A music icon will grace the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) mainstage on September 28 at 7:30 p.m. with a performance by vocalist, songwriter, composer, and educator Martha Redbone. Drawing from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky, and infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn, the Martha Redbone Roots Project has been called “a brilliant collision of cultures…” by The New Yorker Magazine. Redbone has also been featured at The Kennedy Center and on PBS.

Redbone and her ensemble of masterful musicians take their audiences on an American music journey through times past and present, weaving the sounds of her childhood and her ancestral homelands in coal country, Harlan County, KY, celebrating the music of her multi-cultural Southeastern heritage. Music that conjures up stories from the early days of the mountain, embodying the folk, blues and gospel sounds from the ancestors of the Black migration mixed with Indigenous foundation of the region. Martha Redbone and her band invite you through sound and story to her HOME.

"We are thrilled to bring the Martha Redbone Roots Project to WICA," says Executive Artistic Director Deana Duncan. "This is an unbelievable chance to see Redbone in a smaller, more intimate performance space. As a community arts center, we focus on creating opportunities like this for our patrons, giving them the chance to witness such amazing talent on our mainstage. This is really an experience that should not to be missed."

Tickets are currently on sale for the performance at WICA, which, along with Martha Redbone (vocals, percussion), will feature Aaron Whitby (Piano), Charlie Burnham (Violin), and Fred Cash, Jr. (Bass). Please visit the event website to learn more about this and to purchase tickets for this exciting programming opportunity.