Flint Southern Aires, Rosa Warner-Jones coming to Oaks Tuesday

The local Blues Concert Series continues Tuesday with a gospel soloist and gospel music by the Flint Southern Aires. The event will take place at 7 p.m. at Oaks of Righteousness, 924 S. Second St.

The performance is part of the blues series offered by the Monroe County Library System, Monroe County Community College and other local partners. Admission is free. The public is welcome.

Before the headlining act, Detroit’s Rosa Warner-Jones will open the show at Oaks, site of the former St. Joseph Catholic Church.

Warner-Jones will sing classic gospel songs in the spirit of Marian Williams and Mahalia Jackson.

“Rosa has been singing in church choirs from an early age. While a member of the choir at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, she took part in a recording that included the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. She has performed with numerous Detroit gospel groups and has been nominated for Best Gospel Artist at the Detroit Black Music Awards,” event organizers said.

After Warner-Jones’ performance, the audience will move to Oaks’ social hall to hear the Flint Southern Aires, a group new to the local blues series.

The Southern Aires offer “the sacred side of African American music,” Barbra Krueger, community outreach coordinator at the Monroe County Library System, said.

“The Flint Southern Aires follows in the hard-charging gospel tradition of Southern-based groups like the Canton Spirituals and the Williams Brothers but with an urban flavor,” the library system said.

Based in Flint, the group consists of six members who have been together for 33 years and has two recordings, “Trusting in Jesus” and “Praise Him.”

The Flint Southern Aires have toured throughout the country, performing at churches, schools and festivals, and have performed with the award-winning gospel group The Williams Brothers, bluegrass band The Gospel Mountaineers and the legendary R&B group The Drifters.

The group is affiliated with the National Quartet Convention, an annual gathering of Southern Gospel quartets and musicians.

Tuesday’s concert is sponsored by the Navarre-Branch Library, Friends of the Dorsch Memorial Branch Library and Oaks.

The Flint Southern Aires’ performance is the second of seven blues concerts taking place across the county this month. The series and the Big Gig are sponsored by the library system, MCCC and a local Blues Coalition of community partners. The events have been offered annually for 36 years.

Blues concerts at library branches continue throughout February and March. Other artists in the series are acoustic guitar duo Shari Kane and Dave Steele; singer Carla Cooke, the daughter of the blues performer Sam Cooke; vocalist and pianist Airey B, paying tribute to legendary blues women; and Peter “Madcat” Ruth’s C.A.R.Ma. Quartet.

The series also includes The Big Gig hosted by MCCC on Feb. 25 with performances by the Rev. Robert Jones, the Chris Canas Band and R.J. Spangler’s Blues Review.

For more information, visit www.mymcls.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Flint Southern Aires, Rosa Warner-Jones coming to Oaks Feb. 7