(Submitted Photo)
OXFORD – Roots singer and songwriter Kerri Powers returns to 6 On The Square in Oxford at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 at 6 Lafayette Park in downtown Oxford.
Officials said this will be a fundraiser for a local chapter of the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO), providing scholarships and grants to women.
Powers, a Boston native, enjoyed an artistic youth that included music, painting and writing, and she composed her first songs at age 9. Representatives of the event said her creative instincts may come naturally: Bing Crosby was a distant relative on her father’s side, while her mother’s relatives claimed a kinship to Herman Melville. Her grandmother had a regular gig playing piano as accompaniment to silent movies.
In her teens, Powers began performing in local coffeehouses throughout New England – but when she fell in love, got married and had a child, she put her pursuits aside. After raising her son and overcoming the hardship of a difficult divorce, though, she rediscovered her passion and returned to making music.
Event officials said a self-titled EP marking her return to music in 2014 landed the top spot on Roots Music Report’s list of “Top 50 Folk Albums Of 2014.” Critic have compared her style to artists Shelby Lynne, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Tammy Wynette and Bonnie Raitt. Her latest album is called “Starseeds.”
Powers has shared the concert stage with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jimmy LaFave, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, Dave Mallet, and Luka Bloom, among others. She has toured throughout the United States as well as overseas, making appearances in The Netherlands, Belgium and the U.K. She has performed at the Boston Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Her song “Diamond Day” was featured in the motion picture “Chuck,” and other tracks have been heard in the television series “Rescue Me” and “Justified.”
Learn more about Powers at kerripowers.com.
PEO began in 1869, with a few members devoted to helping each other reach educational goals. Today, they are nearly a quarter of a million women involved, with more than a half-dozen well-funded scholarships.
