7m, Third Floor of the Town Hall (handicap accessible), Main Street, Bluffton
We take donations for the musician at the door.
Jesse Henry is coming home for his first solo gig in years. Henry is the founder of the awesome Spike Drivers and Royal Tycoons, both popular acts in Bluffton and as tour bands through the Midwest. But on this special night, the Town Hall audience will hear Jesse unplugged and raw.
Jesse Henry may be playing on his own, but he is not playing for himself. Henry is raising money to go on a trip to Africa where he will work with orphans with AIDS. He recently got the attention of the Columbus Rotary Club, after he played at a benefit concert for the Rafiki Program, an AIDs Orphanage in Nairobi which they sponsor. They selected Jesse to become an Artist in Residence at the orphanage for a week. At the end of his time there he will perform with the children as well as local Nairobi musicians in a celebrative concert. The Columbus Rotary Club has already sponsored a school building, a community garden, a fresh water well, but they realized that music was part of the life-blood of the local culture, and they decided that encouraging music was as essential as survival basics.
They couldn^aEURTMt have chosen a better representative than Jesse Henry, one of the most charismatic and accomplished musicians in the Columbus region. Not only has Jesse been the front man for multiple bands and gospel, rock & Jazz ensembles, he has been teaching private lessons in his studio for eight years, working with kids, old folks and anyone in between.
Jesse Henry tells his life story this way:
When I was born in Bluffton, OH Feb. 1978 I didn't stop screaming for 54 and a half hours. Mama said "Aw Jesse's got a sweet holwin' moan and a set of pipes that will someday break pint glasses and shatter pin-up girls." I never intended on letting mama down. Now I sing and write for the Spikedrivers, a Yankee Country Rock Band, play saxophone and anything that rings with the Royal Tycoons, and occasionally do the singer/songwriter sets wherever someone thinks.
Don^aEURTMt miss this rare chance to hear Jesse Henry up close and personal!"
Contact: Wendy Chappell-Dick, Cultural Affairs Committee of the Village of Bluffton
[email protected]
419-303-9769
www.townhallconcerts.typepad.com