Mavis Staples

MerleFest, presented by Window World, is proud to announce the next round of artist additions for MerleFest 2020, which will be held April 23-26. Greensky Bluegrass, Mavis Staples, Paul Thorn, Cane Mill Road, Sweet Potato Pie, The Barefoot Movement, Nefesh Mountain, and Smitty and the Jumpstarters will be joining the annual homecoming of musicians and music fans on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The FreshGrass Music Festival is a festival like no other. Set in Western Massachusetts's picturesque Berkshire Mountains, along the historic Mohawk Trail (now MA Route 2), in the industrial river valley town of North Adams, Fresh Grass takes place on the vast property of The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Our journey through day three of Outside Lands began with a heartfelt performance on the main stage from the original queen of soul and gospel music, Mavis Staples. Her set was packed with so many songs that have helped her career take flight throughout the years such as “Build A Bridge,” “Change,” and “We Get By” but her performance was about so much more than just hearing her hits, the ambiance of her performance was electrifying and the 80-year-old Staples simply put on a clinic on how music keeps us all young.

Headlined by Katy Perry, Norah Jones, and Mavis Staples, The David Lynch Foundation will be hosting their extraordinary "Silence the Violence" benefit concert in Washington, D.C. on October 11 to benefit 10,000 at-risk youth in the district.

Saturday, June 9th, the third day of Bonnaroo 2018 dawned warm and sunny. As the morning sunshine transformed into sweltering afternoon concertgoers flocked to shady spots and the Centeroo fountain to cool down any way they could. The hottest day of the festival was also the most crowded, with cars full of new festival goers pouring in all day long. Despite two days of nonstop partying many in the crowd were still in an eager and festive mood and most of the entertainment venues began to fill up by the afternoon.

The 35th Annual Chicago Blues Fest held on June 8th to the 10th proved to be three days of great blues music, both honoring the past and turning towards the future.

All I heard on the streets of Seattle this summer was how great the Bumbershoot lineup looked and that this was one of the best years in recent memory. While 2014 marked only my second year at the music and arts festival that takes over Seattle Center on Labor Day weekend, when I compared this year’s lineup to last year’s impressive collection of artists, I couldn’t help but shake my head sadly.

The Newport Folk Festival may not be a monster fest on the order of a Bonnaroo or a Coachella, but it has rejuvenated itself over the last half dozen years into a premier summer stop for a broad range of alternative, indie, country-rock and folk acts. Much of the rejuvenation has been the result of a conscious decision by festival organizers to loosen the definition of “folk” to include a much wider swath of bands – really anybody who could plausibly include an acoustic guitar at least somewhere in their set list.

Sporting muddy bare feet and a flowing tie-dyed sundress, a flaxen-haired teen pumped up Sunday’s physically drained crowd by waiving a satellite image of “our home from outer space.”  Reminding us that “this is where we live,” the angelic blonde implored us not to “throw your garbage on the ground, because that’s where the animals and the birds and the fish and the ocean live!”  Why sweat the details? She’s on the right track!

Mavis Staples

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