Filtering by: Bull Run
Larry McCray • Bull Run • 8.15.24
Aug
15
7:30 PM19:30
Bull Run

Larry McCray • Bull Run • 8.15.24

Larry McCray

Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 7:30 at Bull Run

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Rust belt blues shouter and guitar slinger Larry McCray's eight blues albums have blended reverence for tradition with his own soulful spin on the form. And those achievements have been noted with a Gibson "Blues Guitarist of the Year" Award as well as the Top Guitarist prize in International Blues Matters' 2014 writer's poll.

Most recently, his album 'Blues Without You' made #1 on Blues Rock Review's "Top 20 Albums of 2022" list.

Over the past three decades of nonstop touring and recording, Larry has played & shared the stage with such blues and rock greats as BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, John Mayall, Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Keb Mo, Jonny Lang, Joe Walsh, Levon Helm, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Albert Collins and Joe Bonamassa. He has also toured with The Allman Brothers Band, Warren Haynes, Gov't Mule, Phil Lesh, Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) and countless others.

"In the Spirit of B.B. King, Luther Allison, and Little Milton, Larry is among the Greats!" - Joe Bonamassa

“Blues Without You is a damn near perfect blues record,” - Blues Rock Review

“McCray’s blues are fresh and contemporary with nods to the past. He’s the kind of player who allows for space in between the notes. There aren’t many current guitarists who put that kind of emotion into their playing,” - Rock & Blues Muse

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Catie Curtis • Bull Run • 7.13.24
Jul
13
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Catie Curtis • Bull Run • 7.13.24

Catie Curtis

Saturday, July 13, 2024 at 8pm at Bull Run

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For over 25 years, Catie Curtis has toured full-time in the US and Europe, releasing 14 recordings and selling over 250,000 CDs (not to mention streaming and downloads). She has recorded for major (EMI Guardian) and independent (Rykodisc, Vanguard and Compass) labels, collaborating with some of the finest musicians and producers in the country. Before the pandemic, she continued to play shows for a legion of fans who shared stories with her at the merch table night after night. Her songs have been featured in films and tv shows, and she performed several times at the White House during the Obama administration. She’s intensely grateful for those years and honored to know that her music has been an integral part of so many people's lives.

A veteran of the singer/songwriter folk scene, her credits include touring with Lilith Fair, and winning Grand Prize in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition (with co-writer Mark Erelli) and recording a duet with Kris Kristofferson. Her songs appear in numerous films and tv shows. She has been called a "folk-rock goddess" by the New Yorker, and has performed at the White House several times.

“Have you ever been to a show where you feel an invisible wall between you and the performer? Catie Curtis pulls the walls down.” - Mary Chapin Carpenter

 

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Ellis Paul • Bull Run • 6.7.24
Jun
7
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Ellis Paul • Bull Run • 6.7.24

Ellis Paul

Friday, June 7, 2024 at 8pm at Bull Run

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Some artists document their lives through their music. Others chronicle their times. It’s a rare artist who can do both, telling their own story through songs that also encapsulate the essence of people and places who have helped define their era overall. Woody Guthrie comes to mind, and so does Bob Dylan. Bruce Springsteen certainly as well. Yet few others, for whatever genius they may possess, can relate their own history to the history experienced by those who find that common bond, be it in a coming of age, living through the same realities or sharing similar experiences.

Quintessential New England singer-songwriter Ellis Paul helped to revitalize both the Boston/Cambridge and the national Folk scene in the 1990's. His urban, literate, folk rock style has the rare ability to take dead aim at a subject while avoiding the in-your-face approach of many of his contemporaries. The newest album, "The Storyteller's Suitcase" is a melding of personal reflections and social commentary. "Paul sits in the long tradition of troubadours and storytellers such as Paxton and Prine, offering intimate insights and biting observations on the life and world around him. There’s a definite Prine lyrical sensibility to the first track, ‘I Ain’t No Jesus’, a kind of celebration of your average blue collar stiff who can’t work miracles but does the best he can with the life he has." And the album ends on a political note, with a bluesy cover of Michal K Brown’s ‘Election Day’ and its commentary on the current administration who’ve “been taking money from the oilmen/Money from the NRA”, talking the talk but not walking the walk, a hopeful note that, next time America goes to the polls, that particular party might be over.

On the lyric book inside the fold out case, he’s handwritten written “Every story needs someone who will listen”. Be one of them.

"Despite his success and sense of history, Mr. Paul remains an artist with his eye on the future and an interest in discovering the transformative potential in his music." - The New York Times

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Vienna Tang • Bull Run • 5.18.24
May
18
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Vienna Tang • Bull Run • 5.18.24

Vienna Tang

Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 8pm at Bull Run

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“I was in a long-distance relationship with music for many years,” jokes songwriter Vienna Teng. “Now we’re finally moving back in together.”

