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 Red Molly
Americana
Scheduled to Perform June 3rd
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
When Richard Thompson wrote "1952 Vincent Black Lightening" he created an indelible couple in this tragic tale, James and Red Molly. Little did he know that James' lover would morph into a trio of singers and players so adept at harmony that they chill your spine.
Constant "Mollies" Abbie Gardner and Laurie MacAllister formed the trio after they and former "Molly" Carolann Sobelo joined voices around a campfire at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in 2004. Sobello left them last year, and a real Molly, Molly Venter brought her voice and her guitar to the mix, making seamless transition from opening act to member of the band.
Red Molly is all about the beauty that occurs when three great voices join in harmonies that never waver. Any fan of these women is deemed a "Red Head," and Greensburg should be full of Red Heads come the kickoff for SummerSounds 2011.
Sponsored by Trib Total Media.
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 28 North
Scheduled to Perform June 10th
Hear the music: MySpace
Best kept secret. Is that damning with faint praise or what? Yet that's a very accurate description of 28 North, a Pittsburgh band with a big future, if only their secret can be heard.
In choosing them as a Band You Should Know About, jamband bible Relix Magazine describes 28 North as having "an impressive ability to segue from glimmering vocal harmonies to dual guitar attacks." They've opened for the Dave Matthews Band, My Morning Jacket and Dickey Betts, learning something vital from each one.
Their repertoire already consists of a couple of hundred songs, mostly composed by lead guitarist/ singer/ songwriter Mike Lindner. Their YouTube live performances promise an energetic, innovative, accessible rock sound for all.
Sponsored by McDowell Associates Insurance.
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 Missy Raines and The New Hip
Jazzgrass
Scheduled to Perform June 17th
Hear the music:
Official Website
/ MySpace
Missy Raines and the New Hip have great bottom. What I mean is that this emerging jazzgrass group starts at the beginning, the bass, where the bones of a song belong, masterfully played by Raines. And then the music just soars from there.
Raines has had a long and decorated career as a bassist for Claire Lynch, Peter Rowan, Mac Wiseman and others, collecting seven IBMA Bass Player of the Year awards. Now, however, the backline is up front, with her solid and inventive bass work mingling with a distinctive bluegrass voice and the prodigious instrumental talents of her band to take Bill Monroe to Birdland.
Raines has brought together an array of young and gifted pickers (and a drummer!) to create yet another place for bluegrass to go, this time into fusion and beyond.
This is another in the great SummerSounds tradition of bluegrass a la the Greencards, Steep Canyon Rangers, Blue Highway and more.
Sponsored by The Supper Club at the Greensburg Train Station.
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 Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
R&B, Rock
Scheduled to Perform June 24th
Hear the music: Official Website
Arleigh Kincheloe is nearly as tiny as a sparrow, but unlike the sparrow, her voice is as big and strong as any voice can be. It's so big and strong that it more than holds its own with avian bandmates The Dirty Birds, who are 4 horns strong ,along with dynamic harmonica from brother Jackson, stinging lead guitar, and a heavy, insistent downbeat from the rhythm section.
To try to classify this as one type of music doesn't do it justice, although they probably owe as much to the traditions of Al Green and Irma Thomas type R&B as to any other genres. On the other hand, there are strong aspects of the New Orleans Second Line sound from the horns, elements of a reggae beat in some songs and Afro-beat in others, and tough Sonny Boy Williamson blues riffs from the harp.
The bar is set quite high when you are favorably compared to Sharon Jones (and her Dap Kings) and Grace Potter (and her Nocturnals). Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds aren't just a big voice; they're the whole package, to be enjoyed on the official first Friday of the summer, 2011.
Sponsored by Mignogna Collision Center.
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 Dr. Draw
Fusion/Rock
Scheduled to Perform July 1st
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
When it rains at SummerSounds, sometimes it pours. And when it pours, some run to their cars, some look to the skies and then run, and some just hunker down and listen. And Dr. Draw? He plays, passionately and energetically, for the audience, of one or one thousand. For that we are grateful and want him back, to do things with his violin that will amaze, from Yo Yo Ma-esque to Jimi Hendrix-like, with a little Jon-Luc Ponty on the side.
Eugene Draw was born in Moscow and emigrated to Canada, where he has lived in Toronto and Montreal, and applied his classical training to venues as disparate as the streets of those cities, intimate clubs and concerts and festivals in Hong Kong, Dubai and Honolulu. He's been dubbed the String Theorist for the experimental and wide-ranging aspects of his sound.
There is no specific classification for Dr. Draw's music. He amalgamates so many forms- classical, rock, jazz, hip hop, electronica, reggae and more- that it's just that- Dr. Draw Music. Join us to welcome him back for one more chance to wow a much larger number of concertgoers, come rain or come shine.
