GREENE COUNTY
Mike Farris, who won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album (“Shine for All the People”), will be performing on March 31, at Oconee Brewing Company (OBC) in downtown Greensboro. All proceeds from the special, one-night-only event will benefit the arts program at Lake Oconee Academy (LOA).
“Mike is a fantastic singer-songwriter, and he does have a full band, but he's coming with just his guitar this time. He’ll tell stories about his life and what his songs mean to him, and he also does some incredible covers of other artists,” LOA Foundation board member Brian Quinn said.
A Tennessee native, Farris was a founding member in 1990 of Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, a Nashville-based, rockin’ Southern blues-type band that issued its first album in 1993 and its final in 2005, all while enjoying commercial and live performance acclaim along the way. In addition to his Grammy win, Farris received an Americana Music Award in 2008 for Best New and Emerging Artist, as well as a 2010 Gospel Music Award for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year (“SHOUT! Live”) Farris released his first solo album in 2002 and so far has seven albums to his name, plus six more as a member of Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies. Throughout his career, he has played with musicians as respected and varied as guitar hero Joe Bonamassa to the “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin.
“You know, when Aretha Franklin was inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, her people made sure Mike Farris was on stage with her. That’s how much she loves him,” Quinn said. “I mean, his voice, I'll tell you, his voice is his instrument and he'll just blow people away.”
Quinn explained the LOA Foundation recently helped to open a new home last fall specifically for the arts program on the Lake Oconee Academy campus.
“Ever since the school was started, arts were always a very important part of the whole education process at Lake Oconee Academy. And they've always had nice facilities, but now you've got this new, dedicated facility that's really going to help grow the program,” Quinn said.
“So now the band has a place to practice, and the theater group has got a place to do their thing, and you've got the kilns to get the pottery going, and it's got the media side of things with photography and graphic arts and even television and all that stuff. So, it’s just pretty all-encompassing. It’s a great place.”
Quinn said he expects the Farris concert will sell out, but there are still a few reserved tables left and $25 general admission tickets available through the OBC website at oconeebrewingco.com/calendar/mikefarris.
“It's all for the arts,” he stressed once more. “One hundred percenthttp://www.oconeebrewingco.com/calendar/mikefarris of the proceeds will go to the Lake Oconee Academy arts programs, and I mean, not many Grammy Award winners come to Lake Oconee, so if somebody's looking for an evening to exceed their expectations, this would be it.”