Seattle songsters Ben Hunter and Joe Seamons will perform a free concert at the Treehouse Café from 8 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31.

There is no cost of admission, though donations will be accepted; entrance is for those 21-and-older only.

The duo give life to voices that have long been silenced in American culture. Their award-winning performances are highlighted by storytelling that, rather than bringing the past to life, vividly shows how the past still lives in the present.

Through their songs, audiences witness current issues crop up again and again in folk songs, dance tunes, acoustic blues, and prison ballads.

They bounce from fiddle and banjo breakdowns to a cappella “field hollers,” early jazz to gospel songs featuring Piedmont guitar-style and rattlin’ bones.

With the same versatility that won them the International Blues Challenge in 2016, and allowed them to record with National Heritage Fellow Phil Wiggins, the duo celebrates the ways Americans have triumphed over oppression through the vitality of their art. Audiences walk away from their concerts and workshops inspired to learn more of their own history, and engage more deeply with their communities.

In May of 2019, the pair was recognized by the Ethnic Heritage Council with the Gordon Ekvall Tracie Memorial Award for excellence in ethnic performance and significant contributions to the development and presentation of the traditional cultural arts in the Pacific Northwest.

From No Depression: “[They] aren’t so much a throw-back to the music of the pre-war era songster tradition as they are alchemist-shamans, seemingly sent from those times to the 21st century to wake us up to the music that is embedded deep within us.”

Visit www.treehousebainbridge.com to learn more.