The A-Town Get Down,  featuring Devon Allman this year, is a music festival celebrating creative expression and spirit as exemplified by the life of Alex Townsend.  The 2nd A-Town Get Down is to be held Saturday February 25, 2012 at the Charles Morris Center.   Performers that evening will be Devon Allman’s Honeytribe, Passafire, Word of Mouth, stencil graphic artist Peat Wollaeger, other on-site artists and more.  Doors at 7pm.  Event is from 7-11:30pm

Proceeds to benefit SCAD scholarships.
Visit http://www.a-towngetdown.com/ for more information.

SMF APPEARANCES

• NOON30: JOE KROWN TRIO FEAT. WALTER “WOLFMAN” WASHINGTON & RUSSELL BATISTE, JR.
  April 7, 2012 12:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by AUDI HILTON HEAD and THE KENNICKELL GROUP
Sponsored in part by Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
Additional support by Garcia Lindsey Group and
Wilson & Linda Fisk-Morris

Born out of a weekly residency at uptown New Orleans’ famed Maple Leaf Bar, the Joe Krown Trio features three of the Crescent City’s most revered musicians in playing rhythm and blues with a funky feeling. Hammond B-3 specialist Joe Krown worked for 15 years as keyboardist for Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s searing and soulful guitar and vocals have been a distinct part of the New Orleans musical hybrid of R&B, funk and the blues since the 1970s. Drummer Russell Batiste, Jr.’s previous SMF appearances with Porter/Batiste/Stoltz, the successor band to the Funky Meters, displayed his incredible rhythmic abilities, which have been sought after by Harry Connick, Jr., Maceo Parker, Champion Jack Dupree and Oteil Burbridge. ”

(The Joe Krown Trio is) … a killer collaboration between three of New Orleans’ greatest players!” -Offbeat

SMF APPEARANCES

• BLOW MY BLUES AWAY: LUCKY PETERSON BAND/JOE KROWN TRIO FEAT. WALTER “WOLFMAN” WASHINGTON AND RUSSELL BATISTE, JR.
  April 6, 2012 6:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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• BLOW MY BLUES AWAY: LUCKY PETERSON BAND/JOE KROWN TRIO FEAT. WALTER “WOLFMAN” WASHINGTON AND RUSSELL BATISTE, JR.
  April 6, 2012 9:00 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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• BLOW MY BLUES AWAY: LUCKY PETERSON BAND/JOE KROWN TRIO FEAT. WALTER “WOLFMAN” WASHINGTON AND RUSSELL BATISTE, JR.
  April 7, 2012 6:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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• BLOW MY BLUES AWAY: LUCKY PETERSON BAND/JOE KROWN TRIO FEAT. WALTER “WOLFMAN” WASHINGTON AND RUSSELL BATISTE, JR.
  April 7, 2012 9:00 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by AUDI HILTON HEAD and
THE KENNICKELL GROUP
Sponsored in part by Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
Additional support provided by Garcia Lindsey Group and
Wilson & Linda Fisk-Morris

Closing out SMF 2012 with a unique two-night SMF double-bill, Lucky Peterson brings his own band this time around. Discovered by blues giant Willie Dixon when he was three years old, Lucky released his first record at five and soon after appeared on The Tonight Show before going on to play behind Little Milton, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Kenny Neal. The New Yorker dubbed him “a master of the guitar, organ and microphone,” and whether playing B-3, singing soul classics or delivering heart-wrenching country blues on slide guitar, he is the consummate showman.

The Joe Krown Trio features three of the Crescent City’s most revered musicians. Hammond B-3 specialist Joe Krown spent a decade and a half as keyboardist for Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s searing guitar work and soulful vocals have helped define the unique New Orleans musical hybrid of R&B, funk and the blues since the 1970s. Drummer Russell Batiste, Jr. played for years with the Funky Meters, and recently collaborated with Paige McConnell (Phish) and Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers) in the acclaimed funk/jam trio Vida Blue.

