The Tunes & Tales event taking place at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus features award-winning songwriters and storytellers Michael Reno Harrell and Reverend Robert B. Jones.

Harrell comes from the southern Appalachian mountain region and has received multiple awards in country, Americana and folk music. He also has been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Center and has performed at events such as MerleFest, a fundraising event for Wilkes Community College in North Carolina that attracts audiences of almost 80,000 people and the Walnut Valley Festival.

Harrell also conducts songwriting and storytelling workshops when he is not touring. His last performance at Southeast was in 2010.

"His work has a lot of emotional depth, so he has a pretty devoted fan base," Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau director of public relations Stacy Lane said.

Jones was born in Detroit, Mich., and has been performing the blues for more than 20 years. On top of his performances, he is also a radio producer and a music educator. Jones also has won a multitude of musical awards including the "Blues Educator" award from the National Blues Foundation. He has performed at the National Storytelling Festival, the Chicago Blues Festival and MerleFest. Jones will be returning to Southeast for the first time since 2011.

"He loves songs that tell stories, and finds that many of his songs and stories are inspired by people he's known," Lane said in the event's press release. "Often too, Jones finds that the Bible provides great poetic language and imagery for songwriting and storytelling."

Tunes & Tales is the fall event of Southeast's storytelling series. Two more events will take place in January and May. Professor of history Joel Rhodes said that he expects more than 200 people to attend the event, and that it's not going to be what you would expect from a storytelling event.

"It's going to really surprise them, it's not what they expect," Rhodes said. "In all honesty when you hear storytelling it doesn't sound that compelling. It kind of reminds you of something that they do at the library for little kids. I think the misperception is that it is for little kids and not particularly dynamic. But when you go to a professional storyteller it's an incredibly active performance art, and I think that's the thing that folks are really struck by."

Tunes & Tales will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall at the River Campus. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the River Campus box office or online at RiverCampusEvents.com.