Ryan Lee Crosby and Grant Smith
Mon, Sep 15
|Nightingale's Acoustic Cafe
“What first intrigued me about Ryan Lee Crosby is how rare he is on paper: a former English major and post-punk rocker who can channel 1930s Mississippi.” - Lauren Daley — WBUR/NPR
Time & Location
Sep 15, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Nightingale's Acoustic Cafe, 68 Lyme St, Old Lyme, CT 06371, USA
About the event
Ryan Lee Crosby is currently based in Rhode Island, but his musical heart is in Mississippi. He has released numerous albums, toured internationally and is a leading practitioner of the Bentonia School of rural Delta blues, as well as a world music explorer. Smithsonian Magazine praised his ability to "bring influences from Africa and India to the Bentonia sound."
Crosby's new album "At the Blue Front" (featuring Grammy nominated bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes) offers a haunting, hypnotic meld of Bentonia and Hill Country blues. Recorded on reel to reel tape over two afternoons at Holmes’ iconic Mississippi juke joint, the album was produced, recorded and mixed by Crosby, with a selection of original compositions, traditional repertoire and fully improvised songs.
Crosby finds deep inspiration and spiritual refuge in Bentonia, where he has been mentored for six years by Holmes, the man who is widely regarded as the last living maste…