ViennaCarroll.com

We Freed Ourselves – Keene Family Escape, Easter 1831

My Mission

Sankofa-My Mission Read more.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot – Live at The Met Edition

You are here: Home / Archives for Vienna Carroll

Vienna Carroll

Vienna Carroll & The Folk at The Bitter End

Friday, September 18, 2026,
6:30 – 8:00 pm,
The Bitter End,
147 Bleeker St., Greenwich Village, NYC • Map

Vienna Carroll and The Folk

: Vienna Carroll & The Folk Return to The Bitter End

Friday, September 18, 2026 | 6:30 PM

Joyous, Genre-Bending Celebration of Funky Black Folk music and storytelling

New York, NY — Vienna Carroll & The Folk return to the legendary Bitter End on Friday, September 18, 2026 at 6:30 PM, to serve up a toe-tapping good time with a vintage gospel-funk groove in the spirit of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Backed by an all-star lineup of veteran musicians, Carroll delivers a joyful blend of blues, gospel, funk, and folk with politically-charged storytelling and an electrifying stage presence. Her music is deeply rooted in Black history while remaining boldly relevant and forward-looking.

The Folk features:

  • Keith Johnston (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Jon Hendricks) – guitar
  • Stanley Banks (George Benson) – bass
  • Washboard XT / Newman Taylor Baker (Matthew Shipp, McCoy Tyner, Henry Grimes) – washboard
  • Special guest David Joyce – trumpet

As New York Music Daily notes, Carroll is known for “politically-charged reinventions of classic blues and gospel themes,” while Neon Jazz host Joe Dimino calls her a “Harlem-based vocal powerhouse.”

🎟️ Tickets: $20, available now at bitterend.com
Seating is limited; early arrival is encouraged.

Venue:
The Bitter End
147 Bleecker Street
New York, NY

Event Details:
Friday, September 18, 2026
6:30 PM | Doors open at 6:00 PM

Media & Press Inquiries:
viennacarrollmusic@gmail.com | 646-763-4587

Press Kit:

viennacarrollmusic.com/press-kit

Vienna Carroll Sings the Blues

About the Performance

Experimental Blues pairs artists of juxtaposing styles in intimate concerts to create, highlight, and explore the intersection of Blues with other Black American music and musical genres—such as Negro spirituals, gospel, jazz, R&B, soul, hip hop, and more.

This season’s three Experimental Blues concerts begin with the pairing of two blues powerhouses: Vienna Caroll and Melody Angel. Together, these celebrated women of the blues will escort audiences through a musical journey of catharsis and revitalization that is sure to soothe your soul and energize your body.

See Us Perform at The Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Join Vienna Carroll & The Folk for an evening of Seneca Village-era Afro-Future Roots music.

February 24 & 25, 2023,
6 – 8:30 pm (come early, there will be lines),
Petrie Court Cafe, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028.

With proof of a New York State residency (NY driver’s license/ID card; IDNYC; current bill or statement with a NY address, NY student ID, NY library card) any sized donation. Read more.

Come on out and sing Afro-Future Roots music with us: the classic Spirituals and work songs you know and love, through a modern lens. Celebrate your pride at Black History Month.

Vienna Carroll and The Folk at the Met!
Vienna Carroll and The Folk
Vienna Carroll and The Folks

Black Sailors

 – ANTEBELLUM FREEDOM AGENTS AND SEA SHANTEY SINGERS

In the 1800’s Black men, both free and enslaved, comprised 22% of those who worked on the water, the primary way to move goods at that time. They traveled from northern to southern ports, throughout the Caribbean, to Europe, Australasia and Japan and returned to their communities with stories of life outside the slaveocracy of the U.S.

Sailors wrote the first six autobiographies of Black Americans. Active agents on the Underground Railroad, their freedom messages were so stirring that after the rebellion led by sailor, Denmark Vesey, South Carolina enacted the 1822 Quarantine Laws/Negro Seaman Acts, jailing these men when they came to port.

Phyrrus Concer, a Black Long Island Whaler at the opening of Japan 1845

The grave marker for Edmund Moody, a US Black sailor who died in Mangonui, North Island, New Zealand, 1864

Dalyce Newby- Black Sailor in the Civil War

Dalyce Newby – Black Sailor in the Civil War

My play Shallow Brown: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor tells of the love, family, suffering and ultimately triumph of these brave yet unsung freedom fighters and how they helped us free ourselves.

Please enjoy a bibliography about our Black sailor heroes I put together for you, for more information.