FORT PAYNE, AL – Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Norman Blake is perhaps best known as one of the most prominent acoustic guitar flatpickers in the world. Among the several instruments he plays, are included the mandolin, 6-string banjo, banjo, fiddle, dobro, and viola. He will appear as one of the signature artists in this year’s 10th annual Boom Days Heritage Celebration in the City of Fort Payne, Alabama on Saturday September 19, 2015, as part of a trio that will also feature his wife Nancy Blake and Lookout Mountain fiddle master James Bryan. The performance will take place in the early afternoon on the Verizon Wireless City Park Traditional Music Stage. Admission to the event and the performance are free.
Blake has toured and recorded with some of the greatest musical luminaries in American music including Johnny Cash, June Carter, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, Ralph Stanley, and Joan Baez. Blake also played on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, garnering a Gold Record. He is well known for his work with John Hartford, Tony Rice, and his wife, Nancy Blake. From 1969 to 1971 he was a regular on ABC's The Johnny Cash Show, supplementing Cash's ‘Tennessee Three’ band.
Blake is listed in the credits of the Bob Dylan album Nashville Skyline and the Johnny Cash album Orange Blossom Special. He was featured on the Steve Earle comeback album Train A' Comin' and on the multi-platinum O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which ignited new interest in old time music and won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. Blake participated in the "Down from the Mountain" tour which resulted. Blake also played on the 2007 album Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which won five Grammy Awards.
Legendary recording producer T Bone Burnett has said of Blake, “He is one of a handful of the best acoustic guitar players in the world.”
Most of the music that Norman Blake plays could be described as neo-traditionalist Americana folk and roots music (folk, bluegrass, country, blues). Blake has also written songs that have become bluegrass standards, such as "Ginseng Sullivan" from Back Home in Sulphur Springs, "Slow Train through Georgia", and "Church Street Blues".
Blake has produced 33 albums and has recorded on the Rounder, Flying Fish, Country, Takoma, Shanachie, Red House, Dualtone, and Plectrafone/Western Jubilee labels. In addition to his Grammy Award from the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, Mr. Blake has received 4 separate Grammy nominations in the “Best Traditional Folk Recording” category.
RECENT PRESS:
NPR “Fresh Air” Interview with Terry Gross (March 20, 1015):
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/19/394050167/bluegrass-musician-norman-blake-releases-an-album-of-original-songs
FOR CITY OF FORT PAYNE BOOM DAYS HERITAGE CELEBRATION INFO:
VISIT: http://www.boomdays.org
CONTACT: Daron K. Harris, Communications Director, p: (347) 639-4740,
e: dharris887@aol.com.
