Commissions
Martha Redbone
Martha Redbone is a vocalist, songwriter, composer, music educator, celebrated for her tasty gumbo of roots music embodying the folk and mountain blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky, mixed 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 Indigenous culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music with songs and storytelling that share her life experience as an Afro-Indigenous woman and mother navigating in the new millennium. Martha also works in partnership with longtime collaborator/husband Aaron Whitby. Their
FreshGrass Commission
Martha Redbone performed her FreshGrass Commission at the 2021 FreshGrass | North Adams music festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. The FreshGrass Composition Commission is our flagship grant, given annually to an artist whose work reflects the FreshGrass mission to preserve and support innovative grassroots music.
Composition Commission recipients write a new long-form piece of music for an ensemble that includes some elements of traditional string band instrumentation, and the piece has its world premiere at the FreshGrass Festival at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA) or the Momentary (Bentonville, AR). Half the award is given for the creation and premiere performance, with the other half given to support the recording and release of the work.