Manitou Music Festival features Mulebone, THUMMp
From staff reports
On Sunday, July 21 at 8 p.m. the blues duo Mulebone will perform outdoors at Studio Stage, located at Lake Street Studios in Glen Arbor, as part of the Glen Arbor Art Association’s Manitou Music Festival. The rain location is the Glen Arbor Town Hall. The festival is celebrating its 23rd season of jazz, classical, blues, folk, country, celtic, bluegrass and world music on the Leelanau Peninsula.
Mulebone is a partnership comprised of multi-instrumentalist John Ragusa and roots music specialist Hugh Pool. The launching pad for their musical expression is traditional blues. Together they have recorded a CD which spent 15 weeks in the Top 100 Albums in America. Along with playing live and TV appearances, they won blues artist of the year at radio stations from Seattle, Wash., to Red Bank, NJ.
Together in Mulebone, Hugh and John play slide guitar boogies, one-chord trance riffs a la Howlin Wolf, up-tempo rags of Reverend Gary Davis and country blues of all shapes and colors. Sometimes they play close to the source, almost as if tracing the image, and at other moments, they re-examine the source, float above it to take a new look as if seeing one’s home from a distant land.
Ragusa plays conch shell, Jews harp, cornet, all manner of flutes, tin whistle, and chimes in on the harmony vocals. He is a member of Beth Nielson Chapman’s group as well as his own John Ragusa outfit, and plays regularly in conjunction with Deepak Chopra’s speaking engagements. Amongst dozens of studio credits are contemporary jazz greats: Joe Taylor, Jeremy Wall and world music icon Tom Ze. Hugh says, “One time we were in Lexington, Kentucky sitting at an outdoor cafe and John played me a bunch of melodies sliding a straw up and down in a cup of ice water”.
Hugh Pool plays guitars, harmonica, boot board and sings, all with a mouth full of whiskey and a giant heart. He has played his brand of blues in clubs and at festivals from Jakarta to North Cape, Norway; From Vienna to Ottawa, and has been critically lauded by the New York Times, New York Press, the Village Voice, Pittsburgh Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Blues Revue Magazine. He is also a noted producer who has worked on hundreds of records at his Williamsburg, Brooklyn studio, Excello, working with musicians such as Taj Mahal, Debbie Harry and Marah.
The Manitou Music Festival brings the acapella group THUMMp to the Top of Bay Mountain at The Homestead in Glen Arbor, Thursday, July 25, at 7 p.m.
THUMMp hails from Detroit, where classic rock meets Motown. The band brings energy and a unique perspective on acapella to the stage. Armed with experience and five distinct personalities, THUMMp (seen on Sing Off auditions and “America’s Got Talent”) knows how to please. They will dazzle the audience at the top of The Homestead ski hill (arrive by chair lift or golf cart).
Plenty of chairs are set up for the audience or bring a blanket. Snacks and drinks will be available for purchase at the venue. No carry-in personal food or drink is permitted. A silent auction will be held. Tickets cost $20 (children not free). Rain location: The Homestead Mountain Flowers Lodge.
Please visit www.ManitouMusicFestival.com for information. All Tickets are $15 (Children 18 and under are free, except for the July 25 concert) Tickets may be purchased at concert venues; or by calling the Glen Arbor Art Association (231) 334-6112 or Lake Street Studios (231) 334-3179.
