It’s a treat when a talented and well-rounded artist has been around long enough to celebrate a 50th anniversary of a classic album. This year marks the half century of Patti Smith’s Velvet Underground-produced album, Horses, and she will be playing twenty-one shows in Europe and America later this year to commemorate it.
Patti Smith, who has become just as well known in recent years for her stunning memoirs, like Just Kids and Year Of The Monkey, has been the voice of a generation for many generations now. Though she is perhaps best known for her Horses album, which was released in December 1975.
She will be accompanied by two members of the original group that recorded it, including Lenny Kaye on guitar and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums. Keyboardist/bassist Tony Shanahan and her son Jackson, who plays guitar, will also play alongside them at these historic shows.
Patti Smith is an artist who has aged gracefully and continues to have a large cultural impact
Smith, who posts regularly on Instagram with her signature “This is…”, is a songwriter, poet, and novelist who has fully embraced the freedom and responsibility of a free-minded and socially conscious artist. She is also a big proponent of other artists and regularly shares and supports artists, from Renaissance painters to current punk rockers.
These shows are sure to sell out as she’s playing mid-sized venues and theaters. The shows will be in October in Europe and November in the United States.
She is probably most noted in current times for her live performances of the song, "People Have The Power." Patti Smith has never shied away from addressing politics, both on and offstage, but her art has become something of universal importance.
She will also release a new memoir this year, entitled Bread of Angels, on November 4th. It's a Random House publication about her childhood "in working-class Philadelphia and New Jersey," her marriage to Fred "Sonic" Smith, and her move to Lake Saint Clair in Michigan to raise her family and grieve her husband's death in 1994.
Looks like it's gonna be quite the year for Patti Smith and for those who love her.