Spring 2022 Virtual Series: A View from the Bridge - March 9, 2022
Fifty-seven years ago this month, images of racist brutality burst onto TV screens across America. Pictures of law enforcement violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama confirmed the reality of injustice.
That event, Bloody Sunday, was a wakeup call to a nation still coming to terms with the prophetic words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was a shocking catalyst for change. Yet, as we all know, the dream of justice, voting rights, and fairness is still a work in progress.
On Wednesday, March 9th, 2022, we will honor the legacy of the voting rights struggle. We will recall how America was changed by those 600 women, children and men on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Our 7:30 p.m. EST concert will feature award-winning songwriters Rev. Robert Jones, Crys Matthews, and Alastair Moock. Their brilliantly crafted and timely songs will serve to connect that past to our present-day reality. They will inspire us to redefine and expand our efforts toward justice and inclusion in this landscape of challenge and change.
Join us for an hour of song and conversation as we look to rebuild bridges of hope in this time of division and hate.
If you miss any of the programs in this series, please know that they will be recorded and available for on-demand viewing on our YouTube channel.
That event, Bloody Sunday, was a wakeup call to a nation still coming to terms with the prophetic words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was a shocking catalyst for change. Yet, as we all know, the dream of justice, voting rights, and fairness is still a work in progress.
On Wednesday, March 9th, 2022, we will honor the legacy of the voting rights struggle. We will recall how America was changed by those 600 women, children and men on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Our 7:30 p.m. EST concert will feature award-winning songwriters Rev. Robert Jones, Crys Matthews, and Alastair Moock. Their brilliantly crafted and timely songs will serve to connect that past to our present-day reality. They will inspire us to redefine and expand our efforts toward justice and inclusion in this landscape of challenge and change.
Join us for an hour of song and conversation as we look to rebuild bridges of hope in this time of division and hate.
If you miss any of the programs in this series, please know that they will be recorded and available for on-demand viewing on our YouTube channel.
Musicians
The Rev. Robert Jones, Sr.
Rev. Robert Jones, Sr. is a native Detroiter and an inspirational storyteller and musician celebrating the history, humor and power of American Roots music. His deep love for traditional African American and American traditional music is shared in live performances that interweave timeless stories with original and traditional songs.
For more than thirty years Robert has entertained and educated audiences of all ages in schools, colleges, libraries, union halls, prisons, churches and civil rights organizations. At the heart of his message is the belief that our cultural diversity tells a story that should celebrate, not just tolerate.
Acclaimed photographer James Fraher writes about Robert: “Perhaps the world’s most highly educated blues musician, an ordained minister, a longtime DJ, and a living encyclopedia of blues history, the Reverend Robert Jones is comfortable among juke joint loud talkers, fancy-hatted church ladies, and PhDs alike."
Rev. Robert Jones makes his home in Detroit while performing throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. An award-winning multi-instrumentalist, he is accomplished at guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo and fiddle. He has recorded six albums of original and tradition songs. Robert is the former host of the award-winning radio programs “Blues from the Lowlands” and “Deep River” broadcast on Detroit Public Radio’s WDET-FM Detroit. And he has taught at music history courses at Wayne State University in Detroit. As an ordained minister and a Baptist pastor, he has an unwavering faith the cultural importance of sacred and traditional American roots music. In addition to his solo performances, he often collaborates musically with his wife, Sister Bernice Jones, singer-songwriter Matt Watroba and poet-performer M.L. Liebler.
In 2017 Robert and Matt Watroba co-founded “Common Chords”, 501.c3 educational organization designed to create community, cultural and historical connections through music and the arts. In 2018 Robert received a Kresge Arts Fellowship for Music Composition and Performance. Learn more about Rev. Jones and his music at revrobertjones.com.
For more than thirty years Robert has entertained and educated audiences of all ages in schools, colleges, libraries, union halls, prisons, churches and civil rights organizations. At the heart of his message is the belief that our cultural diversity tells a story that should celebrate, not just tolerate.
Acclaimed photographer James Fraher writes about Robert: “Perhaps the world’s most highly educated blues musician, an ordained minister, a longtime DJ, and a living encyclopedia of blues history, the Reverend Robert Jones is comfortable among juke joint loud talkers, fancy-hatted church ladies, and PhDs alike."
Rev. Robert Jones makes his home in Detroit while performing throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. An award-winning multi-instrumentalist, he is accomplished at guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo and fiddle. He has recorded six albums of original and tradition songs. Robert is the former host of the award-winning radio programs “Blues from the Lowlands” and “Deep River” broadcast on Detroit Public Radio’s WDET-FM Detroit. And he has taught at music history courses at Wayne State University in Detroit. As an ordained minister and a Baptist pastor, he has an unwavering faith the cultural importance of sacred and traditional American roots music. In addition to his solo performances, he often collaborates musically with his wife, Sister Bernice Jones, singer-songwriter Matt Watroba and poet-performer M.L. Liebler.
In 2017 Robert and Matt Watroba co-founded “Common Chords”, 501.c3 educational organization designed to create community, cultural and historical connections through music and the arts. In 2018 Robert received a Kresge Arts Fellowship for Music Composition and Performance. Learn more about Rev. Jones and his music at revrobertjones.com.
