Music From The Ground Up, a locally produced music video series featuring local Delta musicians affiliated with the Deep Roots music project, will premiere on Friday, February 19 at 1:00 pm CST on the Deep Roots website at www.deltadeeproots.com. Each weekly episode will feature a single song performance of roots music along with a brief conversation with one of eleven area musicians and bands highlighted in the series.
The Deep Roots project, a partnership between Big Front Porch Productions and the City of Cleveland, was planning to initiate a series of live music shows in downtown Cleveland in the spring of 2020, but with the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in restrictions on live music venues, the decision was made to shift to a video series as a means of raising awareness of the talented roster of local musicians working with the project while preparing to safely present live music in late spring of 2021.
“Like the old saying goes, ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’” remarked Cleveland’s music ambassador, Tricia Walker. “The pandemic has really been hard on musicians, and the Music From The Ground Up series provided a chance for our artists to perform again on stage, while taking all the necessary safety precautions to do so. We hope the viewers will enjoy watching the series as much as we had producing it.”
The Deep Roots team worked with the Delta Arts Alliance to film the series in the historic Ellis Theatre in downtown Cleveland. Local filmmaker Ben Powell directed the series with assistance from students in the digital media and entertainment industry programs at Delta State University.
“It’s incredibly gratifying to see the Ellis Theatre serving as a key partner in the launch of this awesome project. These concerts, filmed locally on the Ellis stage, is exactly what so many who invested in the long-term preservation and rehabilitation of our space envisioned,” exclaimed Rori Herbison, Executive Director of the Delta Arts Alliance. “We applaud Tricia Walker and her Deep Roots team for having the foresight and tenacity to bring this project to light in less than ideal circumstances. We could all use a good dose of hearty music right now. It promises to be a therapeutic and uplifting gift to the soul.”
Roots music is a grouping of genres of distinctly American music that includes blues, jazz, country, folk, R&B/Soul, Gospel, singer/songwriter, cajun and bluegrass, and with the Deep Roots project underway, Cleveland is cultivating its reputation as a roots music town. Local artists featured in the Music From The Ground Up series include The Cuz Band, Peyton Aldridge, Tricia Walker, Gran Boiz, Jimi’s People, Jeff McCreary, Variety, Betzenzo, Keith Johnson, Delta String Band, and Craig Adams.
The Deep Roots project, a partnership between Big Front Porch Productions and the City of Cleveland, seeks to build community through the development and promotion of local and regional Delta roots musicians. For more information about the Deep Roots music initiative, email info@deltadeeproots.com or visit http://deltadeeproots.com.
