Treedome and Lanesboro Arts present a digital event featuring Larry Long and American Roots Revue’s filmed concert. The film will be premiered on Friday, July 24th at 8:00PM (Central Time) via Treedome’s YouTube and Facebook, and will be available for 48 hours . This concert in Lanesboro was the final performance of American Roots Revue’s 2019 FIVE-CITY LEGACY TOUR. Other concerts were held in the Lower Sioux Indian Community; Live at the Levee in Winona; Milan Community Festival of Story & Song; Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Community.
Featured artists include:
Larry Long is an American singer-songwriter who has made his life work the celebration of everyday heroes. Author, historian, actor, and broadcaster Studs Terkel called Larry “a true American Troubadour.” Larry has written and performed hundreds of ballads celebrating community and history makers. His work has taken him from rural Alabama to the Lakota communities in South Dakota as he has given musical voice to struggling Midwest farmers, embattled workers, veterans and marginalized communities. He assembled the first hometown tribute to Woody Guthrie in Okemah, Oklahoma, which today has evolved into the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. Now a Smithsonian Folkways recording artist, Long has sung at major concerts and festivals throughout the United States and world, including Awesome Africa Festival (South Africa), Winnipeg Folk Festival (Canada), at the Hollywood Bowl with Kris Kristofferson, and at Madison Square Garden with Joan Baez and others for Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Celebration.
Twin Cities recording artist and actress Tonia Hughes is undoubtedly one of the best kept secrets in the Midwest. Her vocal style is colored with melodic acrobats and elements of Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Rock and Worship. The fusion of which produces a delivery that is authentic, incomparable and electrifying! Besides being a proud recipient of the 2017 -2018 McKnight Fellowship for Musicians, Ms. Hughes has garnered critical acclaim for her leading roles in musical and theatrical productions. Her credits include Caroline or Change (2009), Guthrie Theater; Loves Covers (2010), Women ’s Club of Minneapolis; Mahalia (2011), Fellowship Baptist Church; Cinderella, The Ordway Theater (2011). Black Nativity (2003– present), Penumbra Theater.
J.D. Steele, the eldest Steele sibling, was awarded a Bush Artist Composer Fellowship and is currently the director and founder of the MacPhail Community Youth Choir. When speaking of J.D.’s gifts as a song writer in the acclaimed Burial at Thebes at the Guthrie Theatre, the StarTribune wrote “…Steele made the magic happen”. In 2005, he ventured to Nairobi Kenya and developed a youth choir called Shangilia Youth Ensemble located in one of the largest slums in Africa. His three workshops enabled the choir to make its debut at the Zanzibar Film Festival in Tanzania and have successfully finished a tour in the states. Finally, the choir made its way to the Twin Cities and was presented in concert in 2010 at the prestigious Ordway Theater in St. Paul. He has been commissioned on ten original musicals including the collaboration with his sister, Jevetta, on Two Queens, One Castle at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis and Snapshots; Life in The City at the great American History Theatre in St. Paul. J.D. continues to tour internationally with the musical productions of Bagdad Cafe the Musical and the Gospel at Colonus.
Billy Steele, the youngest of the Steele siblings, performs, writes, and produces for the Grammy Award winning ensemble, the Sounds of Blackness, for who he is currently serving as Assistant Director. He is the co-recipient of three Grammies via this talented ensemble. He continues to write and produce for various artists, including the Steeles. His voice has been heard on soundtracks with artists such as Rod Stewart, Luther Vandross and many more. Recently, he collaborated on the Disney soundtrack Legends, The John Henry Story, narrated by James Earl Jones.
Yohannes Tona is a renowned Ethiopian-born Minneapolis bassist. Tona was born and raised in Awassa, Ethiopia. His father was a church organist and his mother a vocalist. Tona came to the United States in 2000 to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music. He eventually settled in the Twin Cities as the music director at the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in St. Paul. His rich musical background influences his diverse sound from the Afro-beat to Latin-Jazz, from Neo-soul to Funk and Reggae. Tona leads a band under his name and has produced recordings of his own compositions as well as collaborations with Desdamona, Timotha Lanae, #MPLS, Stokley Williams, Larry Long, Foreign Motion, as well as international artists Benoit Delbecq, Nachito Herrera, Jef Lee Johnson, and Sounds of Blackness.
Popular percussionist Daryl Boudreaux has performed and recorded throughout the Twin Cities with a long list of artists, including Bruce Henry, Dennis Spears, Connie Evingson, Prudence Johnson, Dan Kusz, T. Mychal Rambo, Sounds of Blackness, The Steeles and the late Shirley Witherspoon. In addition to his skills on a variety of African percussion instruments, Daryl is also known for his hambone body percussion.
Originally from Baltimore, George Parrish is a guitarist, composer and producer with over 47 years’ experience in the music industry. Throughout his career, he has been in high demand touring and recording with various bands and national artists, such as Eumir Deodato, Cherrell, Heart of the Cities, Seals & Crofts, Sara Renner, Renaud and the Junction, Robert Robinson and the TCC Gospel Choir. He was musical director, tour and production manager for Alexander O’Neal for 21 years (1985-2006). George moved to Minneapolis in 1985, where he currently resides, and runs his production company, Make It Loud Inc., and enjoys performing and recording with various Twin Cities musicians.