Sponsored by Peoples Natural Gas.
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 Sharon Little
Pop
Scheduled to Perform July 8th
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
It must be tough being a blond, blue-eyed soul chanteuse like Sharon Little. In the last couple of years she's been all over the TV airwaves with songs on shows like The Good Wife, NCIS, NUMB3RS and the theme to The Cleaner, as well as being chosen to open for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on the Raising Sand tour. Yet she's still 'workin' and practicin' as John Cougar Mellencamp would say, still trying for her break.
What a voice, and what a way with a song she has. On her latest release, Paper Doll, she's produced by Don Was (Was/Not Was), and every song on that and her previous release hooks you, and binds you, and captures your ears. For such a little thing she has a big, bold, whiskey-tinged sound that throws her great lyrics your way. Grace Potter, step aside, Sharon Little is coming to SummerSounds, and upward from there.
Sponsored by Courtyard Marriott.
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 Eric Brace, Peter Cooper & Mike Auldridge
Americana
Scheduled to Perform July 15th
Hear the music: Official Website
How do you learn to write a song? One way is to spend a good long part of your life observing others ply their craft, which is what Eric Brace and Peter Cooper have done, in their other incarnations, as music reviewers, Brace for the Washington Post and Cooper for the Nashville Tennessean. Along the way they've made contact with some of the best country and alt-country artists around, tuned their guitars and applied what they learned, becoming plenty of competition for their subjects.
Brace is now more singer/songwriter and producer than journalist, fronting SummerSounds favorite Last Train Home and helping his wife run Red Beet Records. Cooper still covers music for the Tennessean and teaches at Vanderbilt, but finds plenty of time for his music.
They've just collaborated on Master Sessions, a recording named to numerous best of 2010 lists, joined by iconic pedal Steeler Lloyd Green and Seldom Scene dobroist Mike Auldridge. Though age will keep Green in Nashville, Auldridge will come up from the DC area and join Brace and Cooper on the SummerSounds stage for a great evening of picking and singing both country classics and some fine originals.
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Greensburg.
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 Brena
Rock
Scheduled to Perform July 22nd
Hear the music: Official Website
Grand Rapids, Michigan, home of the late Gerald R. Ford, sends us their favorite power pop band, Brena.
Fronted by the Copenhaver brothers, Sean (lead singer, guitar), an opera singer in training, and Steffan (bass, backing vocals), a music teacher, this is a group with a persistent hook to every song. It's members come from a diverse background of education, from conservatory training, to audio engineering, to graphic design, and bring it all to a disciplined, accessible sound that resonates with a strong following in western Michigan, as it will in western Pennsylvania.
Their brand of power pop is rock-insistent, with inventive beats, and soaring lyrical content, with harmony from all. They've opened for Candlebox, The Verve Pipe and Sugarcult, to name a few, but they'll carry the show, and more, here at Summersounds.
Sponsored by Toyota and Scion of Greensburg.
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 Hayes Carll
Country Rock
Scheduled to Perform July 29th
Hear the music: Official Website
"Smart mouthed", "Texas smartass", "weathered, hard-drinking, weary but clear-eyed troubador", "with a self-deprecatory kind of swagger", "delivers hilarity and heartache", "with a boozy twang (and) wicked couplets cut with a sentimental streak", Hayes Carll is a "silver tongue-in-cheek country iconoclast." Or so say The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Spin, not necessarily in any particular order.
This Carll has a lot of miles on him, travelling from Dallas to Austin to Houston, and now to NYC and LA to celebrate, with David Letterman and Jay Leno, the release of his latest recording KMAG YOYO, a military acronym that you'll have to ask a serviceperson to translate for you, if they've been to Iraq or Afghanistan.
This is great alt-country, just twangy enough, full of characters the most colorful of which are Hayes himself in various guises, having screwed himself up in a myriad of ways. If we have any particular goals in mind when booking our acts, one of the foremost might be to discover somebody on the way to making it big. Hayes Carll just might be our next big thing, if not for the nation, then at least for the Park, late July, 2011.
Sponsored by LECOM (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine).
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 Lubriphonic
Funk
Scheduled to Perform August 5th
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
In Chicago they have a recipe for music that always starts with the blues. In Chicago's Lubriphonic you start with the blues and add large dollops of rock, soul and funk, with horns and guitar and keys and rhythm, making a concoction, a stew of great sound.
Giles Corey has the perfect voice for Lubriphonic, a worthy continuation of Paul Butterfield, John Popper and David Clayton Thomas, along with enough hot guitar licks to push the band's energy to levels that make for a great live show. Co-founder and drummer Rick King anchors the bottom with bassist Pennal Johnson and there is a host of session and tour horn men who have played with the likes of Buddy Guy, BB King and Koko Taylor.
