Filtering by: Bull Run
Bobby Rush Band • Bull Run • 2.6.26
Feb
6
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Bobby Rush Band • Bull Run • 2.6.26

Bobby Rush Band

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The 91-year-old Rush is a three-time Grammy® Award winner for “Best Traditional Blues Album” for “Porcupine Meat,” “Rawer than Raw” and 2024’s “All My Love For You.” He is also a 16-time Blues Music Awards winner (with 56 career nominations), and has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame and Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

The blues legend is having a major career moment with his involvement in the hit film written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”; new album with multi-platinum artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd titled “Young Fashioned Ways”; his first-ever Grand Ole Opry performance with Shepherd; and a 2025 Austin City Limits performance. His segment will be a tribute to 50 years of the Austin-based blues club Antone's. The episode includes Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Jimmy Vaughan, and Charlie Sexton. Austin City Limits is the longest running music show on television, airing Saturday nights on PBS.

Rush has become one of the most prominent advocates for the blues tradition and says, “It’s the root of all music, it’s the mother of all music. If you don’t like the blues, you probably don’t like your mama.”

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CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band • Bull Run • 2.26.26
Feb
26
7:30 PM19:30
Bull Run

CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band • Bull Run • 2.26.26

CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band

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CJ Chenier is Creole music royalty. His father, the legendary Clifton Chenier, invented the style of music we know today as Zydeco and was the first Creole musician to be recognized with a Grammy Award. Raised in this indigenous American culture with its’ own distinctive language, cuisine and music, C.J. delivers soulful vocals along with jaw-dropping masterful accordion-driven Rock, Zydeco and Blues.

After spending his childhood in the tough tenement housing projects of Port Arthur, Texas, C.J. joined his Father’s band on his 21st birthday. His first gig was playing for the opening of the now world-renown Antone’s, Home of the Blues Nightclub in Austin, Texas. On the road his father showed him how to front a world class touring band, teaching C.J., a multi-instrumentalist, how to run the family business and how to develop his lifelong passion for music into a career. When Clifton died in 1987 his son, C.J., adopted the Red Hot Louisiana Band and recorded his debut album for the great American independent label Arhoolie Records.

Chenier (along with Ringo Starr) was hand-picked by Paul Simon for his 1990 Rhythm of the Saints album which was nominated for Album of the Year and Producer of the Year. He was then invited to go with Simon for his sell out “Born at the Right Time Tour.” He has also played with John Mayall, The Gin Blossoms, Ray Parker, Jr., Joe Sample, Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Landreth and Buckwheat Zydeco.  He has appeared on The Jon Stewart Show and been featured on CNN.  He has performed at numerous music festivals around the world and is a consistent crowd pleaser for The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Attending a C.J. Chenier show is a transformative experience. You may come in tired and beat up just from living in this world – but you will leave renewed and happy.  And that is the promise C.J. makes, “You can’t come to my show and stay unhappy. You’re going to break a smile before too long. This is happy music.”

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Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket • Bull Run • 3.4.26
Mar
4
7:30 PM19:30
Bull Run

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket • Bull Run • 3.4.26

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket

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Glen Phillips started Toad the Wet Sprocket in 1986, when he was still in high school. He was as surprised as anyone when their low-key folk rock landed them on the pop charts. When the band members decided to go their separate ways, Phillips began his solo career.

During his years as lead singer and main songwriter of Toad, Glen Phillips helped to create the band’s elegant folk/pop sound with honest, introspective lyrics that forged a close bond with their fans. When Toad went on hiatus, Glen launched a solo career with his album “Abulum,” and stayed busy collaborating with other artists on various projects including Mutual Admiration Society, with members of Nickel Creek and Remote Tree Children, an experimental outing with John Morgan Askew.

Phillips’ previous solo record, SWALLOWED BY THE NEW, was about grief, a post-divorce outing while THERE IS SO MUCH HERE finds Phillips writing love songs again focusing on gratitude, beauty and staying present. “With this batch of songs, I noticed I was writing hopeful music again. I’d turned the corner and was more interested in curiosity and play than I was in gazing at my navel. I was finally in a state of being that wasn’t about grief and loss. Things felt doable and even exciting again.”

“As I sat still during the lockdown, I realized how much is always here – in the space around me, in the sensations of my body, in the sounds and smells and tastes and thoughts that emerge and drift away. It’s not a new concept, but it is a novel experience when you’ve spent your life running from one thing to another.”

Ultimately, as Phillips reflects on the album, he shares: “This is an album about showing up for what is and letting it be enough.”

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The Ocean Blue • Bull Run • 3.6.26
Mar
6
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

The Ocean Blue • Bull Run • 3.6.26

The Ocean Blue

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The Ocean Blue with with Brian Tighe of The Hang Ups.

Getting their start as teenagers in the late ‘80s in Hershey, PA, The Ocean Blue released their self-titled debut on the famed Sire Records label that launched many of their most beloved bands in the U.S., including the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Pretenders.

