(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Cowboy singer Don Edwards, who favors the Western half of the Country & Western equation, performs at MASS MoCA in the Hunter Center on Friday, November 8, 2013, at 8pm
No one knows cowboy lore like Grammy Award-nominated singer and guitarist Don Edwards. Equal parts historian, musicologist, and balladeer, Edwards croons and spins canonical tales of the American West with passion, poetry, and sharp factual detail.
Edwards’ love affair with music, specifically cowboy blues, started early in life. His first public performance was as a boy on the 1940s rag circuit with his musical-magician father. At nine, he taught himself to play the guitar. Since his precocious entry into music, he has recorded numerous albums, two of which – Guitars & Saddle Songs and Songs of the Cowboy – are included in the Folklore Archives of the Library of Congress.
As Edwards puts it, “I’ve always been interested in the old-time cowboy singers – the guys who roamed around the West and up the cattle trails. They were very much akin to the old country blues guys of the American South; of course, they didn’t have a name for it back then, but that’s what it was.”
He has published two books, Classic Cowboy Songs and Saddle Songs: A Cowboy Songbag, and has been awarded numerous honors, including induction into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame. As diverse of talent as he is dedicated, Edwards played the role of “Smokey” in Robert Redford’s film The Horse Whisperer, and contributed to the score of the Warner Herzog film, Grizzly Man.
Edwards is “the best purveyor of cowboy music in America today”, according to Bobby Weaver of the National Cowboy Western Heritage Museum. In his performances, the cowboy crooner deals with bad weather, petty motivation, sadness, nostalgia, and longing.
A full bar, and dinner and snacks from Lickety Split, are available before and during the show. Tickets are $45 for premium seats, $20 in advance, and $25 day of. Members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office, located on Marshall Street in North Adams, from 11am until 5pm (open every day, except Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 x1 during box office hours or purchased online at MASS MoCA.
MASS MoCA is one of the world’s liveliest (and largest) centers for making and enjoying the best new art of our time, across all media: music, art, dance, theater, film, and video. Hundreds of works of visual and performing art have been created on its factory campus during fabrication and rehearsal residencies in North Adams, making MASS MoCA among the most productive sites in the country for the creation and presentation of new art. MASS MoCA strives to bring its audiences art and experiences that are fresh, engaging, and transformative.
MASS MoCA’s galleries are open 11am – 5pm every day except Tuesdays. Seasonal exhibitions are open from April 15 to November 15. Gallery hours are often extended on evenings featuring performing arts events. Gallery admission is $15 for adults, $10 for students, $5 for children
6-16, and free for children 5 and under. Members are admitted free year-round. For additional information, call 413.662.2111 x1 or visit MASS MoCA.