What happens when three musicians - each a formidable musical force in her own right - come together onstage? A rockin' good time. Marcia Ball joins Bettye LaVette and Maria Muldaur, Sisters in Soul at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on Saturday, March 20 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $50, $45 and $40. This presentation is part of the Arts & Minds season.

Recently, LaVette knocked out "The Music of the Who" audience at Carnegie Hall when she performed her simple, piano-accompanied version of "Love Reign O'er Me." Jon Pareles, writing for The New York Times said, "She took the song to church, with her voice opening up from a tight little rasp to bluesy curves to sweeping gospel flourishes. Ms. LaVette made the song - which is due to appear on her coming album - a desperate prayer. She captured the other essence of the Who: the wounds behind the bravado..."

LaVette's Carnegie Hall performance follows a transcendent moment in her career when she sang the same Who song in a duet with Bon Jovi for President Barack Obama at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2008. LaVette told the Dallas Morning News , "When I got to the line ‘I always believed a change would come,' my eyes fixed on [Obama] and I was kinda stunned. Our eyes locked and he was mouthing the words along."

With her Grammy-nominated CD, "The Scene of the Crime," LaVette conquered the ghosts of a hard-luck past and takes on the future as she blends her remarkable talent with Ball's indomitable energy, simmering soul fervor and two-fisted piano pounding that is her trademark.

Ball's special brand of hotter-than-hot and smoldering blend of swampy R&B fuses with her deeply emotive vocals and her incisive, often poignant songwriting to make this artist a one-of-a-kind favorite of music fans all over the world. The Boston Herald says, "Her voice can break your heart with a ballad or break your back with a rocker." The Austin Chronicle heralds her as "a class act whose soulful, horn-laden swamp pop and murderous honky-tonk make her a stellar example of musical artistry."

Muldaur's path to musical greatness is legendary. Her musical roots come from the great country and western singers Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb.

Raised in New York City, Muldaur grew up with like-minded young musicians like John Sebastian, Bob Dylan and John Hammond, Jr. They, and others of their generation, forged a new wave in American roots music. Muldaur sought out and was inspired by the pure mountain music of Doc Watson and blues legends like Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt and blues diva Victoria Spivey.

Over the years, her talent grew and evolved as she worked with several bands and in various musical collaborations. A chance encounter with Mo Ostin, the president of Reprise Records, gave her the opportunity to make her first solo album, which went platinum in two years and forever enshrined her in the minds of baby boomers the world over. "Midnight at the Oasis" remains to this day a staple song on multi-format radio.

The Sisters in Soul travel to the Quick Center by different paths and fortunately they converge in Fairfield with an exuberance that cannot be contained.

Tickets are available online at fairfield.edu/quick or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. Special offers and discounts are available through the Quick Center's e-mail list. Join, by contacting boxoffice@quickcenter.com . And become a fan of the Quick Center for the Arts on Facebook! Keep up-to-date with the latest performance news, plus special offers and discounts! Find the Quick Center at www.facebook.com/FairfieldQuickCenter.

Directions: Fairfield University is located off I-95, exit 22 at 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824.

Posted On: 03-04-2010 10:03 AM

Volume: 42 Number: 222