Songwriter’s Evening – The Roots Project with Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby
Field Hall Presents: Songwriter’s Evening – The Roots Project with Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby
Thursday, September 24 @ 7PM | Sunset Lounge
*Tickets $40 General Admission, $55 VIP | CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
Financial assistance available – click here to apply
*Our ticketing platform Ludus charges a 5% service fee for all card transactions. To avoid this fee, visit our Box Office at 201 W. Front Street and pay via cash or check. Hours: Monday-Saturday 10AM-2PM.
Led by the extraordinary Martha Redbone and longtime collaborator Aaron Whitby, The Roots Project is an experience that is more than a concert: a journey through American music, storytelling, and shared cultural memory. Hailed as “a brilliant collision of cultures,” the ensemble weaves together folk, blues, gospel, and soul with Indigenous musical traditions to create a sound that is at once timeless and urgently contemporary.
In this stripped-down songwriter format, the evening unfolds with an intimate, conversational energy. Redbone’s powerhouse vocals—shaped by her Afro-Indigenous heritage and Appalachian upbringing—blend with Whitby’s expressive piano and musical direction, creating a rich sonic landscape that moves effortlessly between genres and emotional registers. Through story and song, they share reflections on identity, resilience, and the human spirit, inviting audiences not just to listen, but to connect.
Expect a performance that feels both deeply rooted and spontaneously alive: songs that draw from ancestral traditions and contemporary influences, interwoven with humor, history, and heartfelt storytelling. Past performances by the Roots Project are known for their communal spirit—often blurring the line between stage and audience through call-and-response, storytelling, and a shared sense of purpose.
Set against the sweeping waterfront views of the Sunset Lounge, an intimate gathering space known for its warm ambiance, craft cocktails, and relaxed pre-show atmosphere, this Songwriter’s Evening invites audiences into a deeply personal, soul-stirring musical experience.
Whether you’re discovering Martha Redbone for the first time or returning to her work, this evening offers a rare opportunity to experience one of America’s most vital voices in an up-close, immersive setting—where every note, every story, and every moment resonates.
ABOUT MARTHA REDBONE
Martha Redbone is a vocalist, songwriter, composer and 2021 United States Artist fellow and multi award-winning musician, she is celebrated for her tasty gumbo of roots music embodying the folk and mountain blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian hills of Black Mountain, Kentucky, infused with the eclectic grit of her teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting her powerful gospel-singing father’s voice and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Southeastern culture and heritage, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music with songs and storytelling that give voice to issues of social justice, connecting cultures and celebrating the human spirit. Martha works in partnership with longtime collaborator/husband Aaron Whitby.
Her album The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake (produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder and Grammy-winner John McEuen), is “a brilliant collision of cultures” (New Yorker). Redbone and Whitby are the composers, arrangers and orchestrators of original music and score for the 2022 Broadway revival of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuff, the 1976 classic choreopoem by the late Ntozake Shange, which garnered seven Tony Award nominations and critical acclaim. Redbone and Whitby are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play and the 2020 Audelco Award recipient for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for the Off-Broadway revival.
ABOUT AARON WHITBY
Aaron Whitby is an award-winning pianist, songwriter, composer, record producer, and engineer known for his work with an array of noteworthy artists, including George Clinton, Natalie Cole, Randy Brecker. Born and bred in London, England, Whitby is best known for his work with his longtime collaborator and wife, Martha Redbone. Whitby is the brainchild behind Cousin from Another Planet- a Jazz and Visual exploration project, receiving critical acclaim and accolades from music journalist and critic Greg Tate as “Percolating, stimulating and motor- booty activatin’…”. Additional works from the Redbone/Whitby composer team include “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor directed by Karin Coonrod (2022), “HUMAN” an exploration in puppetry directed by Nehprii Amenii (2024), song contribution for “Primer for a Failed Superpower” directed by Rachel Chavkin (2019); “Flood in the Valley”, a Chinese -American musical collaboration directed by Michael Liebenluft (2018), “Stars” – Privacy in the Digital Age in 5-Minute Plays (2018), commissioned by the New York Theater Workshop and Goethe Institute, and many more. Whitby and Redbone are recipients of Creative Capital awardees, the New England Foundation for the Arts Award, MAPFund and National Performance Network Creation Fund. The team are currently in development with Black Mountain Women, a new musical directed by Les Waters, book by Naomi Iizuka, commissioned by the Public Theater, NY. As with Redbone, we are excited to partner with Whitby because of his unique and energetic musical collaborations with Redbone that highlight, preserve, and share the stories, cultures, and voices of our country’s marginalized communities.
Our mission is to make art accessible to everyone. Financial assistance is available for this event through our #fieldhallforall program. Patrons can request a discount of up to 100%. Click here to apply for financial assistance.
