In an interview with KGNU’s Indra Raj, Martha Redbone discusses her concert “Bone Hill” and its themes of family history, culture, and resilience. The concert blends music and storytelling, drawing from Redbone’s family history. She explains how the performance explores the histories of Native American and African American people east of the Mississippi, particularly focusing on the strength and survival of her matriarchal lineage (Interview date: 9/25/2024)
Indra Raj: I am very happy to welcome onto the air Martha Redbone. She has a concert called Bone Hill at the Newman Center tonight at 7:30 p.m. and is on the phone with me right now to tell me a little bit about that. So welcome to KGNU, Martha.
Martha Redbone: Hey, thank you so much for having me, Indra.
Indra Raj: It’s great to have you and I’m really excited about this performance happening here tonight. I know you don’t have a lot of time because in addition to being a vocalist, songwriter, composer, you’re an educator and will be meeting with students soon.
Martha Redbone: Yes. And I apologize. I’m sitting under the tree on campus and there’s a big helicopter that’s just going over my head.
Indra Raj: I can’t even hear it. So we are good.
Martha Redbone: Good. I’m so excited about sharing this concert with you. It’s concert and storytelling and it’s inspired by my own family, the matriarchal lineage of my family back east and Black Mountain, Kentucky. I come from a coal mining family. It’s really about how the family holds onto the culture despite all of the laws and things that come in that threaten to extinguish us and erase our history and erase who we are as a people. It’s what they call poignant, but it’s a very moving piece because we not only take you through an historic timeline, through the generations, but we’re also taking you through a musical timeline.
We cover all of these different styles of music, and I have to say that I feel very blessed and honored to have one of the most incredible bands on the road with me, playing this music. The piece is co-created by my partner, Aaron Whitby, who is not only my partner in music, but my partner in life. He’s my husband, and has had a ringside seat to our crazy family for many years.
It’s a song cycle, songs and storytelling. It talks about these little beautiful snippets of history. Some are tragic, some are joyful and stand in strength and resilience of our people in the east of the Mississippi and also addresses the rich and complex histories of Native American tribes and African American people east of the Mississippi.
Indra Raj: Yes. Thank you. As you said, it’s a song cycle. It’s not just a musical performance or storytelling. Dare I say, are there elements of musical theater or is that too far?
Martha Redbone: It is. Since I am the storyteller or the narrator, I would say I go into characters of my family and of my ancestors. A lot of them are based on stories that we had when you gather during holidays. I grew up there, and so all these stories that my mom has shared with me, that I witnessed myself as a kid. Aaron and I did a deep dive into the research and when you actually see historical documents of what happened to the land in that region and Appalachia, and you actually see, “Oh my God, oh, so this did happen. Oh, okay that didn’t happen, but oh my God, this happened.” So when you actually see the documentation and you see census records and you see your family and where they lived and where your ancestors are from and all of this kind of stuff, it just really ties it all in together.
For me, it was a personal growth journey. I’m really glad that I did it because I want people to walk away being inspired to speak to their elders and their families. We have a lot of holidays coming up this fall and winter, and there are lots of opportunities for families to get together and share their stories. We shouldn’t wait until someone passes away to gather, because once our elders leave us here, those stories go with them.
So the purpose of the Bone Hill Concert is to encourage each of us to dig deeper into our own family stories and to maintain those connections and to honor the long legacies that we all have as contributors to this land and to learn a little bit about what happened to this land before.
Indra Raj: Absolutely. Also Indigenous People’s Day is coming up in just a couple weeks. So definitely a prescient time of year. The last thing I wanted to ask you is this performance was developed originally at Joe’s Pub in New York City. New York is just such a melange of so many different cultures, ideas, traditions. Did that factor into the kind of creation and development of this work?
Martha Redbone: Absolutely. We were really thrilled to be invited to create this piece with Joe’s Pub and the Public Theaters. It was under a program called New York Voices. Shanta Fake was the initial commissioner on this piece. She immediately called me and said, I think it’s important for you to tell your story. You have such a rich story, and being multiracial, multicultural, it’s an important story to tell, and I think you should really consider doing it. Really, Shanta lit the fire under our bellies to get going and that’s how we did it. I’m so thrilled because I think there’s a new model, a more contemporary model of musical theater that is developing.
There’s many ways to tell stories. We don’t have to use a template that comes from tradition. Tradition is great, but there’s also new models and art. The purpose of art is to also evolve, isn’t it? And to look at things through a different lens and a different perspective.
With the history of Black and Native people in the Mississippi, a lot of our story has been erased. So that’s another reason why this piece is so important to me and why the songs are important to me. It is really interesting how many people have also had their own stories to share that are similar.
I’m really looking forward to it. It’s also a lot of fun. It’s really funny. It’s hilarious at times, it’s sad at times. We have audience participation at times. It’s a very unusual storytelling concert.
Indra Raj: Wonderful. Really exciting. This is happening tonight at the Newman Center at 7:30, Martha Redbone. Bone Hill.
Martha, how can people keep up with you and the great work that you’re doing?
Martha Redbone: I’m on all of the social media outlets of course. You can always go to martharedone.com. Instagram and Facebook and all those things.
Indra Raj: And if you want to find out more about tonight’s performance you can go to newmancenterpresents.com and there will be information there about the concert tickets, all the rest. Martha, I know you have to go. Thank you so much for taking a moment to speak with me this morning. I know the performance will be wonderful tonight.
Martha Redbone: I’m so looking forward to it. We all are all. The guys just had breakfast with my band and everyone’s just in a great mood and the weather’s beautiful and we’ve been together for a really long time as a band. So it’s like a family getting together again to play some stuff. I just want to thank the Newman Center and the whole team, Ayesha and the whole PR team, Justin Lee, for making everything possible. They just have done such wonderful work. So I’m really honored and grateful and looking forward to the show tonight.
Indra Raj: Yes, so are we. Thank you so much, Martha, for joining me here at KGNU.
