Newport Live Presents: Mark Erelli
Concert and Record Release Party
Thursday, March 23, 2023
7—9 pm
$35 General Admission
Newport Live brings acclaimed singer-songwriter Mark Erelli with his band for a record-release party, with opener Americana singer Jobi Riccio. Jobi joins us by way of Nashville, and the foothills of Colorado.
About Mark Erelli:
Mark Erelli turns adversity into finely embroidered rock songs that burn with urgency on his 2023 album Lay Your Darkness Down. Following full-bodied rock forebears Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison, Erelli's songwriting explores the unknown glories of this planet and love’s transformational power.
Over his two decade-long career, the singer-songwriter-sideman-producer-writer has proven himself equally at home in a multitude of roles: producing albums for artists like GRAMMY-winner Lori McKenna; serving as a sideman guitarist for artists like Paula Cole, Marc Cohn, and Josh Ritter; writing and producing his own material, like 2018’s “By Degrees,” for which he was nominated for Song of the Year at the Americana Honors and Awards; and most recently, becoming an advocate for low-vision artists and working with venues to make their spaces more accessible.
Written in the wake of his diagnosis with a degenerative retinal disease, Erelli's upcoming 2023 album Lay Your Darkness Down is the next step on Erelli's journey, following up on 2020's Blindsided, which garnered praise from Rolling Stone Country, the Associated Press, NPR, The Boston Globe, and more.
About Newport Live:
Newport Live (formerly Common Fence Music) is a Rhode Island-based 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization whose mission it is to celebrate and preserve diversity in music traditions by creating community-based opportunities for cultural exchange.
Founded in 1993, and inspired by the small venue folk circuit of the 1960's and 70's, Common Fence Music was originally established to make quality folk music performances accessible to the members of the Common Fence Point community of Portsmouth, RI.
Twenty-five years later, now as Newport Live, the concert series remains vibrant, presenting widely throughout Newport County, attracting audiences from all over New England to performances featuring GRAMMY award-winning songwriters and musicians, NEA National Heritage Fellows, and other highly acclaimed folk, Americana, jazz, and world music artists from across the globe.