Dec. 7, 2006 – Arts Alive presents Concerts In the Garden at 8 p.m., on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at Tillett Garden featuring Otis Taylor. He will perform with his daughter Cassie on back-up vocals and bass as well as John Richardson on guitar. With five major label releases in as many years and his forthcoming release, "Definition of a Circle," being released at the time of this concert, he has the attention and respect of blues critics around the world. His release, "White African," received four W.C Handy nominations and won him the Best New Artist Award. His roots-style acoustic blues resembles a country-folk version of talking-blues master John Lee Hooker. What really sets him apart is a unique instrumentation (he fancies banjo and cello) backing his poignant story telling. He likes to be unpredictable.
This Chicago-born, Colorado-based singer/songwriter's songs have a style of story-telling that deals with violence, racial matters, injustices and frequently overlooked, back-page facets of African American history.
In addition to touring and recording, Taylor is an instructor in a Blues in the Schools program he developed with his wife Carol called "Writing the Blues." As with all of the Concert in the Garden performers this season, he will be doing an outreach program at one of our local schools.
Tickets for the concert are $30 or $66 for the prix fixe dinner, including gratuity; reservations are recommended. Tickets are available at Tillett Gardens in the Ridvan Studio between 10 a.m. and 4p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information and to make reservations, call 776-8566 or go to: artsalive@tillett.net.
This program is funded in part by the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
