TSQ LIVE + MTA Music Under New York: Samoa Wilson

MTA MUSIC (Music Under New York) is one of the visual and performing arts programs presented by MTA Arts & Design to enhance the transit system for riders. More than 350 individuals and ensembles present over 12,000 MTA MUSIC performances annually, featuring a wide range of instruments such as the Gambian kora, Korean drum, West Indian steel drums, Andean pipes, Cajun cello, Celtic and Baroque harps, guitars, violins, hammered dulcimers, and musical saws, and encompassing classical strings, jazz ensembles, world music bands, folk, a cappella groups, singer-songwriters, and more.

Performing on July 2: Samoa Wilson

Since she was 12 years old, Samoa Wilson has been captivating audiences with a voice the New York Times calls “sweet, effortless, old-timey”. Raised in the riverbed of traditional North American folk music, she came up in the Boston scene, under the wing of jug band and folk legend Jim Kweskin. Her two duos, the Four O’Clock Flowers, and Fatboy Wilson & Old Viejo Bones, have become staples of the thriving New York City folk community. Additionally, her vintage jazz trio has been filling ears with material from the golden era of 20's and 30's musical treasure; a sound at once more bluesy and more contemporary than expected. Her choice of repertoire makes the difference: torchy and honeyed renditions of haunting little-known tunes, from a woman’s perspective. From the source of the traditional and classic material, she poses a modern complaint, salutes the transformation of women’s work and suffering into women’s triumph.