SINGER-SONGWRITER Billy Bragg can be seen this November at UCLA’s Royce Hall as part of the Hope, Love & Justice Tour with American gospel singer Mavis Staples.
Bragg rose to fame as part of the English post-punk movement in the late 1970s, most famously penning the gloriously bittersweet “New England”, but has since explored a wide variety of music styles, inbuing his songwriting with a keen social acitivism that has inspired comparisons (in this country, at least) to the folk tradition of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. He’s spent more than two decades making an indelible mark on the conscience of music with celebrated solo records and two Grammy-nominated albums with Wilco—Mermaid Avenue (1998) and Mermaid Avenue, Volume II (2000).
Mavis Staples blazes a rhythm & blues trail while never relinquishing her gospel roots. The Lifetime Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee was honored as one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Singers of all time.
The Hope, Love & Justice Tour appears for one night only, Friday November 5th at 8pm at Royce Hall. Tickets are $33/43/58 ($15 UCLA students). For more details go to www.uclalive.org
