijah Wald wrote in the Boston Globe “the high energy, fast-moving set of mostly blues tunes features Rishell sounding his usual fantastic self on acoustic, electric and National Steel Guitars and Annie Raines retaining her Queen of the Harp crown!” Comedian/ Director, David Steinberg in The National Post of Canada said “I have an album called “Moving To The Country by Paul Rishell & Annie Raines that Lyle Lovett recommended to me and it’s just sensational.”

"While their guitar, harmonica and vocals are roiling, muscular and masterful, their shows are down home-friendly and fun-loving." - Scott Alarik, Boston Globe "Rishell's ability to convey the essence of acoustic Delta Blues is shocking. His guitar playing is tremendous. His vocals are exceptional..." - Skyland Blues News

“…Rishell is a master of country/blues styles, particularly slide played on a National steel guitar. Raines, a rare female ace blues harmonica blower, shows that she is as strong an acoustic country harp accompanist as she is a harder-edged, electrified Chicago-style lead player à la the great Little Walter…” - Billboard