JONESBORO — ‘Lectric Liz will perform a concert of blues and jazz music on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. at the outdoor Terry Scoggins Memorial Stage on Front Street in downtown Newport. The show is part of the KASU/Arkansas Steel Associates Monster Groovez concert series. These concerts are free, and attendees are encouraged to bring their own folding chairs or blankets. In case of rain, the concerts are moved into Frankie’s Place, a restaurant also on Front Street.
Liz Lottmann was born and raised in Jonesboro. While attending Jonesboro High School, she began composing and performing her own special brand of “barbed-wire” folk. Now, with an over 45-year-career, Lottmann has performed in blues and jazz clubs throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Japan, South and Central America and Canada. She frequently sang with Donn McMinn’s Memphis Blues Revue, whose players included Jeff ‘Stick’ Davis; Billy Earheart of Amazing Rhythm Aces; and Willie Hall of The Blues Brothers.
Lottmann was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 by the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards organization and inducted into the Arkansas Blues Hall of Fame in 2011.
Lottmann, lead vocalist, is joined by band members LaLa Craig, keyboardist; Marcus “Mookie” Cartwright, guitarist; Cecil Parker, drummer; Ivan Yarbrough, bassist; and Ocie Fisher, vocalist. Craig is widely known by Mississippi locals and tourists alike for both her vibrant one-woman show and her stellar band, LaLa & Element 88. She is a regularly featured artist at actor Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Miss.
Cartwright was born in Stuttgart and raised in Holly Grove. He is a young musician who is continuing the long tradition of blues music and has performed at KASU Music Nights at the Johnny Cash Heritage Festival and KASU’s Arkansas Roots Music Festival.
Parker and Yarbrough are well-known “pick-up musicians” from Central Arkansas who play with numerous blues musicians around the region who come to the area without a full band. Fisher was born and raised in northwest Arkansas. She is in the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards Hall of Fame and is the four-time Female Vocalist of the Year.
Program Director at KASU Marty Scarbrough says, “Liz Lottmann is an Arkansas blues treasure. She has a long-time passion for this music of the Delta, and that passion is clearly evident with every note she sings. She has assembled a phenomenal band for the concert in Newport. If you love not just the blues but lively live music, this is a show you won’t want to miss.”
For more information about ‘Lectric Liz, go to divasonfire.com/lectric-liz-lottmann.
This is the fourth performance of the Monster Groovez concert series that began on May 21 with The Akeem Kemp Band. Then, the husband and wife duo of Brick Fields and their band performed June 18 to rousing, often dancing participants. Gerry Moss and the Arkansas All-Stars performed in downtown Newport Aug. 19.
The last concert for Monster Groovez in Newport will be Jubilation Jazz, a swing/big band performing Tuesday, Oct. 15. All of these concerts are free thanks to the Arkansas Steel Associates and KASU.
KASU, 91.9 FM, is the 100,000-watt public broadcasting service of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. For more information, contact KASU Station Manager Mark Smith at msmith@astate.edu or 870-972-2283. More details are on the KASU Public Radio Facebook page.
This is a press release from Arkansas State University. ASU holds the license for KASU. More news is available at: AState.edu/news