Martha Redbone

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This article is about the American musician. For other uses, see Redbone.
Martha Redbone
File:Philadelphia Folk Festival 2018 DSC 0275 (42368247180).jpg
Background information
Born
New York City
OriginNew York City, New York, and Kentucky, United States
GenresRhythm and Blues, Folk and Soul
OccupationsSinger, songwriter, composer
Years active1996–present
LabelsDome Records[1]
Websitemartharedbone.com
File:Martha Redbone.jpg
Martha Redbone,  Arts for Art - Vision Festival 2024. Photo by Marek Lazarski

Martha Redbone (born 1966) is an American singer known for blending rhythm and blues and soul with elements of Native American music.[2]

Early life and education

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Redbone spent time with her maternal grandparents in Harlan County.[3] Her late mother was a mix of Chickamauga Cherokee, Shawnee, Blackfeet, and Mississippi Choctaw[4][5][6] and her late father was African-American and Lumbee from Robeson County, North Carolina.[7][8] She has never conducted a DNA test, but says she looks like the Igbo people in Nigeria.[3][9]

Career

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Redbone is a musician and singer, her style combining Black and Native American musical elements.[10] Her stage name, "Redbone", comes from Southern slang for people of Black and Native American ancestry.[5] She was mentored in songwriting and music production by Junie Morrison of the Ohio Players and Parliament Funkadelic.[11] In early 2007, Redbone's Skintalk won The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best R&B Album.[12]

Her 2012 work, The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake, sets Blake's poem of the same name to music that draws from rural influences of Appalachia: English folk, African American, and Native American traditions. She tours nationally with the Martha Redbone Roots Project.[13]

Redbone composed the score for the revival of the late Ntozake Shange's choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf with her husband and collaborator Aaron Whitby, which premiered on Broadway in 2022. In 2019, they were the composers of the Public Theatre's iteration of the choreo-poem.[14] Redbone and Whitby won a Drama Desk award in 2020 for Outstanding Music in a Play for the original score for "For Colored Girls".[15]

Personal life

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Redbone is married to Aaron Whitby, with whom she owns the record label Blackfeet Productions. The couple has a son.[3][16][17]

Discography

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  • Home of the Brave (2001)
  • Skintalk (2004)
  • Future Street (2006)
  • The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake (2012)

References

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  2. ^ "Martha Redbone", Soultracks
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  12. ^ "6th Annual Winners" Archived 2009-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Independent Music Awards
  13. ^ "The Martha Redbone Roots Project" Archived 2013-12-07 at the Wayback Machine, August 2013, The Ark (Ann Arbor, MI), accessed 16 June 2014
  14. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  15. ^ https://playbill.com/article/a-strange-loop-the-inheritance-moulin-rouge-win-big-at-2020-drama-desk-awards
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