The WDVX Blue Plate Special: Dedicated Men of Zion & Lara Downes

Big Ears Artists will take the stage at the WDVX Blue Plate Special for a free lunchtime concert. The WDVX Blue Plate Special® is a live performance radio show held at noon, with your host Red Hickey Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and on Saturday at Visit Knoxville with host Sean McCollough.  On Fridays WDVX takes the Blue Plate Special to Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria for “The Big Plate”. It’s always free to join in so please don’t be shy. Make yourself at home as part of the WDVX family. From blues to bluegrass, country to Celtic, folk to funk, rockabilly to hillbilly, local to international, it all part of the live music experience on The WDVX Blue Plate Special. You’re welcome to bring your lunch.

Thursday, March 27th’s Blue Plate Special will feature Dedicated Men of Zion & Lara Downes

Rooted in the soaring traditions of gospel, soul, and sacred song, the union of Dedicated Men of Zion and the Knoxville Opera Gospel Choir promises a performance of pure spiritual elevation. Hailing from Eastern North Carolina, the Dedicated Men of Zion bring a fervent, harmony-rich sound steeped in the sacred quartet tradition—testifying voices that channel the raw power of faith, struggle, and redemption. 

Honored as 2022 Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today, American pianist Lara Downes has been called “a musical ray of hope” by NBC News and “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten” (The Log Journal). An iconoclast and trailblazer, her dynamic work as a sought–after soloist, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, a producer, curator, arts activist, and advocate positions her as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene. Lara’s musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective memory, excavating a broad landscape of music to create a series of acclaimed performance and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience.