Arizona Arts Live is proud to present Tom Walbank and Roman Barten-Sherman this Thursday at 6pm from Centennial Hall. This video release is an intimate performance by two of Tucson’s finest blues musicians, performing treasures from American musical history.
Tom Walbank is a veteran blues musician, who has shared a stage with the likes of B.B. King, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Vaughan, Lazy Lester, Kim Wilson, Canned Heat, and many others. At 16, Roman Barten-Sherman has been singing and playing the blues since he was a young child. In his repertoire, he embodies a rare mastery of pre-war acoustic country blues, skillfully moving from the slide guitar virtuosity of Mississippi Fred McDowell to the complex fingerstyle playing of Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Blake.
Together Tom and Roman perform a sprawling, partially improvised set full of story and emotion. With Tom on his main instrument, harmonica, and Roman on vocals and fingerstyle guitar, the set is a compilation of pre-war and North Mississippi hill country blues interpretations, material from their recently released, Searching the Desert for the Blues.
Ahead of this Thursday’s performance, check out Roman Barten-Sherman, and Tom Walbank online. And don’t forget to give their collaborative album a spin.
WATCH ONLINE
