MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — Looking for a reason to sing and shout this weekend? MTSU’s celebrating the new academic
year and the First Amendment by
throwing open the Tucker Theatre
doors Sunday, Aug. 27, for a free public performance of “Freedom Sings.”
The signature
program of the First Amendment Center
features prominent recording artists playing music that has been banned or
censored or sounded a call for social change. Now in its 18th year, “Freedom
Sings” tours U.S. college campuses across the nation supplemented by CDs, a
documentary DVD and teachers’ guide.
The Aug. 27 performance
is set for 2:30 p.m. and is part of
the university’s fall 2017 Connection
Point welcoming series of events for students and their families. Though
MTSU students have helped produce “Freedom Sings” shows in Nashville since
2013, this is the first on-campus “Freedom Sings” visit since 2011.
The artists set to
perform in Sunday’s MTSU visit include:
- Jonell Mosser, the powerhouse Nashville-based
singer who’s sung with Vince Gill, Etta James and Kristin Chenoweth and
was a member of the supergroup the New Maroons with Ringo Starr, Don Was
and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Her latest album is
“Fortunes Lost, Fortunes Told.”
- Bill Lloyd, who wrote and recorded four
Top 10 country hits as a member of Foster and Lloyd and continues his
successful career as a producer, guitarist and songwriter, as well as a
foundation member of the Freedom Singers.
- Joseph Wooten, three-time Grammy winner,
solo artist and former keyboardist for the Steve Miller Band and a regular
performer with “Freedom Sings.” His most recent album is “Soul of
Freedom.”
- Larissa Maestro, a Nashville based
multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer and arranger who conducts
chamber orchestras, performs in musical theater and in the ‘90s cover band
My So-Called Band, and organizes fundraising events for YEAH! Rock Camps
and Nashville’s Oasis Center.
- MTSU alumnus Dave Paulson,
who’s one of Maestro’s bandmates in My So-Called Band and also is a member
of The Privates as well as a solo artist. He’s the music writer for The
Tennessean and is “Freedom Sings” founder Ken Paulson’s son.
MTSU College of Media and Entertainment Dean Ken
Paulson, who also serves as president of the First Amendment Center, writes
and narrates the multimedia show, which began as a 1999 concert at Nashville’s
Bluebird Café. It aims to illustrate through music four of the basic liberties
guaranteed by America’s First Amendment: freedom of religion, freedom of speech
and of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition the government.
“The Freedom Sings show
has toured college campuses all over America and we’re pleased to bring it back
to its roots in middle Tennessee,” Paulson said. “It’s the perfect show for a
new generation that has seen so much political divisiveness. Through music
spanning 60 years, they hear the story of how so many have used their freedom
of speech to make this a more perfect union.”
You can watch a
preview of the show from the “Freedom Sings: Music That Shaped America” DVD
created by MTSU media students at https://youtu.be/bNm5ZG52Jtc.
The mind-boggling
“Freedom Sings” playlist covers more than six decades and ranges from the
Beatles to Public Enemy, from Billie Holliday’s “Strange Fruit” and Woody
Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” to Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill” and Beyonce’s “Run
the World (Girls).”
MTSU Department of Media Arts and Department of Recording Industry student
crews will once again provide the professional-caliber production for the
Sunday afternoon performance while capturing more video and audio for the
“Freedom Sings” archives.
You can learn more
about “Freedom Sings” at http://www.mtsu.edu/freedomsings.
The concert is one of several MTSU Connection Point events sponsored by
the Division of Student Affairs to encourage student
engagement and involvement in various on-campus activities. For more
information on Connection Point, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/stuaff/connect.
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