June 2010

June 25th, 2010

What: East End Fourth Fridays!
When: This Friday, June 25th
Where: Kenny Dorham's Backyard
            1106 East 11th Street
            Austin, TX 78702
Time: 6:00pm-11:00pm


ABOUT THE EVENT:
DiverseArts' monthly neighborhood festival features live music, good food, art/craft vendors, FREE LIVE OAK BEER, and an array of programs and activities just for kids. The idea is to bring folks to East 11th Street for a taste of what's happening in the East End: an evening under the stars, family friendly, entertaining and fun.

Featured Performers:
The Malford Milligan Band, Austin's favorite Soulman! headlines this month, plus
New Orleans-meets-East Austin teen-band 8 Bars, and African Folktales & Kids Drum Troop.

For this June's 4th Friday, DiverseArts is sponsoring Free Special Kid's Programming starting at 6pm.

Hands on Art, Moon Walk, Free Books, Art Vendors, food & soft drink concessions. Free East Side Pies Pizza for Kids (while it lasts), and Free, Cold Live Oak Beer (while it lasts, BYOB cans only please).

Bring your blanket or lawn chairs and join us under the stars!

Gates open at 6pm, music starts at 7pm, ONLY $7 cover after 8pm.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

AUSTIN'S BEST KEPT SECRET ~ MALFORD MILLIGAN
A world class blues/soul singer, based out of Austin, Texas. With his nationally acclaimed band "Storyville," he recorded 3 CDs; 2 with Atlantic Records, and 1 with November Records. He performed on "Austin City Limits" 3 times; twice with "Storyville," and once with Eric Johnson. Malford Milligan has also appeared on the Conan O'Brian show has toured with BB King, James Cotton, Edgar Winter, Double Trouble, Kenny Wayne Shepard. Malford has recorded on more than 30 albums with such artists as, Hal Ketchum, Marcia Ball, Doyle Bramhall, Alejandro Escoveda, Sue Foley, Stephen Bruton, Chris Smither, Eric Johnson, Double Trouble, The Boneshakers, and Toni Price.
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"Best Male Vocalist of the Decade"
~Austin Chronicle
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"Malford Milligan may be the next great soul singer...his tenor resonance and barking delivery invite comparisons with Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, and when he's onstage you can't take your eyes off him!!!”
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~Texas Monthly Magazine
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"Milligan's got some monster pipes (bluesy virtuosity). Whether he's working them in the service of a power-ballad or crunchy Texas funk, or Sam Cooke's, "A Change is Gonna Come." What matters is that the boy can sing like the wind blows, with polished power and raw soul. He just might turn out to be a legend."
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~Brad Tyer ~Houston Press
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"Malford Milligan has a marvelous voice. He has the ability to take on a variety of styles, always injecting them with a great deal of soul and grit. He tackles tunes from the songbooks of Blind Willie Johnson, Al Green, Blind Gary Davis, and Sam Cooke with a grace and reverence that's both inspiring and entertaining."
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~HOME: VOL.20 NO.51: MUSIC: RECORD REVIEWS
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"The bottom line is that Malford Milligan deserves to be heard in a much more widespread manner than he has so far during his career. He is one of the best."
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~Don "T-Bone" Erickson Founding Editor of BluesWax
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8 Bars
A group of hyper-talented kids, early teenagers who have put together a tight little unit to explore and interesting mix of live band hip-hop, rock guitars, and song styles that pay tribute to their roots in New Orleans and Austin. Recently formed by the melding of talented East Side kids and their New Orleans friends (whose families decided to stay in Austin Post-Katrina), this band is sure to develop into a creative laboratory that will launch careers and produce good music and musicians.

Debo Adejobi and Kids Drum Troop
Debo is a master West African Storyteller and drummer. The program will feature stories from his critically-acclaimed CD and showcase the drumming talent of some of his students (from the Texas Empowerment Academy).

Austin Chronicle Review of Debo’s African Folktales and Music below:
African Folk Tales & Music for Children, Vol. 1 (Batakoto) Can kids still be moved by a simple, well-told story? Based on the work of Debo Adejobi, an Austinite from Nigeria who collects folk tales in West Africa, the answer is appropriately elementary: Yes. "Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky" is dreamy creation myth, whereas "For Horned Animals Only" (my son's personal favorite) recounts the adventures of a cunning hare who tricks larger and faster animals. With a hangover, no less. Throughout, Adejobi pulls extra meaning from words, a saxophonist bending notes, his vox deep and sweet like honey-seasoned hardwood. Think Georges Collinet, Afropop Worldwide host, crossed with singer/actor Paul Robeson. Two musical tracks help diversify the hourlong CD, as do uncredited sound effects and background music, including what sounds like Ali Farke Toure under "Adenike." Likewise, "The Caterpillar and Other Wild Animals" makes the liner notes but not the actual recording. Only half of the closing story, "Alujon-jon-ki-jon," is relayed here (paced for Volume 2), but even then, parents will want to prescreen the law of the jungle, kill-or-be-killed story. All told, African Folk Tales & Music, Volume 1 is a timeless collection of oral wisdom, a fitting salve for today's too-busy world.
 

Stay tuned for more information about participating vendors, venues and businesses on east Eleventh St. from Branch st. to Angelina.