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TOWNSEND -- The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center’s Sunset Music Series presents Blue Mother Tupelo at 7 p.m. Friday, June 19, in the the second of seven concerts to be presented this summer in the outdoor amphitheater of the Heritage Center.

Based out of Nashville, Blue Mother Tupelo is led by the husband and wife team of Ricky Davis (acoustic & electric guitars, dobro, vocals) and Micol Davis (piano, tambourine, vocals).

The music of Blue Mother Tupelo is a genre-defying sound that has been described as “swampedelic southern soul”, an earthy mix of Delta blues and Appalachian mountain music, which reflects the roots of the Davises. Ricky was born and raised in Knoxville where family get-togethers turned into pickin’ parties with country, gospel, R & B, and rock and roll. Micol was born in Memphis into a music-loving family and raised in various towns throughout the deep South.

With the sweet and soaring vocals of Micol Davis, the gritty vocals and greasy slide guitar of her husband, Ricky, and their passionate harmonies, BMT became a staple of clubs in and around Knoxville in the 1990s. They moved to Nashville in 1998 and have continued to expand their musical horizons. BMT has performed at festivals, clubs and special events all over the Southeast and Texas, Missouri, and Colorado. They have also performed in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art and famed nightclub The Bitter End. BMT's dreamy southern ballad rendering of the 1959 Paul Anka hit, "Put Your Head On My Shoulder", was included in the motion picture, "Daltry Calhoun" (starring Johnny Knoxville and Juliette Lewis), released in 2006. Their third CD, Heaven & Earth, was released this spring.

From The Tallahassee Democrat's LIMELIGHT:

'It's Tupelo, honey ... the songs blend N'Awlins-style blues with spare Appalachian acoustic grit, Southern rock grooves, '60s flower-power dreaminess and rootsy rock. Ricky plays a mean dobro, peeling off riffs as slick and juicy as a ripe peach, and Micol's voice is both steely and delicate, like a cross between Bonnie Raitt & Emmylou Harris ...'

For more information about Blue Mother Tupelo, visit www.bluemothertupelo.com


/ <http://www.bluemothertupelo.com/> .
The Sunset Music Series is sponsored by Pilot Oil and BankEast. Admission to each concert is $4.00 per person at the door, with Heritage Center members admitted free. Tickets may be purchased at the door. For more information, call the Center at 865-448-0044.

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