Long-distance, perhaps, but long-running. In 2002, Vienna released her debut album "Waking Hour," landing her on NPR’s Weekend Edition, The Late Show with David Letterman, and the top of Amazon’s music charts. Four more albums followed, most recently "Aims" in 2013, which became the first album to win four Independent Music Awards. She also composed the music for "The Fourth Messenger" by playwright Tanya Shaffer, which premiered in 2013 and was a featured production in the 2017 New York Musical Theater Festival. Together with Vienna’s captivating live performances and thoughtful online presence, her work has built a devoted following across generations and continents.

Still, other pursuits have always beckoned. A computer science major before she was a recording artist, Vienna is a nerd at heart, as comfortable in spreadsheets as the spotlight. She returned to academia in 2010 to study environmental sustainability, which led to a new career working on climate change, energy and waste issues. She also became a bonus parent to her partner’s two kids, and in early 2020 welcomed a newborn addition to the family - just in time for pandemic lockdown. “I learned a lot about what it means to hold two truths in your head at the same time, as the saying goes,” Vienna says of that period. “The situation can be dire and full of possibility. Both kindness and fierceness are so very necessary.”

She wondered: what if two songs, with seemingly contradictory perspectives, were written so they would “mash up” into a duet? The result is her song-pair “We’ve Got You”: one about serving as a beacon for one’s community, the other about leaning on that community in one’s darkest hour. It’s some of the most intricate and impassioned songwriting she’s ever done. When she performs it on stage - solo, live-looping her voice, keyboards and percussion to layer the two songs together - the audience response is electric. “And there are so many ways for songs to be in dialogue with each other,” she notes. “I’d love to keep exploring that idea…hopefully in dialogue with other creators, too.”

Fittingly for a piece about reinvigoration and connection, “We’ve Got You” marks the start of a new chapter for Vienna, where her environmental and musical vocations converge. In 2022, she launched a “music x climate action” community on Patreon, combining monthly livestream shows and recording studio updates with Zoom climate action sessions, as well as working one-on-one with patrons on their own climate projects. On the road, she’s started hosting workshops between concerts, bringing members of her audience together to share knowledge and take real steps for climate - events that participants have described as “life-changing,” “rocket fuel,” and “the perfect antidote to despair.”

The long-distance phase is over. Now it’s time for communion - and moving forward.

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Sophie B. Hawkins • Bull Run • 5.17.24
May
17
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Sophie B. Hawkins • Bull Run • 5.17.24

Sophie B. Hawkins

Friday, May 17, 2024 at 8pm at The Bull Run

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Sophie B. Hawkins is a Grammy nominated, American singer-songwriter and accomplished musician with more than thirty years in the music industry. 

Since the start of her musical journey, Sophie has shown an uncompromising devotion to her singular truth, endlessly transcending boundaries and offering up new ways of experiencing the world around us. Rooted in Hawkins’ raw yet poetic lyrics and effortlessly captivating vocals, her new single “Love Yourself” - a soul-stirring piece of symphonic pop threaded with Hawkins’s true-to-life storytelling - is an undeniable anthem for rising above negativity of all kinds and embracing absolute self-love.

She defied categorization and embraced her individuality by embodying a daring fluidity as a musician, working with some of the most creative jazz musicians of the era on her debut album. She also challenged the norms of gender expression and sexual orientation at a time when political, social, and sexual labels were more rigid. Her ever-evolving career has included releasing six widely beloved albums, breaking chart records with her smash hit “As I Lay Me Down,” four worldwide singles from Whaler, songs in cultural touchstone TV shows and films (from recent hits Stranger Things, Euphoria, Ozark, and PEN15, to landmark series Beverly Hills, 90210, Dawson’s Creek, The L Word and more), and a starring role as Janis Joplin in the critically acclaimed musical Room105. 

A dynamic creative force known for a spellbinding live show that all but erases the divide between audience and performer, Hawkins is currently on the road celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Tongues and Tails and will be touring through late next year. “I’ve never enjoyed performing more - it’s incredibly freeing to me now,” she notes. Hawkins cherishes the opportunity to deepen her bond with her ardently devoted fanbase. “One thing I’ve heard from people is that my songs have been like teachers to them, and helped them along on their journey,” she says. “With this new album and with all of my music, I hope it helps people to feel more connected to their own heart. I hope it brings them closer to whatever makes them feel so special and valuable, and makes them feel like they’re here on this planet for a reason. That’s what the music I love most has always done for me.” 

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