Music on Main Street - Mary Flower and Reggie Houston August 27, 2008

Portland Center for the Performing Arts presents
Mary Flower & Reggie Houston
Music on Main Street

Wednesday, August 27th
Free!

This dynamic duo's bluesy, New Orleans sound will end the series in style! Mary Flower is one of the best guitar fingerpickers in town. And one need only witness a Reggie Houston performance to understand why his talent has been courted by legends like Fats Domino, Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, and Peter Gabriel.

Working in both the intricately syncopated Piedmont finger-picking style and her own deeply bluesy lap-slide guitar, Mary has earned rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for her springwater-clear vocals and mastery of multiple guitar styles as well as her own compositions. Though she can create prewar blues and ragtime with the best of them, Mary draws on traditional, contemporary and original material to create something new: a sound uniquely her own that remains true to the timeless power of the blues. Flower’s elegant, funky and inventive playing on vintage guitars makes her one of a mere handful of women guitarists admired for their instrumental prowess. In 2000 and 2003 respectively, Mary placed in the top three at the National Fingerpicking Championship. Her career as an internationally known performer and teacher has spanned more than three decades.

Reggie's music can transport any listener to a 2am Bourbon Street revelry and draw tears from the eyes of the most stoic. More than just a master of the saxophone, Reggie Houston is an entertainer of the highest order. He has the charm and charisma of a modern day Louis Armstrong mingled with the pure and irresistible joy of a child. Freed up by a wireless microphone, laughing and waving his white handkerchief to the rhythm, he'll shimmy off the bandstand with his saxophone and get down with the people on the dance floor... and sometimes even bring them back on stage with him!

This is a free event, tickets are not needed.