Craven Arts Council & Gallery is proud to present “At the Gallery: Knopfler & Knopfler (Dire Straits)” performed by Hank Barbee and the Dust Parade at the Bank of the Arts on February 26, 2022.
Brothers David and Mark Knopfler formed the band the Café Racers in 1977 with band mates John Illsley and Pick Withers. While rehearsing in a friend’s kitchen, Wither’s flat mate came up with the name the Dire Straits. That same year the group recorded their first demo and by 1978 their first album, Dire Straits, was released through Vertigo Records. As time went on their fame grew and eventually they became known as “the biggest British rock band of the 80s” by Classic Rock Magazine. In 2018 the Dire Straits were indicted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hits include “Money for Nothing,” “Sultans of Swing,” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
The Dust Parade is a genre-bending original music group born from the sandy beaches and river towns of Eastern North Carolina. Since forming in 2017, they play a unique brand of surfy/jazz-rock and bluesy/soul rhythms set to life over incisive and socially conscious songwriting. Hank Barbee leads ‘The Parade,’ his sultry and mellow baritone voice engages the lyrical conversation, while just underneath, his bluesy electric guitar passages marry with Jim Durham’s saxophone. On the bottom end, Matt Henderson keeps the bass lines ever moving, energetically driving the band forward across drummer Xavier Roberson’s deep grooves and syncopated bliss.
Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for nonmembers, available in person at Bank of the Arts, online at CravenArts.org, or over the phone at 252.638.2577.
By Mairin Gwyn Narron, Office Manager