Exhilarating rhythm-and-blues vocalist Mike Farris will present the Golden Belt Community Concert Association’s final concert of the 2015-2016 season. The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at the Great Bend Municipal Auditorium, Lakin and Stone.
With an inspiring story of renewed lifestyle and career, Farris performs with a five-piece band featuring hit songs from Billboard’s top 100 songs of 1969. This GBCCA event is available to concert association members. Full-time students will be admitted to the concert for a $5 donation at the door when they show their school ID. The auditorium will open at 6:30 p.m.
Farris’s music has been described as “blue-eyed soul to soothe the spirit.” Singing soulful, feel-good music, he performs with a five-piece band playing songs from Billboard’s top 100 hits of 1969. Farris was awarded “New and Emerging Artist of the Year” by the Americana Music Association in 2008 and started to make a name for himself as a dynamic performer. In 2010, he was honored with a Dove Award for “Best Traditional Gospel Album.”
His critically acclaimed “Salvation in Lights,” released in 2007 married old time roots gospel sounds with his own unique arrangements that were mainly inspired by New Orleans, Stax and the blues. The music was both spiritual and personal for Mike, as it dealt with individual struggle, but it also had a commonality that music fans from all walks of life could enjoy.
In 2008 and 2009, Mike Farris and his Roseland Rhythm Revue performed monthly residencies at Nashville’s’ Station Inn and called it “Sunday Night Shout!” The shows had audiences that consisted of people from all walks of life and the goal was to make the crowd feel “excited, delighted and loved.”
When the 1,000-year flood hit middle Tennessee in May of 2010, Farris was convinced that he needed to do something to help those who were affected. He gathered up some of the finest musicians in town. They recorded six songs in six hours at Nashville’s Downtown Presbyterian Church and the music was a beautiful blend of old time country, gospel and blues with Mike leading the “Cumberland Saints” from the pulpit. In October of that year the EP was released as “The Night the Cumberland Came Alive” with partial proceeds donated to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Farris continues to amaze audiences whenever he plays solo or with any one of his different configurations from the stripped down Cumberland Saints to the full nine-piece Roseland Rhythm Revue.
For more information about the Golden Belt Community Concert Association, contact Linda Jerke, 620-793-9440, or visit the GBCCA web site, www.goldenbeltcca.org.