Best Buy Nashville River Stages 2003
Superstar singer-songwriters, a bunch of jazzy jams, favorite faces from the late '80s and early '90s, some soulful bluesmen and a few country iconoclasts. That's what the landscape is looking like for the sixth annual Best Buy Nashville River Stages music festival, slated for May 2-4 and centered around downtown's Riverfront Park.
Following the formula that has been successful in previous years, festival organizers Clear Channel Entertainment have lined up a genre-crossing roster that's sure to once again pack out the downtown park.
Musical highlights this year include:
Rock This Way
There's something to be said for endurance, especially in the often fickle music industry, replete as it is with record label musical chairs and constantly mutable band lineups. So it's especially gratifying to see a strong showing at this year's Best Buy Nashville River Stages from a string of longtime favorites who are all still as vital and musically important as ever.
The B-52s were among the vanguard of acts that made Athens, Ga., a groundbreaking musical hotbed. The five-piece rock act specialized in quirk rock that never quite crosses the line into novelty act territory, instead becoming firmly ensconced as college dance party staples with hits like Rock Lobster and Love Shack. Original member Ricky Wilson died of AIDS in 1985, but the rest of the lineup remains intact � Cindy Wilson (Ricky's sister, who took a break fro the band in the '90s), Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Keith Strickland.
If The B-52s launched the Athens scene, Def Leppard is arguably the textbook band of the '80s hard rock movement � movie star good looks, significant hair, and radio-ready rockers like Pour Some Sugar On Me. The Sheffield, England, natives broke through in the States with 1983's Pyromania album, quickly becoming MTV darlings and following up in 1987 with the career-making Hysteria (Pour Some Sugar On Me, Love Bites, etc.).
Alt-rock quartet Live had their first major-label release, Mental Jewelry, when the band members were barely out of high school. But it was sophomore release Throwing Copper, which included radio hits I Alone, All Over You and, most notably, Lightning Crashes, that propelled them into stardom and remains the band's biggest release. Strongly influenced by lead singer Ed Kowalczyck's Eastern spirituality, Live's music is emotional, spiritual and intense.
Another alt-rock staple in the '90s was grungy rock trio Everclear, whose 1995 album Sparkle & Fade provided the soundtrack to that summer with irresistably poppy rock radio hit Santa Monica. Their followup, So Much For The Afterglow, yielded similar fruit (I Will Buy You a New Life, Everything To Everyone). Lead singer Art Alexakis has emerged as a political crusader, speaking out against the evils of drugs (his brother and girlfriend both died of overdoses) and reporting for MTV from the 1996 presidential conventions. Everclear's new album, Slow Motion Daydream, came out March 11 on Elektra.
Sometime Nashvillian Steve Winwood is the godfather of the bunch, with a career that goes back to the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic starting in the '60s, and a nearly 30-year solo career that saw its pinnacle in the mid-'80s, with monster hits including Don't You Know What The Night Can Do? and the Grammy-winning Higher Love.
We Be Jammin'
If you're worried that Bonnaroo 2 has a lock on all your jam-based favorites, don't be. It wouldn't be a summer music festival without jazzy jams for the hippie kids to groove to! Some perennial Nashville favorites making return appearances include: Gov't Mule, fronted by former Allman Bros. Warren Haynes and Matt Abts. Bloodkin, whose vocalist Danny Hutchens will also be doing a solo set during the weekend. Robert Randolph & the Family Band started out in church, playing the spiritually uplifting form of gospel known as ''sacred steel,'' but gradually graduated to a more secular crowd, through opening slots with North Mississippi Allstars and Medeski Martin & Wood. Speaking of North Mississippi Allstars, they're back in Nashville, too � Cody and Luther Dickinson, sons of legendary producer Jim Dickinson, rounded out by unbelievably soulful bassist Chris Chew (who wears his instrument so high on his body it could almost be a necklace). Karl Denson's Tiny Universe is another jammy fave making a return visit, with their signature brand of acid jazz grooves. Finally, the last time Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons played Nashville, they were at the jam-friendly and extremely intimate confines of Windows on the Cumberland. It'll be a different vibe at Best Buy Nashville River Stages, where the outdoor stages can accommodate a few more people....