Embraced by alternative radio and MTV, the band quickly made their mark with early singles “Between Something And Nothing,” “Drifting, Falling” and “Ballerina Out of Control,” each Top Ten hits on U.S. college and Billboard’s Modern Rock Radio charts. Early success set in motion a run of four major label albums - The Ocean Blue (1989 Sire), Cerulean (1991 Sire), Beneath the Rhythm and Sound (1993 Sire), and See The Ocean Blue (1996 Mercury). The band continued with string of independent releases in the 2000s, including Davy Jones Locker (2000 March), Waterworks (2003 W.A.R.), Ultramarine (2013 Korda) and Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves (2019 Korda). With eight albums and several EPs under their belt, the band continues to perform and record around the world, with work underway on a new album, and shows in cities throughout the U.S. in 2025.

The Ocean Blue is David Schelzel (vocals, guitar), Bobby Mittan (bass), Peter Anderson (drums), and Oed Ronne (guitar and keyboards).

Kings And Queens / Knaves And Thieves... is the latest entry into what appears to be their next trilogy of perfect albums. Beneath the shimmering guitars, earworm hooks and David Schelzel’s dreamy, lovelorn, and lamentful croon, are beautiful stories, abstract visions, easter eggs to previous albums, and eloquent social commentary.” - PopDose, #1 Top Record of 2019

“‘All The Way Blue’ is a continuation of the yearning nostalgic pop that makes them so instantaneously beatific. With sublime piano, hyper-melodic guitars, neon synths, melodramatic lyrics and understated vocals, TheOcean Blue achieve emotional potency without any bombast.” - Paste

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Michael Kosta: Lucky Loser Tour • Bull Run • 1.16.26
Jan
16
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Michael Kosta: Lucky Loser Tour • Bull Run • 1.16.26

Michael Kosta: Lucky Loser Tour

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Michael Kosta is an Emmy winning co-Host and Senior Correspondent The Daily Show for Comedy Central. 

He is well known for his numerous late-night appearances on The Tonight Show, Conan, Seth Meyers, and @midnight.

His one-hour Comedy Central stand-up special: Michael Kosta: Detroit. NY. LA. is now streaming on Paramount + and YouTube.

Previous to his career in television and comedy, Kosta was a professional tennis player (ranked #864 in the world) and is still a contributor to the Tennis Channel.  He also hosts the podcast Tennis Anyone, which can be found on any podcast platform.

Michael’s first book, a memoir entitled Lucky Loser, debuted in March 2025 from Harper Collins.

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Tim O'Brien & Sam Grisman with Victor Furtado • Bull Run • 1.15.26
Jan
15
7:30 PM19:30
Bull Run

Tim O'Brien & Sam Grisman with Victor Furtado • Bull Run • 1.15.26

Tim O'Brien & Sam Grisman with Victor Furtado

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A rare and intimate evening of acoustic music featuring Tim O’Brien, Sam Grisman, and Victor Furtado.

This special trio performance brings together three musicians whose shared love of song, storytelling, and instrumental mastery continues the timeless lineage of American acoustic music.

For more than 50 years, Grammy winner Tim O’Brien has woven his sound through the Bluegrass, Folk, and Americana genres. A multi-instrumentalist whose songs have been covered by everyone from the Seldom Scene and Newgrass Revival to Dierks Bentley and Garth Brooks, he’s known for his clear tenor voice and a driving rhythm on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. Young bass master Samson Grisman grew up hearing his father jamming with people like Doc Watson, Tony Rice and Jerry Garcia, and his own Sam Grisman Project breaks new ground along those same sonic pathways. Onstage in a duet setting, these two branches of the same tree reach out to all fans of music’s acoustic roots.

A note from Sam Grisman:
The legendary Tim O’Brien is one of the most beloved and influential singers, songwriters, and instrumentalists in American acoustic music and the impact that his songs and musicianship have had on our tribe of acousticians is immeasurable.

When I was a Junior in high school if you would have asked me what my dream job would be, without a doubt I would have answered “to be in the Tim O’Brien Band.” It is a great honor to get to play some of my favorite Tim tunes with the man himself, and to get to do it in a trio setting with the great Victor Furtado, one of my favorite pickin’ pals who also grew up on Tim’s music, is going to make for a special experience for everyone on stage and in the audience! We can’t wait to see y’all out there.

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Shemekia Copelant • Bull Run • November 13
Nov
13
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Shemekia Copelant • Bull Run • November 13

Shemekia Copeland

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“Shemekia Copeland is the greatest blues singer of her generation.” - The Washington Post

Award-winning blues, soul and Americana singer Shemekia Copeland possesses one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time. She is beloved worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty and humor of her revelatory songs, as well as for her winning, engaging personality. Copeland, winner of the 2021 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, connects with her audience on an intensely personal level, taking them with her on what The Wall Street Journal calls “a consequential ride” of “bold and timely blues.”

On her new Alligator album, “Done Come Too Far,” Copeland continues the story she began telling on 2018’s groundbreaking “America’s Child” and 2020’s Grammy-nominated “Uncivil War,” reflecting her vision of America’s past, present and future. On Done Come Too Far, she delivers her hard-hitting musical truths through her eyes, those of a young American Black woman, a mother, and a wife. But she likes to have a good time too, and her music reflects that, at times putting her sly sense of humor front and center.

