Piedmont Blues guitarist Shelton Powe will release a new self-titled album of solo acoustic tunes this Fall for Volume 55 of the Music Maker Foundation’s Listener’s Circle series. Arriving Oct 1st, 2022 for members and Nov 4th, 2022, for the general public, the collection is “a timeless mix of century-old traditional songs and newly-written material” delivered with Powe’s fingerstyle guitar work and gritty vocals across 14 tracks.
Born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1957, Powe grew up surrounded by gifted instrumentalists, singers, and dancers, but it wasn’t until after the deaths of his mother and father in the late 1980s that he began connecting with the rhythms and melodies he’d been raised around. Picking up the guitar as a tribute to his deceased mother, Shelton set out to learn old-time Blues and Gospel the way he remembered it, revisiting his childhood through song.
ABOUT MUSIC MAKER FOUNDATION:
For more than 25 years, Music Maker Foundation has worked to preserve and promote the musical traditions of the American South. Since 1994 they have partnered with senior roots musicians living in poverty, sustaining their day-to-day needs while building their careers. Through Music Maker, our rich musical heritage will not be lost with the passing of time. Music Maker has been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR Weekend Edition and CBS Evening News and has assisted hundreds of musicians.
