Spencer Bohren: New Orleans to KC
Spencer Bohren, long-time New Orleans blues guitarist, performs at BB’s Lawnside BBQ Friday, Oct. 19 at 9pm.
Bohren plays guitar, lap steel guitar, banjo, and percussion in blues, country, gospel and folk styles. He has released fourteen albums since 1984, and is featured in the October edition of Offbeat Magazine.
“Bohren has built an international reputation as a bluesman, songwriter and more recently as a professional storyteller. He’s also a visual artist whose cigar box assemblages have been the subject of numerous gallery presentations.”
Bohren has performed on the A Prairie Home Companion radio program and at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
His latest album, Blackwater Music (2011) puts a spotlight on environmental irresponsibility in Louisiana and his home state of Wyoming. His first record, Born in a Biscayne (1984) which features Dr. John was recently remastered.
On the lecture circuit, Bohren gives a musical overview of American roots music, in a performance called Down the Dirt Road Blues, which traces the journey of a single song, “Dirt Road Blues,” from Africa to the days of slavery in the American South, through the modern age. He uses vintage instruments to orchestrate the story as it evolves through history.
