Loggins, Counting Crows top Festival lineup

SANDPOINT — The Festival at Sandpoint is celebrating its 30th annual summer concert series with a sparkling lineup that features Kenny Loggins, Barenaked Ladies, and Counting Crows.

Add in top headliners Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Johnny Clegg and rising stars LeRoy Bell & His Only Friends, Kasey Musgraves, Sugarcane Collins and Stephen Ashbrook, the summer concert series will shine brighter than ever this summer.

The Festival at Sandpoint will be held Aug. 2-12 at Memorial Field on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille.

• Thursday, Aug. 2 — Opening Night celebrates 30 years of the “Best Fest in the West” with fireworks, a brew tasting and an all-star South Africa double bill concert starring Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Johnny Clegg.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is the famed male choral group from South Africa formed in 1960, who rose to worldwide prominence in the 1980s singing with Paul Simon on his acclaimed album “Graceland”. They have won multiple awards including three Grammys.

Johnny Clegg — singer, songwriter, dancer, anthropologist, academic, activist and French Knight — none of these can accurately describe the energetic, passionate human being who has become one of South Africa’s most celebrated sons and greatest musical exports. He has recorded and performed with his bands Juluka and Savuka, who were banned during South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc (“The White Zulu”), Clegg is an important figure in South African popular music history, with songs that mix Zulu with English lyrics, with various African and Western European music styles.

Local drum legend Chris Terraciano has assembled an all-star cast of percussionists as the Backbeat Drum Group will open this evening with a tribute for the Festival’s 30th year.

All tickets are $30 — a dollar for every year! Brew tasting tickets are available for $10 — which includes a commemorative pilsner glass and 6 premium microbrew tastes. Brew tasting starts when gates open at 6 p.m. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m.

• Friday, Aug. 3 — The Festival welcomes bluegrass-country royalty to Sandpoint: American singer, songwriter and fiddler Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas.

Krauss has won a record 27 Grammy Awards over her career as a solo artist, as a group with Union Station, as a duet with Robert Plant, and as a record producer. She has also won 14 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, eight County Music Association Awards, two Gospel Music Association Awards, two CMT Music Awards, and two Academy of Country Music Awards. Country Music Television ranked Krauss 12th on their “40 Greatest Women of Country Music.” The New York Times has called 13-time Grammy Award winner Jerry Douglas “Dobro’s matchless contemporary master.” Krauss has hand-picked rising star Kacey Musgraves to open the show.

All tickets are $59.95. Doors open at 6 p.m., concert starts at 7:30 p.m.

n Saturday, Aug. 4 — The Festival presents “Super Saturday” starring Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. BNL are best known for their hit singles “One Week,” “The Old Apartment,” “Pinch Me,” “If I Had $1,000,000” and “Brian Wilson,” as well as the theme song for the hit TV show “Big Band Theory.”

The band has won multiple Juno Awards and have been nominated for Grammy Awards. They are also known for their light-hearted, comedic performance style and their live shows are known for humorous banter between songs and improvised raps.

LeRoy Bell & His Only Friends are featured guests on this Saturday spectacular. Singer/dongwriter Bell speaks though his personal observations and musical lyricism, delivering poignant songs of passion and peace with a constant background of soul in his music. Bell is joined by “His Only Friends,” veteran musicians teeming with multi-instrumental virtuosity. His strong reputation and national fan base grew immensely this year when he became a finalist on the most recent season of the hit TV show X Factor. Australian Bluesman Sugarcane Collins will warm up the crowd.

All tickets are $49.95. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m. and the music starts at 6 p.m.

• Sunday, Aug. 5 — It’s musical fun for the young and young at heart, as the Festival presents its family concert, “Pinocchio” featuring the Spokane Youth Orchestra and Sandpoint’s Studio 1 dancers.

Favorite pre-concert activities include the instrument petting zoo, where kids can try various instruments on for size; an animal petting zoo, pony rides, clowns, face painting, games galore and the popular parents’ corner, where moms and dads can take a break from the chaos for a complimentary mini-massage. The afternoon will include a special educational presentation, “Birds of Prey” featuring the Festival’s resident osprey.

All tickets are only $6 and activities begin when the gates open at 4:30 p.m.

• Thursday, Aug. 9 — Spend an evening with Pink Martini, a “little orchestra” from Portland, Ore.

The group, with its wildly diverse repertoire, draws inspiration from music from all over the world — crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop. The 12-member group draws inspiration from the romantic Hollywood musicals of the 1940s or ‘50s, with a global perspective that comes from their multi-cultural members.

Founding member Thomas Lauderdale met China Forbes, Pink Martini’s “Diva Next Door” lead vocalist, at Harvard. Lauderdale was studying history and literature while Forbes was studying English literature and painting. Actually neither of them really studied, they socialized … and late at night, they would break into the lower common room in their college dormitory and sing arias by Puccini and Verdi — and the occasional campy Barbara Streisand cover — thus sealing their creative collaboration.

Three years after graduating, Lauderdale called Forbes who was living in New York and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together for the band. Their first song “Sympathique”— with the chorus “Je ne veux pas travailler”(”I don’t want to work”) — became an overnight sensation in France, and their popularity soared.

