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Aimee Mann Among Libera Awards Performers
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images – Aimee Mann
A2IM announced Aimee Mann,
The Libera Awards is AMI2’s annual celebration of art and achievements made in the independent music community. Comedian Kate Wolff is hosting this year’s ceremony.
Presented by SoundExchange in partnership with BuzzAngle, the 2018 Libera Awards will include a special celebration of Merlin’s 10 Year Anniversary and take place June 21 at the PlayStation theater in New York City. The ceremony is the finale to Indie Week, A2IM’s four-day lineup of workshops and panels led by music industry leaders, held June 18-21 in NYC’s Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Mann is fresh off the release of her latest album, Mental Illness, and recently wrapped a North America tour, which included dates at Carolina Theatre in in Durham, N.C., which sold 878 tickets and grossed $38,371, and Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse, selling 820 tickets and grossing $27,040.
Legendary funk and soul outfit The Dap-Kings will take the stage with fellow soul star Lee Fields and members of the Extraordinaires for a tribute to the late Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. The group is slated for Atlanta Jazz Festival, Milwaukee’s Summerfest and Newport Folk Festival later this year.
Sam Outlaw will bring his distinct brand of “SoCal country” to the stage. He toured extensively last year in support of his debut album, Angeleno, including an opening date with Margo Price at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg which sold 661 tickets and grossed $10,588.
Legacy hip-hop collective Funky 4 + 1, consisting of Li’l Rodney C!, MC Jazzy Jeff, K.K. Rockwell and Keith Keith, is also performing, The group was the first rap collective from the Bronx to sign a record deal and in 1981 was the first to perform on “Saturday Night Live.”
Said MC Jazzy Jeff in a statement reading the upcoming show, “We are truly honored to receive such an iconic award and to be recognized by A2IM. The Libera Awards shines a light on the true essence of all genres of music, and Funky 4+1 is thrilled to be representing hip hop.”
Grammy-nominated guitarist and singer Raul Midon, labeled by the New York Times as “a one-man band who turns a guitar into an orchestra and his voice into a chorus,” is also performing. He’s booked to play DC Jazz Festival and JAS June Experience in Aspen, Colo., in June.