Rock with Atmosphere
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / Videos

Sometimes you just can't wait. For Christmas, for birthdays, and for A Silent Film to come back to SummerSounds.

We waited the minimum allowable time, from the last show of 2012 to the first show of 2013, to bring back the band that closed our summer with the anthemic "Danny Dakota and the Wishing Well," and a park full of dancing fans who were decidedly not ready for SummerSounds to end. How could we expect our fans to wait even one week longer to see A Silent Film again?

Silent they're not. This is a band with a driving beat and cascading, crescendoing keyboards complimenting the lyrics and vocals of frontman Robert Stevenson, as hard-working as any we've ever seen. Their songs are stories of lost loves and badly- lived lives, inspired, according to Stevenson, by the works of Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan, and by their travels throughout America. Oxford, England's subtraction is the USA's addition.

Don't wait a moment longer. Help open up summer with A Silent Film.

Preshow music by Good Thing (Brittany Hautz amd Ryan Williams)

Americana Rock
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / New Frontier Touring

Time To Begin, the title of Rosco Bandana's first full length recording, says it all. Time to begin a career, time for this band ( none of whom are named Rosco or appear to wear a bandana in any of the photos and youtubes I've seen) to begin to get the attention their sound deserves. Like Delta Rae and Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds before them, this is another young and hungry bunch of talent, anchored by Jason Sanford, who's surrounded by the voices of Emily Sholes and Jennifer Flint, and a cooking band of ringing guitars and backbeat deluxe. From down around Gulfport, Mississippi, they've gone from unknown to next big thing in a heartbeat, fueled by their winning Hard Rock Rising, a battle of the bands of sorts, and a recording contract with that ubiquitous chain's new label.

Time to begin a summers worth of discoveries, with Rosco Bandana.

Preshow music by John Hayes

Sponsored by McDowell Associates Insurance

CSNY Tribute
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / My Space

Marrakesh Express- a headlong travelogue by Graham Nash- has been appropriated verbatim by this year's tribute group. For the hundreds of Beatles trib bands there are, only Marrakesh Express pops up as a CSNY tribute, probably due to the difficulties and intricacies of their harmonies. This Chicago outfit faithfully and joyfully recreates most of this most-super of super groups hits, summoning the Summer of Love and ever-after, with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Teach Your Children," and "Deja Vu" and many more.

Come join the choir for karaoke for the masses at St. Clair Park, where Marrakesh Express brings CSNY to town to make summer sounds.

Preshow music by Asbury Daze (Jon Daniels)

Sponsored by Southwest Immunization

Jazz Fusion
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube

Baltimore jazz keyboardist/ arranger David Bach returns with his Consort, among the finest musicians in the D.C./ Baltimore area, for Jazz Night, adding St. Clair Park to list the of venues he's performed in, including the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, an inaugural ball for President Obama at the Air and Space Museum, the Library of Congress with B.B. King and Blues Alley, to name a few.

Relax, chillout, lighten up, mellow down, veg out, maholo, take it easy, hang, cool it, post up, low key it, chillax, simmer down, layback, unwind, loosen up, no worries, marinate, unwind, McConnaghey, downtime it with some smooth jazz from the David Bach Consort. Summer sounds it!

Preshow music by Karl Bailey

Sponsored by Redstone Highlands

New Orleans Mardi Gras Secular Gospel
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / Fleming Artists

Maybe it was the parasols that jinxed them.

Last summer probably saw a record for SummerSounds rain delays, rain scare aways and after intermission rainouts, and Brother Joscephus and The Love Revolution had their second half taken from them, just as they were shifting into 5th gear. This extra-large amalgamation of cajun, soul, funk and rock out of Brooklyn had us nearly breathless from the outset, until shafts of liightening intervened.

Lucky for us, they're back, for the Fourth of July weekend, with the expected fireworks, onstage and off, and hopefully no weather pyrotechnics. Energy galore will be the theme, with Mardi Gras gospel the soundtrack. Join BroJo and his band for some summer struttin'.