According to the Washington Times, “Pink Martini definitely is an original force in contemporary music even as it basks in eclectic nostalgia. It also bridges, better than any band in recent memory, the high-brow/pop culture divide.” Bandleader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale says “Pink Martini is a rollicking around-the-world musical adventure … if the United Nations had a house band in 1962, hopefully we’d be that band.”

Please note: There will not be an opening band for this concert — Pink Martini will play two sets of music with an intermission. Martini specials in colorful glasses will be featured in The Festival Bar. All tickets are $34.95. Gates open at 6 p.m., concert starts at 7:30 p.m.

• Friday, Aug. 10 — Counting Crows come to The Festival at Sandpoint with its highly anticipated North American indie rock showcase summer tour The Outlaw Roadshow starring Counting Crows with their special guests: We are Augustines, Kasey Anderson and The Honkies, and Field Report.

Counting Crows is an enduring musical phenomenon, an American rock band from Berkeley, Calif., formed in 1991 by lead singer and pianist Adam Duritz and producer/guitarist David Bryson. The band also includes Charlie Gillingham (accordion, keyboards), Dan Vickrey (lead guitar), Dave Immergluck (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Jim Bogios (drums) and Millard Powers (bass).

Counting Crows gained popularity following the release of debut album, August and Everything After (1993), which featured the hit single “Mr. Jones” Duritz sang the song in fun, enjoying the fantasy of making it big. However, he did not realize that just months later, it would become an unexpected hit song drawing massive radio play and launching the band into stardom.

“August and Everything After” became the fastest-selling album since Nirvana’s “Nevermind”. Since then they have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide and received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for their song “Accidentally in Love,” from the hit film “Shrek 2”. Counting Crows recently debuted the album Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) to the delight of fans and critics, featuring infectious interpretations of some of the band’s favorite songs.

All tickets are $59.95. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the concert starts at 7 p.m.

Note: This is a dance concert. The Festival venue will be configured differently for this evening to allow for increased dancing / standing area in front of the stage. There will still be adequate sections for blankets, low chairs, high chairs and reserved patron and sponsor seating, as well as seated availability in the grandstands. The dance venue map can be viewed online at FestivalatSandpoint.com.

• Saturday, Aug. 11 — It's another Super Saturday spectacular starring Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum, pop rock icon Kenny Loggins.

Originally a part of the popular duo Loggins and Messina, during the 1970s he became a solo artist known for his soft rock music, and later for writing and performing for hit movie soundtracks in the 1980s. Loggins recorded so many successful songs for films including Top Gun, Footloose, and Caddyshack, that he was referred to as, “King of the Movie Soundtrack”

His first solo album, Celebrate Me Home (1977), included the successful song “I Believe In Love.” He has won multiple Grammy Awards including Best Male Pop Vocal for “This is it!” (1979), and Song of the Year for “What a Fool Believes” (1980). Loggins has also written many hit songs for other artists including Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Anne Murray, Michael McDonald and The Doobie Brothers. He also performed as a member of USA for Africa on the famine-relief fundraising single “We Are the World.” He is currently working on songs with country trio Blue Sky Riders.

Portland-based singer songwriter Stephen Ashbrook and his band are featured performers on this Super Saturday line-up. Ashbrook rose to fame in the mid-1990s in his home state of Arizona, riding the wave of the Tempe music scene while performing guitar-driven rock music with his band Satellite. All tickets are $44.95. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m. and the music starts at 6 p.m. with local talent Doug Bond.

• Sunday, Aug. 12 — The Festival season culminates on Sunday, Aug. 12, with the Grand Finale concert, “French Accents” featuring the Spokane Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Gary Sheldon. The concert also features and three special guest soloists: cellist Jonah Kim, violinist Camille Miller and flutist Rhonda Bradetich, who is originally from Sandpoint.

The French-themed program features Bizet’s Suite No.1 from L’Arlesienne, Chaminade’s Concertino, Massenet’s Meditation from Thais, Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, Ravel’s Bolero, Tchaikowsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme and Offenbach’s Suite from Gaite Parisienne/Dances and Can Can.

A fireworks finale, made possible by Avista Utilities, will close The Festival at Sandpoint’s 30th season celebration in spectacular fashion. This concert also serves as part of The Festival’s Fifth Grade Music Outreach Program, an educational mission that takes place in all Bonner County and Boundary County elementary schools this month. Each fifth-grader receives complimentary tickets for themselves and two family members to attend a symphonic Festival concert.

The recipient of the Festival’s Coldwater Creek Music Scholarship will perform before the concert, and the winning bidder of the original 2012 poster artwork by Scott Kirby will be announced. Gates open early at 4:30 p.m. for the annual “Taste of the Stars” wine tasting featuring premier wineries of the Northwest and an art auction presented by Timberstand Gallery. The wine tasting is complimentary for all concert goers over the age of 21 years. Concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $34.95 for adults, $9.95 for youth 0-18 years.

Individual tickets to all shows go on sale starting at 9 a.m. today at The Festival at Sandpoint office in the Old Power House, 120 E. Lake St., Suite 207.

Phone orders may be placed by calling the Festival Office locally (208) 265-4554 or toll free (888) 265-4554. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover cards, personal checks and cash are accepted. Tickets are also sold at all TicketsWest locations, or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT. Tickets are also available for purchase online at the Festival’s secure website: www.FestivalAtSandpoint.com.