Arts Festival Preview – Mikel Rouse

Date Published: 20-Jul-2007

Music for Minorities, a combination of music, film and performance, which is a homage to the people and music of Louisiana, promises to be one of the more intriguing events in this year’s Arts Festival.

The one man show is the work of New York composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Mikel Rouse who fuses songs with filmed interviews of people in Louisiana and New York to tell stories for a contemporary audience whose primary influence is television.

Rouse, who is best known in the US for his unconventional operas, grew up in Missouri and was deeply influenced by Delta music and the old blues players of the region. “I’ve lived in NewYork 25 or 30 years now and call myself a NewYorker but I grew up in the south, regularly visiting places like Memphis, Arkansas, Louisiana,” he explains by phone from NewYork.

Twenty years after leaving the south, Rouse had a chance to do a residency in Northern Louisiana for three years and “hung out with the older guys who play the Delta Blues”, playing music with them and taking photographs of them. In terms of music, going back to the south was important to this man, who has embraced many musical influences during his career.

“A lot of composers either go to school and get the so called ‘bad music’ written out of them, or they embrace it. I grew up listening to Country & Western and Rock & Roll and Jazz and I’ve integrated it in my life. You don’t want to run away from your past.”

Meanwhile, he will be entertaining people with his own show in the Radisson Hotel this Friday, July 20 and Saturday 21 at 9pm nightly. Tickets for Music for Minorities from www.galwayartsfestival.com, at the booking office on Merchant’s Road or by phone, 091-566577.