Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

ELLNORA: Keb’ Mo’ Band

Friday, September 11, 2009, at 10pm | Tryon Festival Theatre

ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival | A hopeful, resonant anthem called “A Brand New America” by three-time Grammy winner Keb’ Mo’ joins the flowing beats of will.i.am, an impassioned and audacious piece by Nas, and other tributes to Barack Obama on the iTunes 2009 Presidential Inauguration page. This elastic artist has the agile acoustic idioms and confident slides that link him to the Delta blues of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and the jazzy licks and clarion voice colored with “a wink and a grin” that transform him into the quintessential storytelling bluesman on his “effervescent” and “wonderfully engaging” songs (All Music Guide).

Mo’ has taken his down-home style into projects with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Dr. John, the Dixie Chicks, Eric Clapton, and 2007 guitar festival performer Buddy Guy for electrified pop, jazz, and rock and roll. He “can play a mean guitar and growl with the best foot-stompers,” but it’s his inflections of world sounds and unclouded optimism in the face of hard truths that transport him—and us—beyond his musical groundwork and into a buoyant future (The New York Times).

Go to the official ELLNORA web site
Corporate Power Train Engine:
Eastland Suites Hotel and Conference Center
Scanics

Corporate Power Train Sponsors:
WCIA 3
JSM Development

Patron Sponsor:
Anonymous

Corporate Gold Sponsor:
One Main Development

Patron Co-sponsors:
Frances and Marc Ansel
Jean Huddleston, Kelly Foster, and Paul Foster
A. Mark Neuman
Mary and George Perlstein
Carol and Ed Scharlau

Corporate Silver Sponsors:
Chief/Bauer Heating & Air Conditioning
Dean’s Graphic Division
Hendrick House
The Blind Man Hunter Douglas Gallery

Corporate Bronze Sponsors:
Bacca Cigar Company
Barham Benefit Group
Fluid Events LLC
Precision Graphics
Jeffrey Van Buren, Senior Vice President-Investments of Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, and Valerie Van Buren

Regional Grant:
Arts Midwest

Additional Support: Fluid Events, LLC