The three concerts in the 2016-2017 Big Time/Small Town Performance Season are at Athens City Middle School Auditorium, 200 Keith Lane, Athens, Tennessee. The Black Box Concert Series takes place at the Sue E. Trotter Black Box Theater at The Arts Center, 320 North White St., in downtown Athens, Tennessee. All show times are 7:30 pm. All Big Time/Small Town Performances are sponsored by BB&T, Citizens National Bank, Crescent Sock Company-The Sock Shop and Madison Avenue Compounding
Pharmacy. The Black Box Concert Series is sponsored by Financial Guidance Partners, Mayfield Dairy and Tennessee Wesleyan University. All AACA programs are supported by the Tennessee Arts Commission.
The Big Time/Small Town Performance Season began Thursday, September 8, 2016, with an encore performance by the Annie Moses Band. The ensemble of six instrumentalists and vocalists presented their new show, “The Art of the Love Song,” after an overwhelming response to their performance last season. The Band’s innovative sound has delighted audiences in record-breaking numbers of airings on PBS and on stages as diverse as Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry. Award-winning composer, Bill Wolaver, weaves musical styles together into cinematic arrangements while the virtuosic siblings bring Juilliard-honed chops to Nashville-styled music-making. “The Art of the Love Song” is old-school elegance in the mold of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. The band keeps a classical aesthetic in these archetypal love songs, while flavoring them with retro strings and gypsy-jazz violin. The ultra-creative members of the band plucked repertoire from the Great American Songbook of the ‘40s and ‘50s, then borrowed from such soulful folk/rock songsmiths of the ‘60s and ‘70s as Don McLean, Paul Williams and John Lennon. “The Art of the Love Song” is a tribute to the most treasured love songs of the last century.
AACA celebrates Black History Month with Masters of Soul continuing the season on Friday, February 3, 2017. In the early ‘60’s some of the most iconic names in the history of popular music were discovered in the Motor City of Detroit, MI, better known simply as MOTOWN & SOUL. Masters of Soul celebrates these artists, their music and their style. The show features stylishly costumed, fully choreographed tributes to both men’s and women’s groups backed by a live band. The artists perform hits by the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Four Tops, Diana Ross & The Supremes, the Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, the Commodores and many more. The audience will take the ultimate stroll down memory lane as they re-live (or discover for the first time) the incredible harmonies and smooth moves made famous by many of the greatest recording acts of all time.
The performance season closes with Tiempo Libre on Friday, April 7, 2017. Three-time Grammy-nominated Afro-Caribbean music group Tiempo Libre is one of the hottest Latin bands today. Equally at home in concert halls, jazz clubs, festival stages and dance venues, Tiempo Libre is celebrated for its sophisticated tropical music featuring an irresistible, exhilarating mix of jazz harmonies, contemporary sonorities and seductive Latin rhythms. Throughout the past 14 years, the band has appeared around the globe and has been featured on television shows including “The Tonight Show,” “Live from Lincoln Center” and “Dancing with the Stars” as well as many entertainment programs on Univision and Telemundo. Since the group’s formation in Miami in 2001, its members have been on a mission to share their Afro-Caribbean heritage with as wide an audience as possible, reinterpreting and reinvigorating music born from the meeting of their musical origins with their new American experience.
Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Amanda Shires performs on Friday, October 14, 2016 as part of her national tour supporting her new album “My Piece of Land.” Shires began her career as a teenager playing fiddle with the Texas Playboys. Since then, she’s toured and recorded with John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider, Justin Townes Earle, Shovels & Rope and most recently, her husband, Jason Isbell. Along the way, she’s made four solo albums, each serving to document a particular period in her life. “My Piece of Land” represents an artistic milestone for Shires, which was inspired by a series of milestones and realizations in her personal life. Shires contemplates love, fear, stability, self-esteem and even anxiety, which she beautifully articulates through her thoughtful lyrics and emotive vocals.
The series continues Friday, November 11, 2016, with Canadian folk trio Good Lovelies. Audiences all over North America are falling in love with the funny, upbeat Good Lovelies. Winners of the 2010 Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) and a nominee in 2012 for Roots Album of the Year, as well as being awarded Vocal Group of the Year in 2011 at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, Good Lovelies are making waves across Canada, the United States and now in the UK and Australia. Since joining forces in 2006 and quitting day jobs in 2008, their tireless rain or shine outlook and undeniable mutual respect have helped the trio weather years of constant touring. Lighthearted songwriting and irresistibly buoyant dispositions have made them the darlings of the summer festival circuit and brought them through countless theatres, folk clubs and house concerts. The aptly named Good Lovelies are Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore, all of them best friends. Part folk-roots, part Western Swing, the Toronto-based trio relies on unerring three-part vocal harmonies, clever songs and, on stage, funny repartee drawn from a seemingly endless succession of comedic adventures on the road.
The Black Box Concert Series closes Friday, January 20, with Joshua Carswell. A winner of the American Traditions Competition in
Savannah, GA, one of the nation’s most prestigious vocal contests, and a graduate of Elon University, Carswell is a singer’s singer. Disney soundtracks, crooner legends like Tony Bennett and pop innovators like Billy Joel and the Carpenters, as well as the Great American Songbook shaped his artistic sensibilities early on. Carswell’s performances include a diverse collection of Duke Ellington jazz, Hank Williams classics, pop originals and European influenced standards. For the Athens show, Carswell will be backed by some of Nashville’s most in-demand musicians.
Individual tickets are on sale for the Big Time/Small Town Performance Season online at athensartscouncil.org, by phone at 423-745-8781 and at The Arts Center, 320 North White Street, Athens, Tennessee 37303. Individual tickets are $20 for adults ($25 at door) and $10 for students and may be purchased by phone, online, at The Arts Center or at the door, pending availability.
Concert-goers for the Black Box Concert Series save more than 15% when purchasing a Black Box Concert Series ticket package.
Each package includes the three remaining concerts and is $150 for family, $75 for a couple and $37.50 for an individual. Individual tickest are $15 for adults and $10 for students and may be purchased by phone, online, at The Arts Center or at the door, pending availability .
For more information about these and other programs of Athens Area Council for the Arts, go to athensartscouncil.org, call 423-745-8781 or stop by The Arts Center at 320 North White Street in Athens, TN. All AACA programs and performances receive support from The Tennessee Arts Commission.