Dominican University's Performing Arts Center will open the 2010-2011 season with British folk rocker Billy Bragg on Friday, September 10 at 7:30 p.m. The performance will be held in the Lund Auditorium, 7900 West Division Street, River Forest.
In the grand tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Bragg's socially conscious message, bitingly intelligent lyrics and brilliant song-craft have made him a modern legend of underground folk. For over 30 years, his music has blended elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs. He has collaborated with several influential contemporary artists including Johnny Marr, Hank Wangford, Florence and the Machine, Kate Nash, members of R.E.M., and Less Than Jake.
In the 1990s Bragg was approached by one of Woody Guthrie's daughters to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the band Wilco and Natalie Merchant on the albums Mermaid Avenue (1998) and Mermaid Avenue Vol II (2000). Bragg's most recent album Mr. Love & Justice was released in 2008 and is considered one of his most musically developed albums.
Bragg has been involved in several grassroots and left-wing political movements, mostly in his native Great Britain. He backed the 1984 miners' strike, traveled to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and is a supporter of a multi-racial Britain. He has been an outspoken opponent of the British National Party and issues of fascism, racism, bigotry, sexism and homophobia. In spring 2010, he wrote and performed six original songs in the play "Pressure Drop." Written by Mick Gordon, the play explores the pressures that rapid changes wrought by globalization place on three generations of a white working class family in England. Bragg is also the author of The Progressive Patriot: A Search for Belonging, in which he examines what it means to be British in light of the 2005 bombings and the resulting anti-immigrant sentiment.
Ticket prices start at $24. Located just 10 miles west of Chicago's Loop, Dominican's Lund Auditorium offers the warm acoustics and intimate atmosphere of the country's best concert halls. Parking is always free. For more information, contact the box office at (708) 488-5000.
