Tinsley Ellis
Nightfall and the Bessie Smith Hall are teaming up Friday to present a special IndepenDANCE Day Street Party to celebrate the holiday weekend. Beginning with a street party extending down M.L.King Boulevard to the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, entertainment will take place beginning at 5 p.m. with music and kids activities on and in front of the Bessie, then continuing with the regular Nightfall schedule with the local R&B opening act Xsklusive at 7 p.m., and concluding with the Southern blues-rocker Tinsley Ellis at 8 p.m. at Miller Plaza. This event is free to the public.
Following DJ music on the lawn of the Bessie, there will be a dance performance by Eclectic Movement at 5:30 p.m., music by Sound Advice at 6 p.m. and Gerald Massengale at 7 p.m. The Shriner Clowns and games such as ladder golf and corn hole will also be set up on the Bessie Smith lawn.
Other entertainment includes the Creative Discovery Museum’s Discovery Mobile offering creative play and craft projects, a “Community Paint Day” where the public can help with a large-scale mural being created for the AT&T Building, an Art Bike Rodeo featuring art bikes from Art120, a climbing wall, face painting, balloon animals and additional vendors.
Beginning at 7 p.m. at Miller Plaza, Xsklusive, a local soul and R&B singing group, will open Nightfall with a 40-minute set. Under management of Moshay Entertainment, Xsklusive was previously the house band for the restaurant and music club Mocha.
Review for Tinsley Ellis:
The featured 8 p.m. headliner at Nightfall will be Tinsley Ellis, a Southern boy from Atlanta, has produced 11 albums and performed in thousands of live concerts that have led him to be seen as one of today’s most thrilling blues-rock guitarists and vocalists. Artists such as Duane Allman and Freddie King, and Ellis’ good friends, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes, influence his rock power and blues feeling. Since the debut of his album Georgia Blue in 1988, Ellis has toured non-stop and produced critically acclaimed albums. The Washington Post named Ellis “a legitimate guitar hero.”
Ellis has traveled all over the world to perform his blues-rock, and has shared the stage with various big name artists such as Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, The Allman Brothers, and many more. Ellis’ 40-year relationship with the blues was highlighted in 2014 with an induction into the New York Blues Hall of Fame, and his 18th and most recent album Tough Love has been nominated for a “Blues Blast Music Award” in the Rock Blues category.
For more information on this free community concert series, call 265-0771 or visit NightfallChattanooga.com for a complete, interactive website that includes music samples by each headliner, as well as other important information for first-time attendees.