Preshow music by Donna O

Sponsored by Mignogna Collison Center

Country Swing/Honkytonk
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / Mad Mission

Imagine being from Kansas, moving to Hong Kong, and performing in shopping malls with your family's string band before bewildered Chinese citizens. Emily Miller doesn't have to imagine---she lived it. Imagine being the daughter of a comic artist and an exotic dancer (no, not R. Crumb's daughter) and meeting your singing partner on a world choral tour. Zara Bode doesn't have to imagine, either.

When Miller and Bode met they clicked over old Hank William's tunes and thus began their friendship, transformed eventually into The Sweetback Sisters, creators of a sound somewhere between Patsy Cline and Bette Midler, with a little Kitty Wells on the side. Or as Bode contends "BR 549" meets the B-52's."

As we well know, most good country songs are inspired while one is sitting on a barstool, and that's the spirit behind Sweetback's sound. Guitarist Ross Bellenoit serves up sweet licks and lyrics for the band's original numbers, which harken back to the Golden Age of country and western, when Willie was writing, not singing, and Texas swing was the thing.

These Sisters will arrive at SummerSounds prepared to make us long for the good old days of C & W.

Preshow music by Mo Nelson

Sponsored by Rotary Club of Greensburg

Rhythm & Roots With Horns
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube

Blue-eyed soul. Van Morrison. Dusty Springfield. Hall and Oates. Joss Stone. The roots of R&B can't be denied, but every once in awhile a bit of Al Green or Bette LaVette or Otis Redding gets into the batch and somebody like Jesse Dee results, someone imbued from an early age with an appreciation for what soul music means.

Alligator Records, known as the home of "Genuine House Rockin' Music," just signed Dee, good for Alligator and good for Jesse, as it signals recognition of his bona fides, that he is the real thing, joining labelmates Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite and Shemekia Copeland. His songwriting, vocal stylings and horn-driven instrumentals, combined with hair that's higher than James Brown's, make him a worthy addition to this uniquely American genre.

Save some stamina for some soul dancing under the stars at SummerSounds.

Preshow music by Ryan Egan

Sponsored by Toyota & Scion of Greensburg

Gaelic Folk Rock
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / Fleming Artists

One of the perks of this gig is meeting the performers. We get a few divas, but for the most part, it's a great opportunity to meet talented, well-travelled, interesting and appreciative people on the constant grind of the tour. And we love to see old friends like Mick and Kevin of the Guggenheim Grotto. We'll tip a few pints and hear a few stories on this, their third visit.

This time they'll be accompanied by a backing band, to parallel the latest in the development of their sound, somewhat of a departure from the minimalism of ukelele and vocal or spare a cappella. Their new record This Time Round is their fourth and will have them touring relentlessly. New to their repertoire is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", added to accompany readings from The Holy and The Broken by Alan Light.

Summer means reunions, and we're glad to be having one with the guys from Dublin, The Guggenheim Grotto.

Preshow music by Ben Shannon

Sponsored by Donald D. Mateer Foundation

Funk Rock Jazz Fusion
Hear the music: Official Website / MySpace / You Tube

Snarky Puppy doesn't bite.

What is Fusion?

Take musicians from Tower of Power, Erykah Badu, RH Factor, Morcheeba, Q-Tip, Yo- Yo Ma, Justin Timberlake, The Polyphonic Spree, Snoop Dogg and Kirk Franklin and you get the idea. Michael League's Snarky Puppy features the best young and not-so-young musicians, mixing it up into a melange, a salad, a coalition of musical forms and genres to make a jazz groove that tantalizes and impresses and changes your notions of what music can mean to you. As previously noted, I'm not a jazz fan, but I'm a Snarky Puppy fan.

