Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett To Perform At The Englert Theatre 11/11

Legendary guitarists Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett will perform at The Englert Theatre Thursday, November 11 at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $22, and are available at the door, online at www.englert.org, or by calling the Box Office at 319-688-2653.

Having joined forces to form an acoustic duet that will blow you away, these two guitarists are performing songs from their Little Feat catalog. They first played together on the album Dixie Chicken some twenty-five years ago and since then have played together or individually on numerous recording sessions for Little Feat and countless others including Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Dionne Farris, and the Wallflowers to name a few.

Their Veterans Day performance at the Englert will benefit the VA Hospital outreach program to homeless vets in our area. Under the direction of Kevin Strunk, this innovative program has had great success in reducing the number of homeless vets, both locally and throughout the state.

"There's a million causes people ask us to play benefits for, but this one hits home with all of us" said Mr. Barrere. "We are glad, in fact we are honored, to join Coach Ferentz and his Pittsburgh friends in helping put an end to the travesty of veteran homelessness. Quite simply, in a country like this, one homeless vet is simply one too many. We encourage all Iowa City area musicians to consider playing a benefit show for the fine work the guys at the VA do to help these men who once stood on battlefields in our place and now need a hand."

HOW THE BENEFIT CAME ABOUT
This time last year our government's Veterans Affairs Department Secretary, General Eric Shinseki, announced an historic misssion to completely end the abomination of homelessness among our nation's veteran population by 2015, calling on every American to join him.

Tragically and appallingly, roughly 25% of the homeless men in this country are military vets. According to the most recent VA statistics, there are an estimated 500 homeless vets in our area.

Among those who responded to the General's call to help these men reclaim their lives was a civic group Kirk Ferentz helped create six years ago in his hometown, the Upper St Clair (PA) Founders Memorial Fund. Among those joining him was a member of his High-School-playing-days coaching staff, Jeff Joyce, who was also the college roommate of Big 10 Conference Commissioner Jim Delany at North Carolina.

The Founders Fund has since emerged as a regional leader in financial support of Pittsburgh area non-profits that help homeless vets return to society. They've done so by conducting a unique package of charity fund raising events, among them the ongoing BurghSTOCK (kinda like Pittsburgh's Woodstock) Concert Series. In the past two years, 42 local bar bands and 20 national touring acts- including 5 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame- have joined in this unique effort.

The first national act to join the effort to help homeless vets were legendary Americana artists Little Feat, who have played 4 BurghSTOCK shows. Though they never achieved the popularity of friends, musical peers and collaborators like Jimmy Buffett, Bob Seger, Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris (all of whom appeared on their recent release "Join The Band"), they are among the most respected and influential musicans of the Woodstock generation.

With Little Feat taking a break from the road and Veterans Day around the corner, the band's guitarists last night embarked on a short "Big 10 Conference Tour" under the BurghSTOCK banner. The Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett Acoustic Duo performed at Penn State's State Theater, proceeds going to a local non-profit. A Friday stop in Madison winds up the tour.

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