FALL RIVER — The Narrows Center for the Arts has a strong lineup of concerts this July along with multiple unique gallery exhibitions. The Narrows continues to bring high-quality music, art and events to the Southcoast area.

The concerts in July are as follows:

The road goes on forever...until it doesn’t. Legendary Texas songwriter and entertainer Robert Earl Keen wraps up 41 years on the road with his 2022 Final Tour, I’m Comin’ Home: 41 Years On The Road. With a catalog of 21 albums, his band of stellar musicians, and many thousands of shows under his belt, Pollstar ranked Keen in its Top 20 Global Concert Tours in July, 2021. Keen has blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that's earned him living-legend status in the Americana music world.

American Songwriter describes Eilen Jewell as one of America's most intriguing, creative and idiosyncratic voices. The Boise, Idaho songwriter leads a tight quartet that blends influences of surf-noir, early blues, classic country, folk, and 1960s era rock ’n’ roll.

"Live Dates" is among the best live rock albums of all time. In preparation for the 50th Anniversary and a new live recording of their biggest selling album, Wishbone Ash are offering fans an up close and personal experience to go deep in the shed to work through this vintage material in its entirety. Released in 1973, “Live Dates” offers the greatest and most challenging collection of early material which propelled this double album to multi-platinum sales.

Davy Knowles first burst onto the scene in 2007 with his band Back Door Slam, garnering rave reviews, national US television appearances (Jimmy Kimmel Live, Good Morning America), extensive triple-A radio airplay, and two top 5 Billboard Blues charting albums.  Since then, Knowles has independently released two more studio albums, 2014’s The Outsider and 2016’s Three Miles From Avalon, which also hit the top five on the Billboard Blues chart. An EP, 1932, showcasing his talents on acoustic guitar, specifically a 1932 National acoustic guitar, was released in early 2017.  

For nearly a decade, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds have been hailed for their explosive brand of modern soul, equally celebrated for their three studio albums and electrifying live performances. Kincheloe grew up amongst an intensely musical family in upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains, co-founding Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds with her brother Jackson at just 18.

For Americana godfather David Bromberg, it all began with the blues. His incredible journey spans five-and-a-half decades, and includes – but is not limited to – adventures with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jerry Garcia, and music and life lessons from seminal blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis, who claimed the young Bromberg as a son. A musician’s musician, Bromberg’s mastery of several stringed instruments (guitar, fiddle, Dobro, mandolin), and multiple styles is legendary, leading Dr. John to declare him an American icon. In producing John Hartford’s hugely influential Aereo-Plain LP, Bromberg even co-invented a genre: Newgrass.

Singer/songwriter Robbie Fulks is one of the more heralded talents in the alternative country movement, displaying an offbeat, sometimes dark sense of humor in many of his best moments. While Fulks' best-known songs are often bitingly funny, he also has a gift for writing incisive, evocative material in the country and pop traditions.

Grammy-nominated guitarist Jon Butcher is one of a select handful of influential recording artists who emerged from the legendary Boston music scene. MTV videos, hit songs and incendiary live performances comprise the underpinnings of a rich music career that continues today.

"Here and There: Sacred Objects, Spirit Animals, and Symbols for Manifesting Creative Visualizations from Massachusetts to Malawi – Drawings by Kristen Palana” 

Having lived and worked in Asia and Africa since 2016, Kristen Palana is drawn to the patterns and colors found in traditional clothing, baskets, ceramics, and local handicrafts made from raw and natural materials. In her current series of drawings, she pays homage to her host country of Malawi and its emerging community of artists and artisans, many of them women. Her aim is to explore links between new and traditional art forms, modern and ancient human desires, and the universal impulse to try and create better outcomes for our lives through magic-charged imagery. 

Subtlety might let slip bold truths. Brashness may become whispered secrets. Absurdity allows for answers to questions unasked. Humor can conceal the serious and the somber can revel in wit. “Wise Guise” unites four SouthCoast artists working in a wide variety of disciplines and with vastly differing temperaments and approaches to the world who share a common thread: things are not always what they seem.

Featured artists: Joseph Fontinha, Keith Francis, Seth Rainville, Don Wilkinson

The Narrows Center for the Arts, located at 16 Anawan Street in Fall River, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Visit: narrowscenter.org for more information.