Several veteran jazz musicians who attended last year's appearance hung out near the sound board exchanging appreciative and knowing looks and comments, recognizing that these are the next wave. If jazz is to flourish, Snarky Puppy will be a major factor.

Preshow music by Jenny Morgan

Sponsored by Dollar Bank

Roots
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube

The last time Cruz Contreras came to Greensburg it was to open for Susan Tedeschi at the Palace, with Robinella and the CC Stringband. A lot has happened since then. His then- wife Robinella is his ex-wife, he's been homeless, and then a truck driver, moved from Nashville to Knoxville, a newer music scene, and he has stepped up, to the microphone and songwriting duties.

He and Trisha Gene Brady, fiddler and vocalist, Tom Pryor, pedal steel and guitar, Jamie Cook, drums and Robert Richards, bass, are The Black Lillies, an Americana mix of East Tennessee mountain music, bluegrass, and what Contreras terms"psychedelic gospel throw-down, " that was honed around Knoxville campfire sing-a- longs, where Brady's voice stood out from the crowd. Now they tour, harder and harder, from the Purple Fiddle, to Bonnaroo, to Merlefest, to SummerSounds, with The Runaway Freeway Blues, their latest release.

Preshow music by Sue Gartland

Sponsored by LECOM

Bluegrass
Hear the music: Official Website / MySpace / You Tube

No less a roots music fan than Adele has a pretty good line on the SteelDrivers. "Theyr'e a blues, country, bluegrass, swagger band and they are brilliant." And to prove it, she recorded "If It Hadn't Been For Love" from their second album as part of her Grammy winning, record smashing "21."

That's what's so special about this group of Nashville session players turned touring pros. Though they're obviously a bluegrass/newgrass group, the sound is so eclectic and inventive that you're delighted to be surprised by what comes next. It's all based upon a bedrock of excellent musicianship, ever evolving songwriting skills and the soulful, deeply-felt vocals of Gary Nichols. Add Tammy Roger's harmony and ever-sure fiddling, Richard Bailey's driving banjo, Mike Fleming's bottomless upright, and newcomer Brett Trinitton's mandolin, and you've got enough bluegrassy, summery sound to put us all in the same mood as Adele.

Preshow music by Marty Zundel

Jazz Pop Jive
Hear the music: Official Website / Mongrel Music

Brooklyn by way of Boston band Lake Street Dive best describes itself by the title of it's EP Fun Machine. That recording, or a review of some 70 youtubes reveals the basis for all of it's music, whether it be it's pop covers or it's exploratory originals-- FUN.

This stand up bass (Bridget Kearney), trumpet/guitar (Mike Olson), drums (Mike Calabrese) and vocal instrument (the fantabulous Rachael Price) group defined as an "unorthodox hodge podge" by The Boston Globe, got together as undergrads at the New England Conservatory and have been through a decided journey, through avant-garde country, jazz bluegrass and pop-soul-funk, and beyond. They've opened for Yonder Mountain String Band and Mavis Staples, so where does that put them in the record bin?

Let's just say they're driven fundamentally wherever Rachael Price's voice, a skatty, jazzy, throaty, whiskey amalgam wishes to go. Sometimes she counters Kearney's bass and voice, and other times she soars right alongside Olson's trumpet.

Wherever they go you should take a summer drive to SummerSounds to join them.

Preshow music by Mike Strasser

Sponsored by Trib Total Media

Roots
Hear the music: Official Website / You Tube / New Frontier

Roots rock band Yarn is true to it's name, weaving elements of bluegrass, alt-country, blues and jam, and knitting it's instrumental elements with the vocals of songwriter/frontman Blake Christiana into a sound that has created quite a collection of fans.

Touring incessantly, Yarn still finds time amidst it's over 150 annual tour dates to communicate from the road, by posts, impromptu music videos and tweets that keep it's fan base among the most loyal out there.

Back to school doesn't have to bring frowns when it also brings Yarn to SummerSounds.

Preshow music by Mike Hickey

Sponsored by Seton Hill University