Blues/rock/soul stew will be served to all the great music fans at St. Clair Park this SummerSounds evening!
Sponsored by Moonglow Yoga and Graphitti Design.
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 Beleza Brasil
Funky, jazzy samba, bossa nova
Scheduled to Perform August 12th
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
Don't quit your day job. How many artists have been fed that line, and how many times have they followed that advice? But not Madeline Sales.
Madeline started out in Charlottesville, VA, attended Duke University, and seemingly settled into a life working for The Nature Conservancy in DC, when suddenly, and against all conventional wisdom, she took herself and her wondrous voice off to Brazil, the better to immerse herself in the culture and the rhythm and the vibe. She met her mate, soul and otherwise, Humberto Sales, an accomplished guitarist, and together they performed his Brazilian music at home and in their travels. Eventually they circled back to Charlottesville, as Beleza Brasil.
Now simply Beleza ('beautiful' in Portuguese), their sound has evolved from its samba and bossa nova roots to embrace elements of soul, the blues, reggae and jazz, into what they term "Funkalicious Samba Soul," blending Berto's classical and Latin- based fretwork with Madeline's expressive and sublime vocals.
Beleza Brasil, or simply, Beleza, brings it's ultimately cool/hot sound to St. Clair Park for another beautiful summer evening.
Sponsored by Redstone Highlands.
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 7 Bridges
Eagles Tribute Band
Scheduled to Perform August 19th
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
SummerSounds hates rain. It is the worst of the four letter words as far as we're concerned. It gets in your hair and your picnic basket and usually sends many of you scurrying to your modes of transportation. So when that nasty precipitation arrived for 7 Bridges' performance last year we thought, 'here we go again, great show- no crowd'. But a funny thing happened-- No one went home-- All 4000 plus of you stayed right where you were, huddled under your umbrellas and sang along with Hotel California and Desperado and One of These Nights as if your lives depended upon it. What a sight from backstage, audience participation at its finest.
They're back! Not the precipitation, at least we hope not, but these Eagles imitators without peers. From the multiple ringing guitars, to the Don Henley backbeat, to the soaring four-part harmonies, 7 Bridges has it all, as if you left your record player on in the summer of 1972 and never turned it off. Bring your Boone's Farm, your picnic basket and your umbrella (just in case) and join in NostalgiaFest 2011. Be there or be Already Gone.
Sponsored by Dollar Bank.
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 Persephone’s Dream
Progressive Rock
Scheduled to Perform August 26th
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
SummerSounds is noted for the variety of styles we present and now, for the first time, we present an evening of Prog-Rock act at SummerSounds!
Pop musicians have been borrowing classical arrangements and melodies for centuries. When the Electric Light Orchestra, Yes, and Pink Floyd blended classical and jazz styles with rock in the 70's the reviewers called it Art Rock. The form never really disappeared but in the 21st century pundits call it Progressive Rock.
Based in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, Persephone’s Dream is critically-acclaimed in Europe and South America for thought-provoking female-fronted art rock. Deep musical talent and theatrical artistry have given the band a wide reputation for their live performances.
Prog Rockers are noted for their epic concept albums such as The Who's Tommy and Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. Persephone's Dream continues that tradition this evening with the full-length performance of their "Pan: An Urban Pastoral." Infectious rhythms and lush melodies weave into and around tales of myth and magic to bring us an evening of delightful and sometimes whimsical escapism.
Nominated for 2010 Best Foreign Record by The Progressive Music Society of Europe.
Sponsored by Comcast.
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 Big Eyed Phish - A Dave Matthews Tribute Band
Scheduled to Perform September 2nd
Hear the music: Official Website
/
MySpace
No, not that Phish. Big Eyed Fish is a song by The Dave Matthews Band, and Big Eyed Phish is a tribute to the iconic jam band of all jam bands. Touring out of Rochester, NY, they've built a following, much like DMB, by constant travel, and by constant devotion to the intricacies of the sound, all the like-no-other chords and progressions of Matthew's guitar work, all the sax mixed with violin, violin mixed with sax jazz fusion, all the synchro-eccentric percussion, and especially, all the qualities of Matthew's vocals, scat and honk, expression and range.
Make no mistake, this is complex stuff, but rendered in a style that is accessible and persuasive ... so persuasive that DMB enthusiasts will close their eyes and dance/trance/dance. Join us and the Seton Hill community for our back-to-school special with BEP.
Sponsored by Seton Hill University Student-body Activities Council.
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See you at the park !!!
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