Sat 7/19 @ 8PM
Folk/blues artist John Hammond has built himself a tremendous legacy since he dropped out of Ohio’s Antioch College in the early ’60s to head for New York City and a career in music.
It was a time when young white boys like himself found a fascination with the work of older artists ranging from Woody Guthrie to Robert Johnson and began tapping into American vernacular musical forms.
Hammond has pretty much continued to do just that over the last 50 years. His latest album, the appropriately titled Timeless, is his 35th solo album since he released Big City Blues in 1964. The acoustic album features Hammond’s guitar, harmonica, and voice, drilling down into the essence of a set of raw, direct, classic material by artists like Sleepy John Estes, Little Walter Jacobs, Elmore James, and his pal Tom Waits.
Hammond is certainly an appropriate choice to headline the second night of the Kent Blues Festival, performing at the Kent Stage. His opening act is another veteran of the New York folk/blues scene, Rory Black, who also began hanging around Greenwich Village in the’60s when she was just a teenager. She’s devoted a considerable part of her long career to performing traditional country blues.
Tickets are $27.50.
thekentstage.com/john-hammond-kent/