Crys Matthews
Washington, DC resident, Crys Matthews is among the brightest stars of the new generation of social justice music-makers — an award-winning, prolific lyricist and composer, blending Americana, folk, blues, bluegrass, and funk into a bold, complex performance steeped in traditional melodies punctuated by honest, original lyrics. She is made for these times. Of Matthews, ASCAP VP & Creative Director Eric Philbrook says, “By wrapping honest emotions around her socially conscious messages and dynamically delivering them with a warm heart and a strong voice, she lifts our spirits just when we need it most in these troubled times.” Justin Hiltner of Bluegrass Situation adds, her gift is a "reminder of what beauty can occur when we bridge those divides."
Matthews was introduced to the national stage in 2013 through strong performances in song contests and wide radio play. She cemented her acclaim at Lincoln Center as the 2017 NewSong Music and Performance Competition grand prize winner and winner of the People’s Music Network’s Social Justice Songs contest at the 2017 Northeast Regional Folk Alliance. That year she also released two new collections — her album called The Imagineers of thoughtful songs on love and life, and her EP called Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers which tackles social justice themes.
Crys Matthews's thoughtful, realistic and emotional songs speak to the voice of today’s generation and remind us why music indeed soothes the soul. Learn more about Matthews and her music at crysmatthews.com.
Matthews was introduced to the national stage in 2013 through strong performances in song contests and wide radio play. She cemented her acclaim at Lincoln Center as the 2017 NewSong Music and Performance Competition grand prize winner and winner of the People’s Music Network’s Social Justice Songs contest at the 2017 Northeast Regional Folk Alliance. That year she also released two new collections — her album called The Imagineers of thoughtful songs on love and life, and her EP called Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers which tackles social justice themes.
Crys Matthews's thoughtful, realistic and emotional songs speak to the voice of today’s generation and remind us why music indeed soothes the soul. Learn more about Matthews and her music at crysmatthews.com.
Alastair Moock
Alastair Moock started performing in 1995, moving from his home outside New York City to the folk haven of Boston. After working his way up through the local coffeehouse and club circuit, he began touring the U.S. and Europe, eventually graduating to renowned events like the Newport Folk Festival and Norway’s Bergen Music Fest and opening for national acts like Arlo Guthrie, Taj Mahal, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Greg Brown. In 2007 Moock was nominated for a Boston Music Award for Outstanding Singer-Songwriter of the Year. The Boston Globe called him “one of the town’s best and most adventurous songwriters” and The Washington Post declared “every song a gem.”
When Moock’s twin kids were born in 2006, he turned his focus to family music, making five albums which together garnered many of the top awards in American children’s music, including a 2013 Grammy Nomination, three Parents’ Choice Gold Medals, and ASCAP’s coveted Joe Raposo Children’s Music Award.
In 2016, Moock returned to ‘grownup music,’ releasing a new self-titled album produced by Mark Erelli (Lori McKenna, Josh Ritter trio) and featuring drummer Marco Giovino (Robert Plant, Buddy Miller) and bassist Marty Ballou (Peter Wolf, John Hammond Jr.). The end result was eleven shimmering new tracks that evoke a wide breadth of American musical textures – early Nashville, country blues, Western swing, a tinge of gospel – but, most of all, the kind of intimate storyteller’s approach at which Moock excels. On the album’s release, Rich Warren of the nationally syndicated Midnight Special proclaimed, “Moock reemerges as the best new, old singer-songwriter on the scene.”
In his own words, Alastair is now “firing on all cylinders,” performing shows for adults, kids, and everyone in between. Like the folk and blues heroes to whom he often pays tribute in his shows – Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, Pete Seeger – Moock makes little distinction between his audiences: “Music is music, people are people. I just want to tell stories.” Learn more about Moock and his music at moockmusic.com.
When Moock’s twin kids were born in 2006, he turned his focus to family music, making five albums which together garnered many of the top awards in American children’s music, including a 2013 Grammy Nomination, three Parents’ Choice Gold Medals, and ASCAP’s coveted Joe Raposo Children’s Music Award.
In 2016, Moock returned to ‘grownup music,’ releasing a new self-titled album produced by Mark Erelli (Lori McKenna, Josh Ritter trio) and featuring drummer Marco Giovino (Robert Plant, Buddy Miller) and bassist Marty Ballou (Peter Wolf, John Hammond Jr.). The end result was eleven shimmering new tracks that evoke a wide breadth of American musical textures – early Nashville, country blues, Western swing, a tinge of gospel – but, most of all, the kind of intimate storyteller’s approach at which Moock excels. On the album’s release, Rich Warren of the nationally syndicated Midnight Special proclaimed, “Moock reemerges as the best new, old singer-songwriter on the scene.”
In his own words, Alastair is now “firing on all cylinders,” performing shows for adults, kids, and everyone in between. Like the folk and blues heroes to whom he often pays tribute in his shows – Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, Pete Seeger – Moock makes little distinction between his audiences: “Music is music, people are people. I just want to tell stories.” Learn more about Moock and his music at moockmusic.com.