FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 7/14/2011
Morgan Arts Council -- Berkeley Springs, WV
www.macicehouse.org

Press Contact only: Mary Hott -- 304-258-2300

ONE-MAN BAND IN SUMMER CONCERT

BERKELEY SPRINGS, WV ---- Ben Prestage transforms a collection of hand crafted instruments into a sensational concert of swamp blues, gospel and old time country in  Berkeley Springs State Park on Saturday, July 23 at 5:30pm.  Rain location for the Morgan Arts Council’s summer concert series is the nearby Ice House.

Prestage has several generations of performance in his blood with the rural accents of both Mississippi and Florida.  “There was only one kind of music in the house,” he said  about his youth.  “Whether it was being played on an instrument, or on a recording, it was Blues.”  In his teens, Prestage came face to face with a banjo, heard bluegrass and learned to finger pick.  Supersonic finger picking became one of his hallmarks.

The interesting approach to instrumentation continued to expand as Prestage turned his blues heritage into something electrifying.  As a street performer in Memphis, he acquired a diddley-bow from another musician and decided to drum with his feet as a way of capturing audience attention. “Not only were people listening and buyin' discs, they were now dancing and hollerin' to boot,” said Prestage of his new technique.  His secret weapon is a cigar box-broom handle guitar with three guitar strings, one bass string and a remarkably rich and expressive tone.

“I was stopped in my tracks when I heard this band at a Florida craft show,”  said local musician, Tari Hampe.  “Turned out the band was a real one-man band – Ben Prestage.”  Claiming his music is honest, from-the-heart talent,  Hampe said,  “he plays drums with his feet, picks a guitar, slides a slide, blows a harp and hammers out banjo tunes quicker that you can whistle Dixie.”  Hampe failed to mention Prestage’s fiddle playing and award-winning songwriting but she did commiserate with any act having to follow Ben.  “It’s nearly impossible, no matter how awesome you are.”

This concert is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and West Virginia Commission on the Arts as well as hotel/motel tax from the town and county.

For a full schedule and links to the music of the seven concert series, check online at www.macicehouse.org.