Tad Robinson to perform at Gobin summer music festival finale Wednesday night

Monday, August 16, 2021
Tad Robinson

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival concludes its 17th season of free concerts celebrating “friends making music for friends” Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Gobin Church with a performance by blues legend Tad Robinson.

The concert has been underwritten by Steve and Linda Raines, “in honor of Dorothy Brown, public school teacher and principal, counselor to young adults and her community, passionate bridge player, mother and friend.”

Greencastle resident Robinson will be joined by his longtime collaborators, Kevin Anker on keys, Paul Holdman on guitar and vocals, and Brian Yarde on drums.

“We’re going to turn Gobin into a blues nightclub for one night,” Robinson said. “For local musicians like me, performing for the Greencastle Summer Music Festival makes me feel a deep connection to and pride in our city. The peaceful setting for the festival at Gobin is one of the most unique and intimate performance spaces in town. It’s an honor for me and my band to play our brand of blues for the audience that Eric Edberg has nurtured through the years because they are true music-lovers and we so appreciate the opportunity.”

“I’m so excited we are presenting Tad and his band,” Edberg, the GSMF founding artistic director, said. “They always draw a big crowd and it’s one of the highlights of the summer.”

Especially because of the large anticipated audience, “We would really appreciate it if everyone in the audience would wear a mask.”

Edberg explains, “We were all sad that the Putnam County Playhouse had to cancel its production scheduled for last weekend and next due to a COVID-19 infection. A substantial portion of our audience is over 60, as am I, with many over 70, and even vaccinated we are considered to be in a high-risk age group. The CDC recommends that due to the nature of the Delta variant, even vaccinated people wear a mask indoors in areas with a high level of community transmission, like Putnam County.

“Many of our audience members have said they’d feel more comfortable if we all wear masks, so we thank you in advance for doing so.”

Severn Records recording artist Robinson is one of the leading voices of modern soul-blues music. From his NYC roots and his Indiana and Chicago musical upbringing, Robinson has caught the attention of the music world with his 10 Blues Music Award nominations (the Grammys of blues music) and his many recordings. He’s a veteran of countless national and international tours and has performed at many of the most important blues festivals in more than 20 countries.

Robinson was recently granted a fellowship by the Arts Council of Indianapolis which resulted in a trip to Memphis for creative renewal and a dream recording session for Tad with Memphis soul legends, the Hi Records Rhythm Section. Hi Records is the record label responsible for the classic Memphis soul recordings of Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay and countless other artists.

At the Gobin concert on Wednesday, Tad and his band will perform selections from the album “Real Street,” which resulted from his Memphis session.

This 12th and final GSMF summer 2021concert comes after a series of 29 virtual concerts presented in the fall, winter and spring, and like the preceding events will be video recorded and broadcast in the near future on cable access Channel 3, where GSMF programs are shown at 3 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Many of this summer’s concerts are also available through the greencastlemusic.org.

The GSMF concerts are made available through the generosity of individual donors, an endowment at and grant from the Putnam County Community Foundation, a grant from the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau, in-kind donations from the Inn at DePauw, and Gobin Church and its pastor, Bryan Langdoc.

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