Son Little

Son Little plays Central Machine Works Brewery & Beer Hall on Friday, September 11, from 7 PM to 11 PM. He's a Philadelphia singer and songwriter who calls himself a 'musical alchemist,' and that's a fair way to describe what he does: he pulls from the American R&B diaspora and weaves blues, soul, gospel, and rock and roll through his own vision.

He's also a Grammy Award-winning producer, having picked up a 2016 Best Roots Performance award for his work on Mavis Staples's See That My Grave Is Kept Clean. His 2015 self-titled debut and the five-song EP Songs I Forgot were followed by New Magic, an album written while he was in the remote Northern Territory of Australia. He wrote five of those songs in a single day on a left-handed acoustic guitar he borrowed from Gurrumul, a blind Aboriginal musician.

He's toured with a wide range of artists—Leon Bridges, Kelis, Mumford & Sons, and Shakey Graves—and has performed at Electric Lady Studios in New York, the underground recording facility once owned by Jimi Hendrix. That stretch of names tells you where he sits: right in the middle of soul, indie rock, and roots music.

The show is at Central Machine Works Brewery & Beer Hall, 4824 East Cesar Chavez Street, and it runs from 7 PM to 11 PM. Admission is free with an RSVP.