Martha Redbone & Friends
Fundraising Concert for the United Houma Nation of Louisiana

Martha brings her beautiful voice, music and tremendous spirit back home to Sedona, for a very special and important concert.  The Houma people, who live in the Bayous south of New Orleans, were ravaged by both Hurricane Katrina and Rita last year which left thousands of families homeless.  There are still 4,000 children in temporary accommodations.  Tonight Martha will be perform songs of rhythm, blues and peace with members of her recording band, Aaron Whitby on piano, Alan Burroughs, guitar and Toby Williams on percussion and drums along with special guests.  Saturday June 17, 2006, at 7:30 pm in the Great Room (doors open at 7).  Minimum Donation: $15.  Tickets available at Crystal Magic and The Golden Word Book Centre.   We thank you for your generous support for the Houma people.   This will be an evening not to be missed.  Book early.  For more info on Martha Redbone, go to www.martharedbone.com

The Houma Nation

The United Houma Nation were completely overlooked by FEMA and the Red Cross and have been solely reliant on private donations and volunteers.  There were no televised visits from President Bush, any of his representatives or any of the mainstream celebrities from Oprah to Julia Roberts who were so visible to us eight months ago.  They are truly the forgotten people.  This is yet another chapter in a long history of neglect and abuse that these incredibly resilient and spiritual people have had to endure.  The Houma people have been at the frontlines of the battle for decades to preserve the wetlands that historically protected New Orleans as they have been encroached on violently by the oil and gas companies who have treated their homeland as a convenient dumping ground for toxic waste and have continuously expanded into their territory.  And as indigenous peoples of the Gulf Coast they cannot just leave their ancestral home.

Martha has been very involved in trying to publicize the plight of the Houma Nation.  She first met them and Principal Chief Brenda Dardar Robichaux at her debut performance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2004.  In 2005 when she returned to Jazz Fest Martha also gave a concert in Houma for all the schoolchildren of the tribe.  One of her most notable achievements was in having Dennis Banks divert his 2006 Sacred Run to the Bayou where 45 marathon runners spent 5 days helping to raise morale, and bringing much needed publicity to the state of affairs there.  At a benefit concert held that weekend Martha presented the tribe with a ceremonial drum as a token of healing and rebirth.  The drum, handmade by Dennis Banks and his sons, was originally a gift from Dennis to Martha.  After learning the news about Houma, Martha asked her good friend, the internationally renowned fine artist Synthia Saint James, if she’d be willing to help.  Synthia painted the drum in her signature style based on the theme of the Mother Spirit.  This drum now painted, is valued at $25,000, and, in Chief Brenda’s words “will forever be a symbol of healing and the generosity of the spirit” and will be displayed in the main lobby of the tribal council headquarters.  Martha will begin a series of benefit concerts across the country that will help contribute to the rebuilding of the Bayous and help heal the indigenous nations along the Gulf Coast.  Martha will also return to Louisiana early June to play two benefit concerts for the Houma children’s summer camp program.

Martha feels that the people and friends of Sedona are very in touch with the needs of spiritual people everywhere, and that Sedona Creative Life Center is the perfect venue for a fundraiser. “Our aim is to raise at least $2,000 this night, which would be enough money to re-roof at least one family’s home” says Redbone.

CD's by Martha Redbone

Martha Redbone – singer/songwriter/producer/artist

Every once in a while, you meet a woman of inimitable style. The kind of woman for whom clothes are less a statement than an artist's palette. The kind of woman whose best accessory is her smile. Martha Redbone is that kind of woman.

Every once in a while, you hear a voice you can't forget. It's the angel whispering in your ear at the moment when you are most discouraged. It's the bird's song that flits by you, the moment when you realize that despite all your doubts and cynicism, you've once again fallen in love. It's the throaty, Bacall-like purr that is telling a very dirty, albeit very clever, joke next to you in your favorite bar. Martha Redbone has that kind of a voice.

It's not often that you hear music that sounds like it was crafted not in a studio, but at the dinner table. Music that was cooked up at a dinner party where the guests included Sly Stone and Prince, Roberta Flack and Al Green. The kind of party where Joni Mitchell stops in for a cocktail and Minnie Riperton goes straight for the dessert, something sweet. Martha Redbone makes that kind of music: not what soul music was or is, but what it will be.

Martha Redbone grew up in New York and Kentucky. An unlikely combination that you can hear in her flow: the staccato melodies of the city, mixed with the easy, wide-open praise song of a country choir. A body in motion tends to stay in motion and it's been nonstop ever since. Martha Redbone was mentored by legendary musician, Walter 'Junie' Morrison, who was an original member of the Ohio Players and later, Parliament Funkadelic. Now a sister to the funk, she sang background vocals on the Mothership reunion album with George Clinton. In the immortal words of Tribe Called Quest, can Martha Redbone kick it? Yes, she can! !

Her lyrics capture, like fireflies in a jar, the bright moments in life that we're often too busy to notice. Martha Redbone decided to title the album after the last line of the national anthem, "land of the free and home of the brave." Brave was a reference to Native Americans. But while the founding fathers called America, 'home of the brave', for more than 200 years, it was anything but. "It's a hard thing to do these days, to follow what you believe in," she says. "When you do that, then you become brave. Your body becomes more than a body. It becomes a home of the brave."

There's joy in Martha's music, but there's a ferocious quality to the music, as well. Songs like "Vineyard" and "Perfect Life" resonate with the conscious-raising, spirit-lifting melodies and lyrics of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" While tunes like "Underdog" explores the sweet and bitter hand that life deals us and how we shuffle between dreams, luck and fate. That kind of openness is what this album is all about. This album doesn't mince words or pull punches, it's everything -- angry, painful, funny, smart, romantic, playful -- that's in Martha's heart. In the lyrics, in the beats, in the soulful, sassy timber of her voice -- there are treasures to unfold. Go ahead and drop in on the Home of the Brave. Someone very special is waiting at home. -Veronica Chambers

All of the songs on her debut album HOME OF THE BRAVE were written and produced by Martha with longtime writing partner Aaron Whitby. Working with an amazing NY band featuring players like Alan 'AB' Burroughs (Miles Davis), Jonathan Maron (Maxwell) and others (see the links page), Martha has earned respect from some of the finest musicians on the NYC scene.

With co-producer Aaron Whitby, and engineers Joe Quinde (Jay-Z) and Tom Cassel (Notorious BIG) Martha has created the perfect marriage of song, music and beats to support her incredible voice - soaring, vulnerable, spirited. This girl is brave, new, strong… and free as a bird. Check it out.

 For further information please contact
 Sedona Creative Life Center  928-282-9300