Next MSU Lyceum program to feature two 'string' masters

Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.--New York blues musician Eric Bibb and popular African performer Habib Koite will be featured March 5 at Mississippi State's second Lyceum Series program of the spring semester.

The 7:30 p.m. concert will take place in Lee Hall's Bettersworth Auditorium. General admission tickets are $15.

All seats, including those of season-ticket holders, temporarily are considered general admission because of major Lee Hall renovations now under way. Also, persons attending may only enter and exit through the east-side--nearest to McCain Hall--doors.

To purchase tickets in advance, visit www.lyceum.msstate.edu--or the university's Center for Student Activities in Colvard Student Union Suite 314.

MSU students with valid identification cards may obtain free tickets via the above online link. Advanced sign-up is encouraged.

Bibb received his first guitar at age seven and began performing professionally less than a decade later. His inaugural album, "Good Stuff," was released in 1997; by 2008, he was a nominee for the Blues Music Awards' acoustic artist of the year. Also a Grammy Award nominee, he collaborated with Bonnie Raitt and Ruthie Foster on "Get Onboard." For more, visit www.ericbibb.com.

Koite was born into a line of West African troubadours and storytellers known as griots. A former student at Mali's National Institute of Arts, his musical style takes a different approach to guitar play. Tuning his instrument to the pentatonic scale, he often plays on open strings much as he would on a kamale n'goni, the string instrument common to his region made from a dried bottle gourd covered by a stretched animal skin. For more, visit www.habibkoite.com.

Last year, the two artists collaborated on a CD title "Brothers in Bamako," which one reviewer found "relaxing, comforting, like wrapping yourself in a big musical blanket."

For more information on the concert, telephone 662-325-2930.