Jon Shain and FJ Ventre with opener Kemp Harris

Advance tickets cost $12 for adults and $5 for youth age 18 and under. At the door, the suggested contribution is $14 for adults, $5 for youth, and $28 for families.

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Jon Shain grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and FJ Ventre grew up in Beverly. They began making music together in 1982 when they met in high school.

Jon headed south to Duke University in North Carolina to study American History and continue his musical journey. In addition to studying with jazz professor Paul Jeffrey, he had the good fortune to learn the piedmont blues tradition firsthand by playing in Big Boy Henry’s backing band. Jon won the 2019 International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. He has shared stages with the likes of Keb’ Mo’, John Hiatt, Little Feat, and Jackson Browne.

FJ went to University of Massachusetts-Lowell, earning a B.A. in Music Performance and Sound Recording. Since relocating to North Carolina,  he has been performing as a sought after sideman, engineering at his own Good Luck Studio, and operating graphic design firm Tadpole Designs.

With FJ joining Jon in North Carolina, they resumed their musical partnership. They collaborated on the 2019 CD Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday Soon and their new CD Never Found a Way to Tame the Blues, release in 2021.

Jon and FJ are Old Sloop veterans. They performed as a duo in 2016, and with blues harpist Bill Newton in 2011.

Kemp Harris defies categorization. He is a singer and songwriter; a master weaver of American musical styles. He’s also an actor, activist, author, and storyteller, and an award-winning educator who has taught young public school students for more than 40 years.

Kemp has acted in numerous films and TV shows such as SMILF (Showtime), and is comfortable sharing the stage with artists such as Taj Mahal, Koko Taylor, and Gil Scott-Heron, as well as performing shows with his smokin’ band. He wrote and performed “If Loneliness Was Black” for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Complexions Dance Company. Kemp has also composed for WGBH Public Television/Boston.

Kemp’s powers of observation, his unique gift for shining a light on our modern world and what it means to be alive in these times, have only deepened over a lifetime devoted to the most basic and profound of pursuits, genuine human connection. Whether he’s in the classroom, on a film set, leading a workshop, or performing on the concert stage, at the end of the day, Kemp says, “I’m an old black man telling stories and spreading the love.”

Kemp Harris is a thief, a tease and a heartbreaker. He knows too much. And it’s all right there when he sings. Beautifully there. He’ll take your breath away.
– NPR’s On Point