A singer-songwriter whose childhood was split between rural Kentucky and New York City will bring her unique blend of music to Iowa next week for two stops.
Martha Redbone is on a national tour offering songs — and stories — which she says aim to lend a voice to issues of social justice, while bridging traditions and cultures from the past and present.
“The music is based in American roots music, so we have blues and folk and gospel and we go into rhythm and blues a little bit,” Redbone says, “but mostly it’s the idea of folk and gospel and blues, kind of a combination of that with storytelling.”
The 58-year-old is Native and African-American, as her father was a gospel singer and her mother had roots in the Cherokee, Shawnee and Choctaw nations. In her teens, Redbone met country legend Willie Nelson at the opening of the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, and he remains one of her enduring heroes.
“I remember when he made country music, people were saying that he didn’t sound like everybody else,” Redbone says. “And his songwriting was so beautiful and his voice is so beautiful, and he’s still here, and so he inspires me. Music brings out the child spirit in everybody and you can live forever just singing and storytelling.”
When you play music, she says, you’re representing all the people who’ve influenced your life, your family, your teachers. One of her early mentors was songwriter and producer Walter “Junie” Morrison, a member of the prominent ’70s funk band, Parliament Funkadelic.
“What I loved about being mentored by Junie Morrison, who wrote a lot of hit songs and stuff for P. Funk, is every rule that somebody makes about music is meant to be broken,” Redbone says. “There aren’t these boxes that people try to fit you into, and our job as musicians and songwriters is, we are writing the songs that we hope resonate with people and their emotions.”
Redbone and her band will perform April 11th at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City, and April 12th at the Temple Theater in Des Moines.
Hear Matt Kelley’s full interview with Martha Redbone below. Running time: 6:46