Some newcomers to Nashville from the jam band circuit will appear, as well. The Disco Biscuits started out on the frat party circuit in Pennsylvania in the mid-'90s, graduating to the nightclub scene and opening slots with the Jerry Garcia Band, Morphine and The Black Crowes. Sound Tribe Sector 9 started out in Georgia in the late '90s, and draw frequent comparisons to the aforementioned Disco Biscuits with their improvisational, dub- and breakbeat-influenced psychedelia. Rootsy New York-based folk-rock six-piece Donna The Buffalo is a staple of the bluegrass festival circuit, including Telluride and Merlefest.
Star-Powered Singers
Don't turn that radio dial! Some of the very best and most popular solo artists performing today will be spotlighted at this year's festival. First and foremost is crowd-pleasing sensitive singer-songwriter John Mayer. This is Mayer's third consecutive Nashville River Stages appearance, and we've seen him progress from B-lister with a buzz to major-league heartthrob and dorm room staple.
If Mayer is this year's returning success story, the ''one to watch'' is upcoming singer-songwriter Jason Mraz. Virginia native Mraz plays a reggae-tinged brand of folk, showcased on his debut album, Waiting For My Rocket to Come, and doing well at Adult Alternative radio (hear single The Remedy on Lightning 100).
Former Til Tuesday frontwoman Aimee Mann has made a name for herself in recent years as an independent artistic iconoclast, releasing her excellent, plaintive solo albums on her own Superego records and selling them from her Web site. She has caught most attention in recent years for providing the soundtrack to 2000's Magnolia, which included the Oscar-nominated Save Me. We're told this is Mann's first-ever solo performance in Nashville.
Finally, we have cool, soulful Afrobeat-inspired singer Angelique Kidjo. A Benin native living in Paris since 1980, Kidjo blends the sounds of her African birthplace with jazz, rock, pop and soul into a heady, difficult-to-categorize blend. She has collaborated with artists from Branford Marsalis to Carlos Santana and has been featured on numerous movie soundtracks.
The Soul of the Matter
Can't beat the classics. Can't beat the blues. And you gotta have soul. Longtime blues and R&B veteran Buddy Guy knows that better than most, and more than deserves his crown as Chicago's King of the Blues. He's Eric Clapton's favorite blues guitar player, and Clapton knows a few.... Guy owns Buddy Guy's Legends, one of the most successful blues bars in Chicago.
Another soulful original, Joe Cocker, also appears at the riverfront for this year's festival. Cocker's most fertile period was the late '70s and early '80s, when his husky, alcohol-soaked voice could be heard on blockbuster ballads like You Are So Beautiful and Up Where We Belong. He continues to release albums to adoring fans, most recently Respect Yourself, which came out last year on Red Ink Records.
A bluesman of more recent vintage, Keb' Mo' is no stranger to the Riverfront Park stage, having headlined Coca-Cola's Dancin' in the District last summer. The amazing acoustic bluesman mesmerized a capacity crowd with little more than his voice and an acoustic guitar. That's no mean feat, we assure you. If you missed him then, now you have another chance.
Less known but quickly making a name for himself is 20-year-old Marc Broussard, a Louisiana native of Cajun heritage. His dad is Ted Broussard, a Louisiana Hall of Fame guitarist and member of New Orleans' legendary Boogie Kings. Marc is cut from the same cloth, with a powerful, soulful voice that evokes vintage Motown.
Putting the Cool in Country
Country music is a genre that hasn't traditionally been well-represented at the annual summer festival, but that changes this year with a vengeance. For starters, we've got the long-awaited return of The Mavericks. The critically acclaimed country quartet, who got their start in Miami, have been on extended hiatus while the members pursued various solo projects. Most notably, frontman Raul Malo has been exploring his Cuban roots to widespread acclaim, as evidenced on 2001's excellent Today. Before the split the group had been incorporating more rockabilly and Tejano influences into their sound; we're curious to see what direction they're taking after the time off.
Another iconoclastic country singer, Mark McGuinn, also makes his debut at the riverfront festival. McGuinn is best known for his radio single Mrs. Steven Rudy, although he started out as a jazz artist, and had originally intended to be a professional soccer player (a knee injury put paid to that idea). Rounding out the country side is the talented Caitlin Cary. Fiddle player Cary, a veteran of groundbreaking alt-country group Whiskeytown, toiled for years in the shadow of her charismatic former bandmate Ryan Adams. But her two solo albums, the wryly titled While You Weren't Looking and the just-released I'm Staying Out, prove she's more than capable of holding the spotlight on her own.
Nashville's The Rage/March 20, 2003