The ______ will host an evening with Ernie Hawkins, internationally renowned acoustic guitar virtuoso, at _________.

For many years Hawkins has been playing concerts, clubs, festivals, colleges, museums and other celebrations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. He has played with blues greats such as SonHouse, Mance Lipscomb, Fred McDowell, Jim Brewer and Rev. Gary Davis.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1947, he first learned country guitar, mandolin, banjo and bones from a man named Pete who worked on his uncle's farm. Pete had played with the Lilly Brothers and had rambled around the country - taking a 30-year detour down whiskey lane that landed him in a cabin on the farm as property caretaker and a primary musical mentor to Hawkins.

Hawkins was already playing blues as a teenager when he heard a man passing through town play Davis' Let Us Get Together. He was hooked them and forever on country blues and ragtime guitar players like Davis, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake, Willie Johnson, Skip James, John Hurt and Leadbelly.

After high school, Hawkins moved to New York City with only one purpose - to study with Davis. In 1969, he moved back home, enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh and earned a degree in philosophy. During this time, Hawkins played with Niles Jones, a blues player living in the city who was "rediscovered" in the 1990's as Guitar Gabriel.

In 1973 Hawkins moved to Dallas for graduate school and earned a doctorate in phenomenological psychology. There he learned the music of Texas blues players such as Lemon Jefferson, Funny Papa Smith, Henry Thomas and Lightnin' Hopkins.

In the early 1980's, Hawkins recorded his first solo album of Ragtime guitar, Ragtime Signatures. His second CD, Blues Advice, was dedicated to the memory of his teacher, Davis, on the occasion of the centennial of his birth. Bluesified, Mean Little Poodle, Rags & Bones, and Whinin' Boy, Ernie's latest CDs, are garnering worldwide acclaim. Bluesified routinely plays in a local hospital in the preemie and chemotherapy units. Whinin' Boy, recorded with a band, has been nominated for two Independent Music Awards.

"Ernie Hawkins has been on the cusp of a major breakthrough for a number of years. "Whinin' Boy" should be the record that provides the final push." Leicesterbangs.co.uk

For ten years, Hawkins played electric guitar with the Blue Bombers, one of Pittsburgh's favorite R & B bands. Hawkins has recorded instructional dvds for Stefan Grossman on Texas blues man Mance Lipscomb, the Atlanta 12-string master Blind Willie McTell, Lightnin' Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and ten dvds teaching the guitar of Rev. Gary Davis. For Homespun Tapes he has filmed several dvds on guitar theory. He has been featured in SingOUT!, Acoustic Guitar, Vintage Guitar, Dirty Linen, Blues Revue and Fingerstyle Guitar.

Hawkins is a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
"Ernie Hawkins is an important link in the unbroken chain of blues and gospel artists. His guitaristry and love of the style is incomparable. From the Rev. Gary Davis into the future with his own style Ernie is one of the special ones!" Jorma Kaukonen

Tickets are $____. For more information call _______.