Blue Skies Trio will include special guest Amy Duke
MARIPOSA – The next weekend of the free Summer Concert Series, Music on the Green – brought to you by The Mariposa Co. Arts Council and its many fine sponsors – at The Art Park in historic downtown Mariposa, features the jazz stylings of The Blue Skies Trio with special guest vocalist Amy Duke, on Friday, Aug. 3.
On Saturday, Aug. 4, will be the debut on the Art Park Stage of internationally renowned roots blues stomper Lance Canales and his band, The Flood.
Inspired by the classic piano-bass-drum trios and small jazz combos of the 40s to the present day, the seasoned, world class musicians who make up The Blue Skies Trio are skilled at playing both smooth, and high energy jazz music; a true American art form.
Singing with the trio, will be guest vocalist Amy Duke, who wowed the attendees of the Mariposa Rotary Art & Wine Festival this year.
Lance Canales & The Flood are a roots-blues influenced Americana trio from California’s breadbasket, where Canales lived the life that so many songs have been written about since the birth of roots music – hard labor, one room shacks and taunting ghosts whispering of a better life.
Canales’ guttural vocals combine a hard-edged storytelling approach beneath a stripped down, foot-stomping, acoustic instrumentation. Canales, described on the blog “Bound for Glory” by music Journalist, Robin Wheeler, “… plays hollow-bodied, anger-fueled blues guitar. He growls and stomps with his feet clad in the heavy work boots of his grandfather…”
Lance Canales and The Flood
While Canales may have left that life behind, that life has never left his music. Canales played solo for years until he began craving a fuller sound and energy to his music, and enlisted “The Flood.” They’ve been together since 2009 with musicians changing from time to time, but Canales hand-picks the very best Central Valley California musicians.
In 2012 Lance Canales did the soundtrack for the documentary “Dancing the Salmon Home,” which has been featured at film festivals across the country.
In February, 2013, Canales released the single “Plane Crash at Los Gatos: Deportee,” a poem written by Woody Guthrie in 1948 and labeled by Saint Louis Magazine as a “gut-wrenchingly beautiful rendition.” The song has been covered by many stellar musicians, but what makes this version so important is that it reveals the names of the Mexican nationals that were simply dubbed as “deportees” in the original news article. After first performing the song with author/poet Tim Z Hernandez reading the names at the 2012 Steinbeck Festival, Canales decided he wanted to do more for the “deportees” — who were buried in a mass unmarked grave in Fresno, where Canales lives.
In August of 2013, Lance Canales, in collaboration with Nora Guthrie and the Guthrie Foundation and Tim Z Hernandez, put on a concert to raise $10,000 for a historic memorial headstone for the “deportees” that was eventually erected in February 2014. Find out more about this exceptional artist/activist and sample his powerful musical performances at www.lancecanalesandtheflood.com.
Visit www.mariposaartscouncil.org for the complete 2018 season line-up and more.
All performances begin at 7 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) at the Mariposa County Art Park, located on Hwy. 140, between 4th and 5th Streets, in historic downtown Mariposa, CA. Free parking on 5th Street along the Creek Walkway to the Park, also providing handicapped access.
The shows are free to the public – tips for the performers will be solicited, encouraged, and appreciated.
The Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc. is an incorporated not-for-profit organization, created to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County.