“(Lucky Peterson)……incredible blues vocals…insanely lively guitar…it’s amazing.” -USA Today

SMF APPEARANCES

• BRUCE MOLSKY, FIDDLE/BANJO
  April 6, 2012 1:00 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by AUDI HILTON HEAD
Sponsored in part by Friends of the Savannah Music Festival
Additional support by Hussey, Gay, Bell & DeYoung, Inc.

Bruce Molsky stands today as the premier old-time fiddler in the world, the defining virtuoso of Appalachia’s timeless folk music traditions. In addition to a prolific solo career, performing on fiddle, guitar, and banjo, Molsky frequently joins genre-busting supergroups, like the Grammy-nominated Fiddlers Four, and Mozaik, with Hungarian Nikola Parov, and Celtic giant Donal Lunny. He was on Nickel Creek’s farewell tour, and performs in a trio with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and Sweden’s great Ale Möller.

“The Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddle.” - Darol Anger, fiddler

“There’s an incredible power of history and tradition in his vocals.” - Linda Ronstadt, singer

SMF APPEARANCES

• MUSIC AT 11: DANIEL HOPE & L’ARTE DEL MONDO, PROGRAM III
  April 6, 2012 11:00 AM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by LARRY & NANCY FULLER and
AUDI HILTON HEAD
Sponsored in part by Byck-Rothschild Foundation

Mozart Divertimento in D Major, KV 136
Bach Concerto for two Violins and Strings in D minor, BWV 1043
Frederick the Great: from Concerto No. 1 in G Major: Allegro
Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 12 in A Major, KV 414

In their third and final program during the first-ever visit to the U.S, the chamber music orchestra “L’arte del mondo” performs an 11am concert showcasing Mozart’s outstanding A-Major Piano Concerto (KV 414), with acclaimed fortepiano specialist Kristian Bezuidenhout as soloist. Also on the concert is a rarely heard concerto by the 18th century Prussian King/Composer, Frederick the Great. SMF Associate Artistic Director Daniel Hope also teams up with L’arte del mondo’s Andrea Keller to play one of Bach’s most famous works, his Double Violin Concerto, in this one-time only event.

Daniel Hope, violin
Kristian Bezuidenhout, pianoforte
Andrea Keller, violin (BWV 1043)
L’arte del mondo, chamber orchestra
Werner Ehrhardt, Concertmaster & Artistic Director

SMF APPEARANCES

• BLAZING BANJOS: TONY TRISCHKA & BRUCE MOLSKY/ABIGAIL WASHBURN
  April 5, 2012 6:00 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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• BLAZING BANJOS: TONY TRISCHKA & BRUCE MOLSKY/ABIGAIL WASHBURN
  April 5, 2012 8:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by AUDI HILTON HEAD
Sponsored in part by Friends of the Savannah Music Festival
Additional support by Hussey, Gay, Bell & DeYoung, Inc.

This SMF original double-bill features the formidable duo of Tony Trischka and Bruce Molsky. In a career that has now encompassed four decades, acclaimed banjo innovator Tony Trischka has created an endless array of new possibilities for the five-string banjo. While he has mastered nearly every element of the instrument’s stylistic history‚Äîfrom old-time modal clawhammer to the most intricate melodic modern styles‚ it was folk music initially, and bluegrass music in particular, that first drew him to the banjo. Bruce Molsky stands today as the world’s premier old-time fiddler and one of the defining virtuosos of Appalachia’s timeless folk music traditions. In addition to a prolific solo career, performing on fiddle, guitar, and banjo, Molsky frequently joins genre-busting super-groups and artists such as the Fiddlers Four, Mozaik, Nikola Parov, and Donal Lunny.

The other half of this program showcases banjoist/vocalist Abigail Washburn. If American old-time music is about taking earlier, simpler ways of life and music-making as one’s model, Abigail Washburn has proven herself to be a bracing revelation to that tradition. As a singer, songwriter, and clawhammer banjo player every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past, she pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody’s ever heard before. Audiences who
heard her at SMF 2007 with the acclaimed all-female, old-time stringband Uncle Earl and again in 2009 with the Sparrow Quartet (Béla Fleck, Casey Dreissen and Ben Sollee) are in for a different treat this time, as Abby’s sound has continued to evolve.

