Martha Redbone

Bone Hill

December 2-3 at 8PM

Tickets from $20

“A brilliant collision of cultures”

“Redbone's music chronicles the crossroads of the American experience.”

“Martha Redbone’s voice held both the taut determination of mountain music and the bite of American Indian singing.”

“A uniquely American story of family and dreams… No matter who you are or where you're from, Martha takes you home.”

Revered blues and soul singer Martha Redbone takes audiences on a thought-provoking, uniquely American journey inspired by her multicultural upbringing and Cherokee legacy in the Appalachian Mountains. Staged as a theatrical song cycle with a cast of six actors/musicians, Bone Hill: The Concert spans four generations of family stories and American music — from traditional Cherokee songs and lullabies to bluegrass and blues, gospel, jazz, rock & roll, and R&B.

Originally commissioned by Joe’s Pub and the Public Theater, Bone Hill follows one woman’s return to her homeland in the coal mines of Kentucky. What unfolds is the story of a family’s connection to the land — the simplicity and sacredness of that connection, and the ruptures that threaten to extinguish it.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Martha Redbone is one of the most vital voices in American Roots music. A multi award-winning musician, the charismatic songstress is celebrated for her 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 her gospel-singing father’s voice and the spirit of her Cherokee/Choctaw mother’s culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music with songs and storytelling that share her life experience as an Indigenous Black woman and mother in the new millennium. She gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions from past to present, connecting cultures, and celebrating the human spirit.

Her latest CD “The Garden of Love — Songs of William Blake” was produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder John McEuen, and blends Blake’s immortal words with a masterful cornucopia of roots music. Redbone and longtime collaborator Aaron Whitby composed the original music and score for the 2022 Broadway revival of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” the classic 1976 choreopoem by the late Ntozake Shange, which premiered at the Booth Theater and garnered 7 Tony Award nominations. Redbone and Whitby are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play, and the 2020 Audelco Award recipients for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for the off-Broadway revival “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf” at the Public Theater. Redbone is a 2021 United States Artist Fellow.