ABOUT
THE SHOW:
What
the Press Says:
"The audience
laughed, got to their
feet and cheered,
or simply sat open-mouthed
as she gave us the
blues, on a blue
harp – plucked,
not blown, but fired
up with soul nonetheless." The
Scottsman
"She's
reshaping the serenely
Olympian
harp into a jazz
instrument
by warping it closer
to the blues.” -
New York
Times
"
After seeing Deborah
Henson-Conant in concert...
I know harp music can
be anything from the
blues to classical
to flamenco, and all
of it beautiful." The
Cape Codder
“
She plays stuff
you just
wouldn’t
think could possibly
come from the
intrument
that St. Peter
hands out
to new arrivals
at the pearly
gates. She
slapped
the lower strings
like an electric
bass player
laying
down a funk
line. She worked
the
sharpening
levers at the top
of
her Celtic
instrument
to
imitate a blues guitarist bending notes.” Grand Rapids Press
"[She]
sings and plays the blues with a deep
spirituality, expressiveness
and harmonic sense
matched by few
other performers
today,
and animates everything she touches with a spine-tingling sense of
gently propulsive
rhythmic drive.” Buffalo News
"The
Jimi Hendrix
of the harp." Guitar
legend Steve
Vai |
What
the Artist Says:
A HARP-STRUNG BLUES SHOW is BLUES
HARP ... with a Twist:
Tix, details, bio & links
to hi-res photos below
in the "Who, What,
When, Where" section
below
Hear
the term "Blues
Harp" and
most people think "Harmonica" --
but I take a different
meaning. I
play a 32-string
electric
harp
that I strap on like
an electric guitar
- and I
play Blues. On a
harp.
It's
just a different way
of
thinking. Most people
think "Harp =
Classical Music" -
but thinking the
harp is a classical
instrument is as narrow
as thinking
all dogs are poodles. Any instrument can play any style of music and when it does, it opens a whole new world of sound.
My
name is Deborah
Henson-Conant, and
Blues is a huge
part of my voice - both
what
I sing and what
I
play on my instrument.
OK,
there's a second little
twist here. I
don't play a 'normal'
concert
harp. A
normal concert harp
is 6-feet tall, weighs 75
pounds, has 47 strings
and is made of wood
- like a boat. My
harp weighs 11 pounds,
has 32 strings
and is made of carbon
fibre -- like a racing
bike. It's
got a bronze
finish.
Nothing
against the concert
harp, just
don't try
strapping it on.
I
know, because that's
what I tried to do
for years until I
met Joel Garnier in France, who was then the world's
most visionary harp
builder. I brought him my prototype and told him my dream of playing a powerful, wearable electric harp.
His company,
CAMAC, spent the
next two decades
developing what's
now known as the
world's
top electric
harp. And
it's named after me, the "DHC
Light" - one
of the greatest honors
of my
life.
It's kind of like wearing a physical
extension of the
human body - like the way a centaur might experience running with the legs of a horse: the sense of this 'otherness' extending my own musical voice.
As for Blues, I
always play Blues at
every
show I do,
whether
it's
with a symphony orchestra
or on a solo stage
- but no matter how
much
I play,
people ask for more. So
each January I present an all-Blues show at "The
Center for Arts in
Natick" (TCAN),
because in the drear New England post-New Year's January we all need a lift-- and
that's what I need
to play: Blues
Harp ... with a twist.
I don't play covers of classic Blues tunes (although that would be cool) - I explore the idea of Blues in every musical idiom I can find from Gershwin's 'Summertime' to my own Blues about Watermelons and Canine Cultural Exchange Programs - to Blues Hybrids like "Claude Debussy meets the Blues."
On my instrument
I can bend
notes, wail on solos, add
distortion - and
I also sing when
I play - and I often use a 'looper'
pedal which lets
me record
quick snips on the
fly, right
in front of the audience,
and layer them
to create a sounds
as full
as a whole band.
You
can get an idea
of what I do on this short
video:
BRIEF ARTIST BIO
DEBORAH HENSON-CONANT is a Grammy-Nominated
recording
artist. Guitar
Legend Steve
Vai calls her "The
Jimi Hendrix of
the Harp," NPR's
Scott Simon calls
her "the
[imagined] lovechild
of André Previn and Lucille
Ball." She
sings and plays
electric harp. She
composes for symphony. She
performs one-woman
shows and concerts
internationally.
She debuted with
the Boston
Pops, opened for
Ray Charles at
Tanglewood, had
her
own music special
on PBS, jammed
onstage with Bobby
McFerrin and offstage
with
Steven
Tyler. She's
been featured on
CBS "Sunday
Morning," NBC's "Today
Show" and
NPR's "Weekend
Edition."
For
the past 20 years
she's collaborated
with CAMAC
Harps in France
to
develop her signature harp, the "DHC-Light," the
world's top-selling
carbon-fibre electric
harp.
WHO, WHAT, WHEN
AND WHERE
WHO: GRAMMY® Nominated
Electric Harpist
Deborah Henson-Conant
WHAT: 4th Annual "Lose Your Blues" Special
BLUES Show
WHEN: Sat.
Jan. 10, 2015
at 8:00pm
WHERE: TCAN (The
Center for Arts
in Natick) 14
Summer St. Natick,
MA 01760
TIX: $24 for
members, $26
non-members,
Discounts available
for seniors & students
MORE
INFO & TIX: http://www.natickarts.org/performance/deborah-henson-conant-lose-your-blues
ARTIST
WEBSITE: http://www.HipHarp.com
For
more artist
info or to
schedule
an interview,
contact:
Beatriz Harley, info@HipHarp.com, 781-483-3556
More
Info: http://www.hipharp.com/publicity.html
Hi-Res Images: http://www.hipharp.com/pressphotos.html ARTIST
WEBSITE & SOCIAL
MEDIA:
• WEBSITE: http://www.HipHarp.com
• FACEBOOK
OFFICIAL PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/HipHarp
• BLOG: http://HipHarp.com/blog
• TWITTER: http://twitter.com/HipHarpist
• YOUTUBE
CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/HipHarpist
• LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hipharp
• PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/hipharp/
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