Martha Redbone

{{About|the American musician|other uses|Redbone (disambiguation){{!}}Redbone}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Martha Redbone

| image = Philadelphia Folk Festival 2018 DSC 0275 (42368247180).jpg

| background = solo_singer

| birth_name =

| birth_date =

| birth_place = New York City

| origin = New York City, New York, and Kentucky, United States

| genre = Rhythm and Blues, Folk and Soul

| occupation = Singer, songwriter, composer

| years_active = 1996–present

| label = Dome Records{{cite web |title=Martha Redbone |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/759614-Martha-Redbone |website=Discogs |access-date=5 February 2022}}

| website = {{URL|martharedbone.com}}

}}

File:Martha Redbone.jpg

Martha Redbone (born 1966) is an American singer known for blending rhythm and blues and soul with elements of Native American music[http://www.soultracks.com/martha_redbone.htm "Martha Redbone"], Soultracks

Early life and education

Redbone spent time with her maternal grandparents in Harlan County. According to Redbone, her late mother, whose family has been rooted for generations in the mountains of Kentucky and Virginia, was a mix of Cherokee, Shawnee and Choctaw; her late father was an African-American from North Carolina.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} She has never conducted a DNA test, but says she looks like people from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria.{{cite news |last1=Martin-Brown |first1=Becka |title='Good Music Is A Celebration': Martha Redbone combines cultures in 'brilliant collision' |url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/10/good-music-is-a-celebration-martha-redb/ |access-date=25 March 2024 |work=Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |date=10 November 2019}}

Career

Redbone composed the new music score for the late Ntozake Shange's choreopoem "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuff" with her husband and collaborator Aaron Whitby, which premiered on Broadway in 2022. In 2019, they were the composers of the Public Theatre’s iteration of the choreo-poem.{{cite web | url=https://ourtimepress.com/composers-martha-redbone-and-aaron-whitby-set-for-colored-girls-to-music/ | title=Composers Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby Set "for colored girls" to Music }} Redbone and Whitby won a Drama Desk award for Outstanding Music in a Play for the Original score for "For Colored Girls"https://playbill.com/article/a-strange-loop-the-inheritance-moulin-rouge-win-big-at-2020-drama-desk-awards Redbone became a musician and singer, combining music styles with Black American and Native American roots music.{{cite news |last1=Colson |first1=Nicole S.|title=Choctaw, Cherokee and African-American descent have shaped Martha Redbone |url=https://www.sentinelsource.com/entertainment/entertainment_news/choctaw-cherokee-and-african-american-descent-have-shaped-martha-redbone/article_9635bca0-9878-5592-a35c-20204f0f2e39.html |access-date=16 July 2024 |work=SentinelSource.com |date=21 March 2013 |language=en}} Her stage name, "Redbone", comes from Southern slang for people of black and

Native ancestry.{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Jim |title=Martha Redbone does it her way |url=https://ictnews.org/archive/martha-redbone-does-it-her-way |access-date=16 July 2024 |work=ICT News |date=13 September 2018 |language=en}} She was mentored in songwriting and music production by Junie Morrison of the Ohio Players and Parliament Funkadelic.{{cite web | url=https://www.wpr.org/person/martha-redbone | title=Martha Redbone }} In early 2007, Redbone's Skintalk won The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best R&B Album.[http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima_new/jukebox2007.asp "6th Annual Winners"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501181807/http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima_new/jukebox2007.asp |date=2009-05-01 }}, Independent Music Awards

Her 2012 work, The Garden of Love – Songs of William Blake, sets Blake's poem of the same name to music that draws from rural influences of Appalachia: English folk, African American, and Native American traditions. She tours nationally with the Martha Redbone Roots Project.[http://theark.org/3634.html "The Martha Redbone Roots Project"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207141023/http://theark.org/3634.html|date=2013-12-07}}, August 2013, The Ark (Ann Arbor, MI), accessed 16 June 2014