Fall Concert Series Kick Off!
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Music Starts @ 7:30PM
The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center’s 2023 Fall Concert Series kicks off on Thursday, September 14 with a concert by PK Mayo Trio at 7:30 p.m. in the Cultural Center’s intimate visual arts gallery space. All are welcome!
The PK Mayo Acoustic Trio features PK Mayo on guitar and vocals, Steve Lehto on guitar and mandolin, and John Wright on bass. Join us for legendary Americana/Roots/Blues live music on September 14th!
PK Mayo (Paul K. Mayasich) holds his rightful place in both the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Rock & Country Hall of Fame. John Wright has a long-standing dedication to traditional music and incorporates influences from many musical styles into his work, including blues, fusion, pop Latin, and rock. Steve Lehto’s impressive versatility and range on the guitar is matched only by the emotion he puts into playing.
Don’t miss your chance to see this award-winning trio live in New York Mills!
A native son of northern Minnesota, PK Mayo grew up in the mining town of Eveleth. From an early age, when he was known as Paul Kennedy Mayasich, he soaked up a wide range of diverse styles of music coming over the airwaves of the local college radio station, KUMD. He refers to those listening years as his college.
“Since the first time I heard Duane Allman’s intro to ‘Statesboro Blues’ on At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers, I knew I wanted to play guitar,” he exclaims. When I was six or seven I ‘played’ my Mom’s broom with a 11/16 socket as my ‘slide’ to emulate another favorite, Lowell George.”
Mayo has spent the majority of his life following the muse of that sound while recording, gigging, and stepping on stage 200+ nights a year.
He started gigging around his hometown as a teenager, playing in country, polka, and rock cover bands. He moved to Minneapolis and sought the tutoring of seasoned R&B, soul, jazz, and blues musicians. After a fair amount of jamming Mayo quickly fell into local bands and stepped out to front a few of his own.
Along his musical journey, on stage or in the studio, Mayo has played behind a veritable who’s who of rock, blues, and jazz royalty including Johnny Lang, Tracy Nelson, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Shannon Curfman, Dinah Washington, Jack McDuff, Terry Evans, Big Walter Smith, Bernard Allison, Leland Sklar and Mark Naftalin, to name a few. He’s traveled the world playing festivals, theatres, nightclubs, concert halls, and entertaining audiences from Greece to Belgium, from New York to San Francisco, and all points in between. In recent years, Mayo has been the go-to slide guitarist for the Grammy-winning Bowe.
Decades of touring and gigging have honed his guitar skills to a razor’s edge. Mayo’s abilities playing slide guitar (acoustic and electric) – his rare touch, feel, and dynamism on the instruments combined with his accomplished original songwriting, and soulful vocals Mayo is the complete package. His music is an aural quilt built of what is today called the Americana genre: country, rock & roll, blues, and folk, shaken and stirred into a satisfying musical brew.
Adult tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door (members get a $2 discount!); students $5. You can buy advance tickets online (https://kulcher.
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and the concert begins at 7:30. Light refreshments will be available.
Visit kulcher.org or call the Cultural Center at 218-385-3339 with any questions.
