WORTON — One of Kent County’s favorite sons, Marlon Saunders, is returning to Red Acres Farm Venue on Saturday night, Sept. 6 for a concert that the super-talented singer, songwriter, record producer and playwright said “celebrates our community of Kent County.”
“I love to come home to perform,” Saunders told The Evening Enterprise in an email on Tuesday.
“To perform with family and friends is a great thing,” he added.
As in the past, Saunders will showcase local talent.
What type of music can we expect?
“I am playing a lot of Motown this year, some jazz and some good music to dance to,” Saunders told The Evening Enterprise.
He anticipates the concert will last about 90 minutes.
In addition to the acoustics, what helps to make the Red Acres venue so special is the “relaxed vibe the audience can have,” Saunders said. “They can take a seat or sit on the grass and enjoy the music. Plus it is so nice to be playing outside in the beautiful weather with family and friends.”
The Evening Enterprise caught up with Saunders earlier this week to find out what he’s been up to lately.
“I had the pleasure, thanks to the incredible vocalist and dear friend Cindy Mizelle who has worked with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross, to work on the new Lumineers record ‘Automatic.’ We’ve done some tour dates with them as well,” he wrote in an email.
Also, Jazzhole, the band Saunders co-created with John Pondel and Warren Rosenstein in 1994, has released a new recording, “Moonlight Mile.” They are now in the studio recording the next record.
Saunders spends a great deal of time on the road and working on recording sessions.
He’s also a professor at The New School’s School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
Saunders is coming “home” today (Thursday, Sept. 4) but will head back to New York on Sunday as he prepares for the Music Oasis Retreat in Woodstock, Sept. 8-14. He is a co-founder of the singing and songwriting retreat, and will perform in a special concert on Sept. 13.
“All fun stuff and I am still trying to find time to sleep. Hahaha,” he wrote in an email.
This will be Saunders’ fourth concert at Red Acres, a farm owned by the Williams family for more than 100 years.
Saunders grew up in Big Woods and also spent a lot of time with relatives in Butlertown, which is about a mile down the road from Red Acres Farm.
Bryan Williams, representing the fifth generation of the Red Acres family, and Saunders have been friends since their Little League baseball days — Saunders played for Kennedyville while Saunders played for Worton.
Their years at Kent County High School overlapped, with Williams graduating in 1982 and Saunders in ’83.
Saunders played the saxophone in the high school’s Brigade of Blue marching band.
“I’ve always admired Marlon because of his talent, his professionalism and his all-around knowledge of music,” Williams told The Evening Enterprise.
“Whenever his parents [James and Cheryl] would come up to the farm, I was always asking for Marlon. And once our venue barn was done in 2020, I told them that my goal was to get Marlon here to perform.”
That message was passed along and at Christmastime 2020, while visiting family in Kent County, Saunders reached out to Williams.
“He came to the farm and was sold” on the concert idea, Williams said.
Saunders made his Red Acres debut the following September.
He returned in 2022.
After missing 2023 because of a commitment at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Saunders was back last year.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s concert, he said, “I just want to thank everyone who shows up and has a great time.”
The cost is $20 at the gate; you can pay by cash, check or Venmo.
Two food trucks will be on-site, as well as an ice cream vendor, but concert-goers also can bring their own refreshments.
Seating will be available, but you also can bring your own lawn chairs.
Red Acres Farm is located in the 25000-block of Lambs Meadow Road, a stone’s throw from Saunders’ alma mater Kent County High School.
The concert, supported in part with funding from Kent Cultural Alliance, starts at 7 p.m.
It’s a rain or shine event.
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Marlon Saunders is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston. He now lives in the St. George area of Staten Island, New York.
He’s the CEO and founder of The Seamless Voice, a vocal coaching and artist consulting company.
From 2015 to 2017, he toured with Stevie Wonder on The Songs In The Key of Life Tour as choir director.
He has served as a vocal contractor for Sam Smith, Bastille, Logic, Mondo Cozmo and Andrea Bocelli.
And, he appears in the 2007 film “Enchanted” as the Calypso Singer who sings the Academy Award-nominated song “How You Know” with Amy Adams.