“Ms. Washburn’s enigmatic songs mingle Appalachia and folk-pop, with tinges of Asia and Bruce Springsteen. Eventually, the route leads home: to a mountain gospel hymn.”
-The New York Times

SMF APPEARANCES

• NOON30: ABIGAIL WASHBURN
  April 5, 2012 12:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by AUDI HILTON HEAD
Sponsored in part by Friends of the Savannah Music Festival
Additional support by Hussey, Gay, Bell & DeYoung, Inc.

If American old-time music is about taking earlier, simpler ways of life and music-making as one’s model, Abigail Washburn has proven herself to be a bracing revelation to that tradition. As a singer, songwriter, and clawhammer banjo player every bit as interested in the present and the future as she is in the past, she pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody’s ever heard before. Audiences who heard her at SMF 2007 with the acclaimed all-female, old-time stringband Uncle Earl and again in 2009 with the Sparrow Quartet (Béla Fleck, Casey Dreissen and Ben Sollee) are in for a different treat this time, as Abby’s sound has continued to evolve.

“Ms. Washburn’s enigmatic songs mingle Appalachia and folk-pop, with tinges of Asia and Bruce Springsteen. Eventually, the route leads home: to a mountain gospel hymn.”
-The New York Times

SMF APPEARANCES

• CHRIS THILE, MANDOLIN
  April 3, 2012 8:00 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by AUDI HILTON HEAD and
HUNTER MACLEAN
Additional support by Peter & Pam Voss and
Don & Karen Rinsby

Mandolin master and composer Chris Thile returns to SMF, this time in a solo context, in which he’ll perform a mixture of Bach and his own original works. Whether leading the Punch Brothers, playing old country duets with Michael Daves, or performing with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan, Mr. Thile is widely regarded as one of the most interesting and inventive acoustic musicians of his generation. He has extended the possibilities of the mandolin with his combination of unprecedented virtuosity and inexhaustible musical facility.

“…a genius of the mandolin.”
-The Independent (UK)

SMF APPEARANCES

• MIKE MARSHALL & EDGAR MEYER
  April 1, 2012 6:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Sponsored by THE NEISES FAMILY
Sponsored in part by The Olde Pink House
Additional support by Dr. David Lake & Dr. Linda Wright
and Lake Champlain Chocolates

Acoustic music virtuosos Mike Marshall on mandolin and Edgar Meyer on bass have been playing music together for twenty years. During this time, they have developed a fully realized concept of the mandolin/ bass duo. Edgar and Mike present a repertoire that spans the globe; from Bach duets to Brazilian choros, and from funky original pieces to their own twisted fiddle tunes. A must-see for lovers of acoustic music.
Edgar Meyer was hailed by the New Yorker as “…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument”, and Mike Marshall is considered “among the best mandolinists on the planet” (Utne Reader).

SMF APPEARANCES

• SALSA DANCE PARTY: THE JIMMY BOSCH ORCHESTRA
  March 31, 2012 7:30 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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• SALSA DANCE PARTY: THE JIMMY BOSCH ORCHESTRA
  March 31, 2012 10:00 PM
  Charles H. Morris Center

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Jimmy Bosch is a powerful force as a trombonist, composer, entertainer and producer widely considered to be one of today’s most important Salsa musicians. His abilities to conquer the rhythmic complexities with his heartfelt and gifted compositional and performing styles have made him one of the most “in demand” musicians in the salsa, Latin Jazz and world music genres.

Appearing on over 70 recordings, Bosch has recorded and/or performed with his own band and a “who’s who” of Latino music including Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, Manny Oquendo y Libre, Paquito D’Rivera, Oscar De Leon, Jose Alberto “El Canario,” Marc Anthony, FANIA Allstars, Eddie Palmieri (with whom he played SMF previously), Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Jon Faddis, Arturo O’Farril and many others. For his Savannah debut as a leader, Jimmy will bring his high octane, nine-piece ensemble. All you need to bring is your dancing shoes.