Featuring Bonnie Raitt, The Jayhawks, Don Bryant, Traveller, Flaco Jiménez, Amanda Shires, and Low Cut Connie Plus A Celebration of Chuck Berry with musical director Vernon Reid
Free outdoor summer festival runs July 26–August 13
NEW YORK — The Americana Music Association℠ unveils today the lineup for its Roots of American Music Weekend, highlighted for the fourth year by AMERICANAFEST NYC, presented in association with Lincoln Center Out of Doors, one of the country’s longest-running, free summer outdoor festivals. Taking place August 12 and 13, the artist lineup includes performances by Bonnie Raitt, The Jayhawks, Don Bryant, Traveller, Flaco Jiménez, Amanda Shires, and Low Cut Connie. The weekend also features a special Celebration of Chuck Berry with music director Vernon Reid. See below for details of each concert.
The 47th edition of the Out of Doors festival runs July 26–August 13, filling the Lincoln Center campus with a diverse range of music, dance, spoken word, and family events featuring dozens of artists from across the city, country, and world, all completely free and open to the public. Full programming for Lincoln Center Out of Doors available separately here.
Lincoln Center has also joined forces with renowned restaurants and notable chefs to offer a broad range of culinary offerings to accompany its outdoor summer programming. Full info available here.
ANNUAL ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC WEEKEND
AMERICANAFEST NYC
Traveller
Flaco Jiménez
Amanda Shires
Saturday, August 12 at 2:00pm
Hearst Plaza
Few, if any, artists in conjunto and Tejano music have received the level of critical acclaim that Flaco Jiménez has enjoyed over the course of a career spanning six decades, and no one has taken the accordion-fueled Tex-Mex sound to a larger audience. Without compromising his musical vision, Jiménez has introduced the traditional conjunto sound to mainstream pop and country listeners thanks to his collaborations with the Texas Tornados, The Mavericks, and Dwight Yoakam, and he is celebrated by adventurous rock fans through his work with Ry Cooder, Carlos Santana, Doug Sahm, and The Rolling Stones.
Traveller is the side project of solo artists Jonny Fritz, Robert Ellis, and Cory Chisel, who formed the group to take a detour around the well-paved, monotonous road of solo artistry. It’s a band of three great friends, all with distinct styles, who love to write and perform together.
Amanda Shires began her career as a teenager playing fiddle with the Texas Playboys. Since then, she’s toured and recorded with John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider, Justin Townes Earle, Shovels & Rope, and most recently her husband, Jason Isbell. Along the way, she’s made three solo albums, each serving to document a particular period in her life while improving on the perceptive qualities of the previous record. Her latest record, My Piece of Land, was released last year with Dave Cobb as producer.
ANNUAL ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC WEEKEND
AMERICANAFEST NYC
The Jayhawks
A Celebration of Chuck Berry with musical director Vernon Reid
Low Cut Connie
Saturday, August 12 at 6:00pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
Since the ’80s, The Jayhawks have been a driving force and inspiration behind the growing Americana movement. Combining the talents of singer-songwriters Gary Louris and Mark Olson, The Jayhawks released their major label debut, the acclaimed Hollywood Town Hall (1992) via Def American. This was followed by Tomorrow the Green Grass(1995), which produced the alternative radio hit single “Blue.” Their latest album, Paging Mr. Proust (2016), was produced in Portland with Peter Buck and Tucker Martine.
A Celebration of Chuck Berry marks a special portion of the evening dedicated to the late, legendary Chuck Berry, led by renowned artist and performer Vernon Reid as musical director. As the lead guitarist of Living Colour and a cofounder of the Black Rock Coalition, Reid’s rampant eclecticism encompasses everything from hard rock and punk to funk, R&B, and avant-garde jazz, and his anarchic, lightning-fast solos have become something of a hallmark as well. Reid has worked with a wide variety of experimental musicians including Mick Jagger, Defunkt, Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, and Public Enemy, among others.
Low Cut Connie was recently called “the essence of what rock ‘n’ roll should be” by Greg Kot (Sound Opinions/NPR), and The New York Times has said “their live show is a phenomenon.” They have been a rolling DIY caravan, lending their explosive talent to the music industry for five years and building an obsessive fan base from all walks of life—white and black, straight and gay, young and old. Even former President Barack Obama is a fan. He chose their anthem of self-proclaimed lowbrow American life, “Boozophilia,” for his Spotify playlist and met with frontman Adam Weiner at the White House in 2016.
ANNUAL ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC WEEKEND
AMERICANAFEST NYC
Bonnie Raitt
Don Bryant
Sunday, August 13 at 7:00pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell
This year’s festival culminates with ten-time Grammy Award–winning blues-rocker Bonnie Raitt and her celebrated road band. Raitt, who Rolling Stone named as both one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” and one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. B.B. King once called Raitt “the best damn slide player working today” and the poetic power of her bottleneck guitar technique brings a unique second voice to complement the emotional reach of her singing.
Opening the evening is Memphis soul man Don Bryant, the songwriter behind Hi Record classics like Ann Peebles’s “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” Forty years later, he’s having a career renaissance as a singer with his new critically acclaimed album Don’t Give Up on Love.
All events are free with no tickets required. Events take place on Lincoln Center’s plazas between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, from West 62nd Street to West 65th Street (except where noted). For more information, please visit AmericanaMusic.org or LCOutOfDoors.org.
LOCATIONS AND INFORMATION:
All events are FREE; no tickets required.
Events take place on Lincoln Center’s campus between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, from West 62nd Street to West 65th Street (except where noted). Subway: 1 to 66th Street–Lincoln
Center OR the A, B, C, D, and 1 to 59th Street–Columbus Circle.
Visit LCOutOfDoors.org for complete schedulePerformance locations:
Performance locations:
DAMROSCH PARK
West 62nd Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues
DAVID RUBENSTEIN ATRIUM
Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets
ELINOR BUNIN MUNROE FILM CENTER – AMPHITHEATER
144 West 65th Street
HEARST PLAZA / BARCLAYS CAPITAL GROVE
North of the Metropolitan Opera House, in front of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Center Theater, near West 65th Street
JOSIE ROBERTSON PLAZA
Main plaza of Lincoln Center, fronting Columbus Avenue, between 63rd and 64th Streets