Kat Wright & the Indomitable Soul Band perform during the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival on June 7.(Photo: FREE PRESS FILE)
The Fourth of July is almost here. For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, that means summer is in full swing. (Sorry, you denizens of the Southern Hemisphere, you’re stuck with a couple more months of winter. We’ve been there, and we feel for you.) Summer means the outdoor-music season is hitting full stride. Think cool tunes, warm breezes, burgers on the grill and refreshing beverages in plastic cups. Oh, and did we mention cool tunes?
• 7 p.m. Sunday, the 36th-annual Middlebury Festival-on-the-Green begins its weeklong run, but not at the green — the festival is spending this year at its temporary site at the Middlebury Recreation Park. The music is just as strong, though, and with a local flavor, starting with Kat Wright & the Indomitable Soul Band. Highlights throughout the week include, at noon Monday, Hinesburg banjo man Rik Palieri; 7 p.m. Tuesday, folksinger and Addison County native Anais Mitchell; 7 p.m. July 11, jazz trio Vorcza; and 7 p.m. July 12, a street dance led by the Vermont Jazz Ensemble. Free; donations welcome. 462-3555, www.festivalonthegreen.org.
• 7 p.m. July 10, the Concerts on the Green series presented by Higher Ground at the Shelburne Museum resumes with a double bill featuring singer-songwriter John Hiatt and the Combo and blues man Robert Cray. (Look for an interview with Hiatt in next week’s Burlington Free Press). $49 in advance, $53 day of show. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com.
• July 18-20, you might expect an event called SolarFest to be all about energy sustainability, and you’d be right. But the 20th installment of the festival is also about the energy of music. Sounds emanating from Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth will come from acts including the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans, plus a ton of Vermont performers, such as Keeghan Nolan, Bow Thayer, Soule Monde (with Russ Lawton and Ray Paczkowski of the Trey Anastasio Band), Waylon Speed and Barika. $20-$75. 235-1513, www.solarfest.org.
Bow Thayer(Photo: Tom McNeill/COURTESY, Tom McNeill/COURTESY)
• July 25-27, the Pransky family in Cabot hosts the music-rich festival known as The Manifestivus pretty much every year at the family homestead on (what else?) Pransky Road. The lineup for this 11th version of the festival features Locos Por Juana, The Nth Power (the soulful New York group featuring South Burlington native Nick Cassarino on guitar), Charles Lazarus, Electric Sorcery and sultry Vermont-based salsa band Afinque, among others. $40-$50. www.manifestivus.com.
• 6:30 p.m. July 25, the long-dormant progressive-bluegrass group Nickel Creek is back together, and resumes this season’s Concerts on the Green series at the Shelburne Museum. The Secret Sisters open the show. $41 in advance, $45 day of show. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com.
• 6 p.m. July 29, just like that, the Concerts on the Green series finishes its run for 2014, and does so with more modern bluegrass, this time from Old Crow Medicine Show. They’ll follow opening act Hurray for the Riff Raff. $36 in advance, $40 day of show. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com.
• Aug. 1-2, for the third straight summer, and the second year in the field behind Burlington College, The Precipice presents the diversity of the Vermont music scene in all its creative glory. The event put on by Radio Bean highlights the music of Rough Francis, Kat Wright & the Indomitable Soul Band, Ryan Power, Barika, Japhy Ryder, Swale, Maryse Smith & Michael Chorney, The DuPont Brothers, Steady Betty and marimba player Jane Boxall, plus a few others. $10-$18. www.facebook.com/ThePrecipiceVT.
Rough Francis(Photo: COURTESY)
• Aug. 7-10, the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival celebrates that big body of water that gives Burlington so much of its beauty and character. The festival includes activities on the lake as well as music on the lakeshore at Waterfront Park. This year’s bands are, at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 7, jam-rockers Umphrey’s McGee ($35-$39); 6 p.m. Aug. 8, “The Summer Nationals Tour” featuring punked-out groups The Offspring, Bad Religion, Pennywise and The Vandals ($45-$49); 8 p.m. Aug. 9, Americana rock from The Avett Brothers ($42-$47); and 7 p.m. Aug. 10, blues-guitar giant Buddy Guy with opening act Quinn Sullivan ($45-$50). 482-3313, www.lcmfestival.com.
• 12:30 p.m. Aug. 9, the daylong Valley Stage Music Festival returns to Blackbird Swale in Huntington with more folk-fueled fun. This year’s entertainment comes from The Deadly Gentlemen, The Defibulators, HotFlannel, Crunchy Western Boys and Vermont duo Cricket Blue. $30-$35. 434-4563, www.valleystage.net.
• Aug. 22-31, the ever-popular Champlain Valley Fair regularly brings big-name entertainment to Essex Junction, so why would this year be any different? This year’s musical headliners are, at 7 p.m. Aug. 22, country-music favorite Dierks Bentley with Eric Paslay ($32.25-$63.75); 7 p.m. Aug. 23, the Goo Goo Dolls sharing a bill with Daughtry ($27-$63.75); and 7 p.m. Aug. 31, more country sounds from Hunter Hayes with Love & Theft ($27-$74.25). 878-5545, www.champlainvalleyfair.org.
• Aug. 23-24, Vermont’s love for music and food is finally coming together in one big package – WYSIWYG, a big acronym that’s short for What You See Is What You Get. The shindig takes place behind Burlington College and includes music from Patrick Watson, Lee Fields, Shakey Graves, Anais Mitchell, Moon Hooch, The Barr Brothers, Barika and Brett Hughes & the Honky Tonk Crowd. $42.50-$150. www.wysiwygfestival.com. (See adjacent feature for more details on WYSIWYG).
• 3 p.m. Sept. 6, the fourth-annual Cambridge Music Festival packs a half-dozen Vermont acts into nine hours of sound, with The Eames Brothers, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Swale, Maryse Smith & Michael Chorney, Pours and Bliss Hill creating music in western Lamoille County. $5-$20; free for ages 6 and under. www.cambridgemusicfestival.com.
• Sept. 13-14, Vermont rockers Grace Potter & the Nocturnals head back to Waterfront Park in Burlington for their Grand Point North festival, presented by Higher Ground. The hosts play both days, and they’ll be joined Sept. 13 by Lake Street Dive, The War on Drugs, Lucius, Rayland Baxter, Caroline Rose, Swale, Villanelles and Dwight & Nicole; and Sept. 14 by Trampled By Turtles, The Devil Makes Three, Dr. John, Debo Band, Lowell Thompson, Anders Parker, Gold Town and The High Brakes. $49-$69. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com.
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals; left to right, Matt Burr, Scott Tournet, Grace Potter, Benny Yurco, Michael Libramento.(Photo: COURTESY)
• Sept. 19-21, summer ends (alas) on a tasty note with another acronymic food-centric festival, EAT X NE, aka Eat by Northeast. Presented by Higher Ground and The Skinny Pancake, the festival at Oakledge Park in Burlington is focused on food but provides music from the likes of Josh Panda & the Hot Damned, The Felice Brothers and Dan Zanes. Free admission; tickets sold for food-and-drink events. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com.
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.