Tucson blues phenom Barten-Sherman hosting farewell gig

Tucson’s blues guitar phenom Roman Barten-Sherman is all grown up.

He just graduated from high school and is heading to college later this month, but not before Tucson gives him a big old blues-blasting all-star send off.

Barten-Sherman will share the stage with fellow Tucson musicians Tom Walbank, Al Perry and Ralph White beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, at the MSA Annex, 267 Avenida del Convento. Tucson-based singer-songwriter Trans Van Santos opens the show with his “handmade folk music.”

It’s hard to believe that the 18-year-old Barten-Sherman, who has been playing blues since he was 4 years old and been a regular on Tucson stages including the Rialto Theatre and Hotel Congress since he won the Battle of the Bands at age 12, is an adult.

For years now, he’s played local and regional blues festivals and opened for big-name blues artists including David Bromberg, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bobby Rush, John Mayall and Hubby Jenkins.

Barten-Sherman was still a kid, literally, when he recorded his first album of blues, released the year before he won the Battle of the Bands competition in 2015. He’s added six albums since then, including the last two under one of Tucson’s most respected and prolific bluesmen Walbank, with whom he also recorded three “Quarantine Blues” collections over 2020.

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Vol. 3, released through Bandcamp in early June 2020, was centered on social justice with songs about 13 African-Americans who were killed during encounters with police including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

If there was ever a point where folks like Walbank looked at Barten-Sherman as a kid and not an equal, they kept it to themselves. It seems from day one, from audiences who showed up to see him play and musicians who watched from the sidelines in awe of his growing talent, everyone saw in this phenom endless possibilities and a bright future.

Which brings us to Saturday’s farewell concert and Barten-Sherman’s opportunity to say thanks for the support and the trust Tucsonans have placed in him and his talents.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the support and camaraderie of Tucson’s wonderful music scene,” he said. “Gigging around town from a young age and collaborating with Tucson musicians — including but not limited to Tom Walbank, Connor Gallagher and Al Perry— has deeply informed who I am as a musician and a human being.”

Barton-Sherman graduated from University High School last spring. At the end of the month, he’s heading to Massachusetts where he will pursue a dual degree program at Tufts University and the neighboring New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

“On the conservatory side, I’ll be majoring in contemporary improvisation, a rad program for all the weirdos who don’t fit into a traditional classical or jazz path of study,” he said. “On the Tufts side of things, still trying to figure it out, but I’m likely going to study something in the humanities realm. I know I’ll be learning/playing a crazy amount of music at the conservatory, but I’m also very excited to engage Boston’s rich folk and traditional music scene.”