OTHER NEW ADDITIONS TO THE LINEUP INCLUDE: HITMAKER, EDGAR WINTER; AMERICAN SONGSTER, DOM FLEMONS; NYC PIANIST, JOHN DAVIS; NYC’S VERY OWN MARKY RAMONE, & NEW YORK STATE-RENOWNED BLUESMAN, GUY DAVIS.
Lead Belly Fest – the Carnegie Hall
all-star celebration of the music and influence of Huddle "Lead Belly”
Ledbetter on February 4, headlined by five-time GRAMMY Award winner BUDDY
GUY along with the legendary Animals’ frontman ERIC “House
of the Rising Sun" BURDON – today announced additions to the
lineup. These include special guest multi-million seller, and GRAMMY-nominated
blues rock guitarist, KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD; American
songster, DOM FLEMONS; “Free Ride” singer EDGAR WINTER;
New York state bluesman and Pete Seeger cohort GUY DAVIS; also now
on the bill are renowned pianist JOHN DAVIS; and NYC’s very
own MARKY RAMONE.
A Spotify playlist of the artists
performing at Lead Belly Fest is here.
Photos of artists
performing at Lead Belly Fest are here.
+ Born in Shreveport, the
same town where Lead Belly was born, Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s provenance virtually
destined him to become a great bluesman. Twenty years into his recording career
he continues to create genre-defining blues-infused rock n' roll. Shepherd
has built an enviable resume as an accomplished recording artist, a riveting
live performer and one of the most talented and distinctive guitarists of his
generation. He has been dubbed “the guitarists’ guitarist”. Shepherd has
sold millions of albums worldwide, received five GRAMMY® nominations, two Billboard
Music Awards, as well as a pair of Orville H. Gibson awards, the Blues
Foundation's Keeping The Blues Alive award and two Blues Music awards. He's had
seven #1 blues albums and a string of #1 mainstream rock singles. As part of
his GRAMMY Award-nominated CD/DVD ‘10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads’, he
jammed with fellow blues musicians at Lead Belly’s grave.
+ Dom Flemons is the
"American Songster," pulling from traditions of old-time folk music
to create new sounds. Having performed music professionally since 2005, he has
played live for over one million people just within the past three years. As
part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, which he co-founded with Rhiannon Giddens
and Justin Robinson, he has played at a variety of festivals spanning from the
Newport Folk Festival to Bonnaroo, in addition to renowned venues such as the
Grand Ole Opry and such radio shows at NPR Fresh Air. Flemons was both host and
performer at the recent Lead Belly 125 tribute concert at the Kennedy Centre in
Washington DC.
+ From Edgar Winter’s
critically acclaimed 1970 debut release, Entrance, he has demonstrated his
unique style and ability to cross the genre lines and do the unexpected. His
early recording of "Tobacco Road" is a powerful, emotionally
devastating masterpiece that propelled him into the national spotlight. With
over 20 albums and numerous collaborative efforts to his credit, Edgar Winter
has appeared in the film "Netherworld", and the TV shows The
Late Show with David Letterman, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
+ Guy Davis
is an artist who has excelled in many disciplines; he is a musician, composer,
actor, director, and writer. He has received accolades and praise for his
performance off-Broadway as the legendary Robert Johnson in “Robert Johnson:
Trick The Devil,” winning the Blues Foundation's "Keeping the Blues
Alive Award”. Likewise, he received rave reviews for his appearance
on Broadway in “Finian's Rainbow”, playing the part originally played by
the legendary Sonny Terry. He has been nominated for nearly a dozen
Blues Awards and has performed on such shows as Prairie Home Companion, Late
Show With David Letterman and Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Most recently, he
is nominated for two 2016 Blues Music Awards. A friend of Pete Seeger’s, the
two used to perform “Midnight Special” in concert frequently.
+ With his latest Newport
Classic recording, Halley’s Comet: Around the Piano with Mark Twain & John
Davis, pianist John Davis pays musical tribute to our country’s most
celebrated and influential author whose career, like Davis’s, lies at the
intersection of white and black culture and high and low culture in American
society. The Twain-related works included on the CD, “played powerfully and
with a rich palette” according to The New York Times, further Davis’ effort
to define, excavate, and disseminate a previously-unacknowledged American roots
music initiated by two earlier hit recordings on Newport Classic.
+ Marky Ramone is a
New York original, best known for the 15 years he spent drumming for Rock &
Roll Hall of Famers and MTV’s Lifetime Achievement Award winners The Ramones.
He has also been a member of Richard Hell & the Voidoids, ayne County and
The Backstreet Boys, and presently fronts Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg.
