Blues Musician Chris English Performs to Benefit SU Performing Arts Fund October 24

SALISBURY, MD---With his harmonica and 1930s guitar, musician Chris English is on a quest to preserve the blues.

Audiences have a chance to hear English’s musical stylings live in Salisbury University’s Holloway Hall Auditorium 8 p.m. Saturday, October 24. Joining him are SU’s African Drum Ensemble, John Wesley Wright of the American Spiritual Ensemble and Nancy Mitchell of the English Department, who reads blues poems from her manuscript in progress.

This is English’s second annual performance to benefit the SU Department of Music Performing Arts Fund. Last year’s concert, held in the Black Box Theatre of Fulton Hall, was standing room only.

English began playing guitar at age 11. His older brother introduced him to the blues in the late 1960s, during his high school years. English concentrated on slide guitar and harmonica, teaching himself to play.

Throughout the years he has learned the subtleties that make each type of blues special. He concentrated primarily on the Delta style of blues dominant in Mississippi. He also uses vintage guitars from the ’30s to replicate the sound and feeling of the blues he has studied and loves. He puts that sound to good use in his class “Blues: the Roots of Rock and Roll,” which he created and teaches at SU.

English released his third album, Chris English 1-13-07, earlier this year.  His second album, Lowdown in the House, was released in 2004 and His first album, Live at the Avalon, was recorded at the Avalon Theatre in Easton and released in 1996.

A $10 donation is suggested at the door. The Department of Music sponsors the event. For more information call 410-543-6385 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.