NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The community is invited to a concert on Nov. 2 with Jake Blount, an award-winning musician and scholar based in Providence, RI. 

 

Blount will perform at 7 p.m. at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Church Street Center. The concert is open to the public with an admission fee of $10 for the general public, $5 for faculty/staff/MCLA alumni, and free for current students.  

 

According to a press release:

 

A powerfully gifted musician and a scholar of Black American music, Jake Blount speaks ardently about the African roots of the banjo and the subtle, yet profound ways African Americans have shaped and defined the amorphous categories of roots music and Americana.  

 

Blount is a two-time winner of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival and a specialist in the early folk music of Black Americans. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Newport Folk Festival, and numerous other venues across the country and beyond.  

 

His scholarly work has been presented at museums and universities including the Smithsonian Institution, Berklee College of Music, and Yale University. His writing has also appeared in Paste Magazine, No Depression, and NPR.  

 

When Blount released his first solo album "Spider Tales" in September 2020, it debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart, was named one of the year's best albums by NPR and The New Yorker, and earned a perfect 5-start review from The Guardian. Spider Tales highlights histories of Black and Indigenous peoples within popular American folk tunes as well as revived songs that are unjustly forgotten.  

 

Blount's latest album – "The New Faith" – was released this past September as part of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings' African American Legacy Series. The New Faith is spiritual music, filled with hope for salvation and righteous anger in equal measure.  

 

Tickets may be purchased on Eventbrite or at the door.