Martha Redbone
Martha Redbone | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Kentucky, United States |
| Genres | R&B, and soul music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
Martha Redbone is an American blues and soul singer of part Choctaw, European and African-American descent. She has won awards for her contemporary Native American music. Her music is a mix of rhythm and blues, and soul music influences, fused with elements of traditional Native American music.[1]
Early life and education
Martha Redbone was born in Kentucky[2] and spent time with maternal grandparents in Harlan County. She had maternal roots in Clinch Mountain, Virginia and other parts of Appalachia. She absorbed music from many local traditions: African American, Cherokee, Choctaw, English folk music, and others. Her father had a strong gospel music tradition from North Carolina.[3] She grew up learning and exploring her Native American roots among Cherokee and Choctaw, and directed her music to absorb those traditions.
Career
Redbone became a musician and singer, exploring soul with Native American undertones. Since bursting onto the scene at the 2002 Native American Music Awards, she has earned a reputation as collaborator, performer, educator, and mentor across native North America and in some cases abroad. In early 2007, Redbone's Skintalk won The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best R&B Album.[4]
Her 2012 work, The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake, sets Blake's poetry to music that draws from rural influences of Appalachia: English folk, African American, and Native American traditions. She toured nationally in 2013 with what she called The Martha Redbone Roots Project.[3] The New York Times said her voice holds “both the taut determination of mountain music and the bite of American Indian singing.”[5]
Discography
- Home of the Brave (2001)
- Skintalk (2004)
- Future Street (2006)
- The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake (2012)
References
- ^ "Martha Redbone", Soultracks
- ^ Anastasia Tsioulcas, "Martha Redbone Roots Project: globalFEST 2013", NPR, 16 January 2013, accessed 16 June 2014
- ^ a b "The Martha Redbone Roots Project" Archived 2013-12-07 at the Wayback Machine, August 2013, The Ark (Ann Arbor, MI), accessed 16 June 2014
- ^ "6th Annual Winners" Archived 2009-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Independent Music Awards
- ^ "The Martha Redbone Roots Project", Freight & Salvage Coffee House, 2013, accessed 16 June 2014
External links
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
- African-American musicians
- African-American songwriters
- American soul musicians
- American people of Cherokee descent
- American people of Choctaw descent
- Living people
- Native American singers
- Native American songwriters
- Musicians from Brooklyn
- Independent Music Awards winners
- Songwriters from New York (state)
- 21st-century American singers
- 21st-century Native American women
- Singers from Kentucky
- Songwriters from Kentucky