With Music and Justice for All - perfect for Libraries, Churches, Community Centers, Book Clubs
Award-winning Southern author Frye Gaillard and award-winning Nashville recording artist Anne E. DeChant team up for an evening of stories and song entitled “With Music and Justice for All.” In his writings on the subject of music, Gaillard maintains that great songwriters like DeChant explore the depths of the human condition with all the subtlety and feeling of our finest novelists and poets, raising issues of empathy, compassion and justice. In these unique programs, Gaillard presents brief readings from his works, setting the context for an acoustic performance of original songs by DeChant. These two writers have performed this program together – and with other recording artists – at such diverse venues as the Southern Festival of Books, Belmont University and the Bluebird Café in Nashville, Kimbro’s Pickin’ Parlor in Franklin, TN, the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Auburn University, Moonlight on the Mountain in Birmingham, the Evening Muse in Charlotte, the Barking Spider in Cleveland, the W.C. Handy Music Festival, numerous public libraries, and the Hank Williams Boyhood Home and Museum.
Frye Gaillard's 2022 book, co-written with Pulitzer Prize Winner, Cynthia Tucker, The Southernization of America is an NPR Best Books of selection; and his book A Hard Rain was a 2018 selection. A Hard Rain is a sweeping analysis of a "decade of hope and tragedy and blood," detailing personal reflections on events that shaped the author in the '60s. Tour highlights include the Carter Presidential Library, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Newseum in Washington DC, the 92nd Street Y in New York, Brown University, the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Duke, Vanderbilt, Berkeley, the Southern Festival of Books, the Virginia Book Festival and others.
To Book: contact Melissa Kucirek
email Meliskucirek@gmail.com
call 402-677-0930
To Book Contact: Kip@redfishbluefishtouring.com
Reviews
"As a lover of good music, a believer in its power to heal and inspire, hearing Anne E. DeChant with Frye Gaillard was an epiphany. Her songs invoke hope, courage, and hidden passions while his stories enchant and recall a time when there was a collective desire to make a difference."
Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer
General Minister and President United Church of Christ
“Anne E and Frye open up the heart, moving from one to another place of warmth and joy.”
After the concert, one of my people came up to me and hugged me saying, “Thank You for bringing Anne E and Frye here. I haven’t been moved like that in long time. They know how to tell a story so that you really hear it.” And, I didn’t even have to sing or talk. Anne E and Frye did all the work!
Anne E and Frye offered their stories and music on Saturday night to a crowd enthralled with their stories. As I sat in the back, I scoped out those in attendance. From table to table and face to face, they were connected to the songs, the stories, the Spirit in the place was full and alive. And the best part happened the following morning during our Community Brunch. Anne E and Frye returned for another story about the Birmingham church bombing that killed the young girls. For a church called to the work of social justice, they hit a home run as Anne E followed up with her “Girls and Airplanes” song. Hearts were filled. Spirits were touched. People wanted to know when they would return.”
Rev. Tamara Franks
High Country UCC
Vilas, NC