The Arhoolie Foundation has teamed up with Little Village Foundation to produce “Working From Home,” a video series of mini house concerts recorded live by traditional musicians trying to make it through the current public health crisis doing what they do best. Please join us in supporting these working musicians by donating directly to them through the links provided. We will match the first $500 in donations to each.
This week’s episode features Mary Flower, an award-winning guitarist/singer/songwriter whose instrumental style draws from blues, ragtime, jazz, folk, and more. DownBeat called her “a world-class finger-style guitarists and lap-slide player.” Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna called her “a national treasure in your own backyard.” Here she is in her own backyard, on Working From Home.
Donate directly to Mary Flower:
(Together, AF & LVF will match the first $500 donated)
Mary Flower is an internationally renowned award-winning Portland, Oregon-based singer/guitarist/songwriter whose seasoned skills have established her as one of America’s foremost roots performers. Flower combines a deep historical knowledge with a restless creativity that keeps her music evolving into new creative territory while echoing influences from Piedmont to the Mississippi Delta, with additional stops at ragtime, swing, folk, and hot jazz.
An Indiana native, Flower relocated from Denver to the vibrant Portland music scene in 2004. Since then, she’s continued to impress crowds and critics at folk festivals in America and abroad, including Merlefest, Kerrville, King Biscuit, A Prairie Home Companion and the Vancouver Folk Festival, while maintaining a parallel career as a renowned guitar teacher. Along the way, she’s twice been a Finalist in the National Finger Picking Guitar Championship, as well as being nominated three times for the Blues Foundation‘s prestigious “Blues Music Award.”
Last year, Little Village Foundation released her latest album, Livin’ with the Blues Again, a sampler of sorts, offering a representative cross-section of her favorite numbers from her live repertoire. In addition to Flower’s own picking and singing, Livin’ with the Blues Again also showcases key contributions from acclaimed Bay Area violinist (and Arhoolie Foundation Board member) Suzy Thompson, who plays and sings on several tracks, as well as the gospel vocal combo and labelmates The Sons of the Soul Revivers, whose distinctive harmonies grace three of the album’s so
