Artist Talk with Jake Blount| Friday, March 13, 7 p.m. | Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: FREE
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FOGARTYVILLE TICKETS HERE!
Historic Asolo Theater & WSLR+Fogartyville Presents
TALK WITH JAKE BLOUNT
In partnership with The Ringling Museum’s Historic Asolo Theater (HAT) and Art of Performance series, Fogartyville/WSLR is offering a series of dynamic artist talks with the HAT’s season artists, including American music scholar Jake Blount. Each of these artists fuse tradition with innovation in ways that mix disciplines and genres at the avant guarde of their forms. Each talk will take place live on stage at Fogartyville and offer audiences an opportunity to hear their distinct artist origin stories, learn about unsuspecting creative processes and catch a sneak peek of each show with a live sample of their work.
SPECIAL GUEST MODERATOR WSLR PROGRAM DIRECTOR LEON KERBER
Interested in seeing the full show? Fogartyville/WSLR members and Artist Talk attendees get 20% off show tickets. Use promo code WSLRLIVE2026 at ringling.org. For assistance and additional show information, please contact the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office:
Hours: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Daily Phone: 941-360-7399
Email: historicasolo@ringling.org
Online tickets: https://www.ringling.org/event/jake-blount/
Jake Blount
Jake Blount (pronounced: blunt) is an award-winning musician and scholar based in Providence, RI. He is half of the internationally touring duo Tui, a 2020 recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, and a two-time winner of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival (better known as Clifftop). A specialist in the early folk music of Black Americans, Blount is a skilled performer of spirituals, blues and string band repertoire. Blount has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Newport Folk Festival, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and numerous other venues across and beyond the United States. He has presented his scholarly work at museums and universities including the Smithsonian Institution, Berklee College of Music and Yale University. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, No Depression, and NPR. His most recent album, The New Faith, is the latest installment of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ African American Legacy Series.
Blount released his debut solo album, Spider Tales2020 through Free Dirt Records. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart and received widespread critical praise. The Guardian declared it an “instant classic” and awarded it five out of five stars. Spider Tales later appeared on “Best of 2020” lists from NPR, Bandcamp, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and elsewhere. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2021 International Folk Music Awards and received “Best of the Americas” at the Songlines Music Awards in the same year.
Blount’s latest record, The New Faith, was released on September 23, 2022 as part of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ African American Legacy Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Most recently, Blount has been nominated for Artist of the Year at the 2023 International Folk Music Awards.