“This album was made by all sides of me, happy, sad, silly, irate, they’re all a part who I am and who we all are. I’m not political. I’m just talking about what’s happening in this country.”

“Copeland is the greatest female blues vocalist working today. There’s no mistaking the majesty of her instrument, nor the ferocity of her delivery.” - The Chicago Tribune

“I am so happy Shemekia is delivering these songs that the world needs to hear. Her voice is strong and soulful, and her message comes from her heart.” – Mavis Staples

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Larry McCray • Bull Run • 8.15.24
Aug
15
7:30 PM19:30
Bull Run

Larry McCray • Bull Run • 8.15.24

Larry McCray

Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 7:30 at Bull Run

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Rust belt blues shouter and guitar slinger Larry McCray's eight blues albums have blended reverence for tradition with his own soulful spin on the form. And those achievements have been noted with a Gibson "Blues Guitarist of the Year" Award as well as the Top Guitarist prize in International Blues Matters' 2014 writer's poll.

Most recently, his album 'Blues Without You' made #1 on Blues Rock Review's "Top 20 Albums of 2022" list.

Over the past three decades of nonstop touring and recording, Larry has played & shared the stage with such blues and rock greats as BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, John Mayall, Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Keb Mo, Jonny Lang, Joe Walsh, Levon Helm, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Albert Collins and Joe Bonamassa. He has also toured with The Allman Brothers Band, Warren Haynes, Gov't Mule, Phil Lesh, Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) and countless others.

"In the Spirit of B.B. King, Luther Allison, and Little Milton, Larry is among the Greats!" - Joe Bonamassa

“Blues Without You is a damn near perfect blues record,” - Blues Rock Review

“McCray’s blues are fresh and contemporary with nods to the past. He’s the kind of player who allows for space in between the notes. There aren’t many current guitarists who put that kind of emotion into their playing,” - Rock & Blues Muse

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Catie Curtis • Bull Run • 7.13.24
Jul
13
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Catie Curtis • Bull Run • 7.13.24

Catie Curtis

Saturday, July 13, 2024 at 8pm at Bull Run

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For over 25 years, Catie Curtis has toured full-time in the US and Europe, releasing 14 recordings and selling over 250,000 CDs (not to mention streaming and downloads). She has recorded for major (EMI Guardian) and independent (Rykodisc, Vanguard and Compass) labels, collaborating with some of the finest musicians and producers in the country. Before the pandemic, she continued to play shows for a legion of fans who shared stories with her at the merch table night after night. Her songs have been featured in films and tv shows, and she performed several times at the White House during the Obama administration. She’s intensely grateful for those years and honored to know that her music has been an integral part of so many people's lives.

A veteran of the singer/songwriter folk scene, her credits include touring with Lilith Fair, and winning Grand Prize in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition (with co-writer Mark Erelli) and recording a duet with Kris Kristofferson. Her songs appear in numerous films and tv shows. She has been called a "folk-rock goddess" by the New Yorker, and has performed at the White House several times.

“Have you ever been to a show where you feel an invisible wall between you and the performer? Catie Curtis pulls the walls down.” - Mary Chapin Carpenter

 

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Ellis Paul • Bull Run • 6.7.24
Jun
7
8:00 PM20:00
Bull Run

Ellis Paul • Bull Run • 6.7.24

Ellis Paul

Friday, June 7, 2024 at 8pm at Bull Run

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Some artists document their lives through their music. Others chronicle their times. It’s a rare artist who can do both, telling their own story through songs that also encapsulate the essence of people and places who have helped define their era overall. Woody Guthrie comes to mind, and so does Bob Dylan. Bruce Springsteen certainly as well. Yet few others, for whatever genius they may possess, can relate their own history to the history experienced by those who find that common bond, be it in a coming of age, living through the same realities or sharing similar experiences.

Quintessential New England singer-songwriter Ellis Paul helped to revitalize both the Boston/Cambridge and the national Folk scene in the 1990's. His urban, literate, folk rock style has the rare ability to take dead aim at a subject while avoiding the in-your-face approach of many of his contemporaries. The newest album, "The Storyteller's Suitcase" is a melding of personal reflections and social commentary. "Paul sits in the long tradition of troubadours and storytellers such as Paxton and Prine, offering intimate insights and biting observations on the life and world around him. There’s a definite Prine lyrical sensibility to the first track, ‘I Ain’t No Jesus’, a kind of celebration of your average blue collar stiff who can’t work miracles but does the best he can with the life he has." And the album ends on a political note, with a bluesy cover of Michal K Brown’s ‘Election Day’ and its commentary on the current administration who’ve “been taking money from the oilmen/Money from the NRA”, talking the talk but not walking the walk, a hopeful note that, next time America goes to the polls, that particular party might be over.

On the lyric book inside the fold out case, he’s handwritten written “Every story needs someone who will listen”. Be one of them.

"Despite his success and sense of history, Mr. Paul remains an artist with his eye on the future and an interest in discovering the transformative potential in his music." - The New York Times

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