Martha Redbone

One of the most vital voices in American Roots music today, Martha Redbone is celebrated for the tasty gumbo of roots music embodying the folk and mountain blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky mixed with the eclectic grit of her teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn. With the power of her gospel singing African American father’s voice and the determined spirit of her Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw mother, Redbone broadens all boundaries of Americana.

Her latest album, The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake, produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder and Grammy winner John McEuen, is an unexpected twist—“a brilliant collision of cultures” (The New Yorker)—featuring Martha’s magnificent voice, Blake’s immortal words, and a masterful cornucopia of roots music (folk, country, Piedmont blues, gospel, bluegrass, soul, and traditional Southeastern Native American). Redbone and her long-term collaborator, pianist Aaron Whitby, recently created Bone Hill: The Concert, a devised, interdisciplinary musical theater work that brings to light an important piece of American history that has never been told.

The Rubin is pleased to offer audio support with “Listen Everywhere,” a free app for audio streaming at our theater programs. You can download “Listen Everywhere” for free on your personal smartphone, or borrow an audio listening device from the Museum. Click here for more information.

About Naked Soul

Naked Soul presents performances from some of the country’s top singer/songwriters without microphones or amplifiers, as if the music were, acoustically speaking, naked. The musicians in the series draw upon the universal themes inherent in Himalayan art—spirituality, peace, tolerance, wisdom, compassion—on select Friday evenings.