Performances

June 6-Tarnished 6
June 13-Summit City Saints
June 20-Keystone Society of Swing
June 27-Quintessence
July 4-Deacons of DIxieland
July 11-(artsfest)
July 18-State College Municipal Band
July 25-Slide Zone
Aug. 1-Nittany Knights
Aug. 8-Swingin' Dixie
Aug. 15-Heritage Brass
Aug. 22-Zeropoint Big Band
Aug. 29-Dixie Lions
Sept. 5-Consord Sounds


Lazy summer evening…nothing
to do? Why not pack a picnic
supper and join us for a cool
summer evening of great music!
Picnic – 5 pm, Music – 6 pm

Summer Fridays in Lemont feature free concerts on the Village Green. Bring a picnic!

June 11 OverheaD
June 18 Piano Blues by John I. Thompson, IV
June 25 Jim Colbert and Cynthia Mazzant
July 2 The Lemont Trio
July 9 Open - please call 238-1288 if you would like to play!
July 16 Ellen Schultz
July 23 Murphy's Junction
July 30 Turkish Folk Songs by TURKOZAN
Aug. 6 Penns Valley Men's Chorus
Aug. 13 Tussey Mountain Moonshiners
Aug. 20 Michelle Katz
Aug. 27 Carpal Tunnel String Band
Sept. 6 Allegheny Ridge Runners

Country music’s most dynamic duo is coming to State College! Don’t miss Sugarland’s Incredible Machine Tour as it works its way into Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, September 3 at 8:00 p.m. with special guests Little Big Town and Ellis Paul.

Tickets can be purchased at the Bryce Jordan Center, Downtown Theatre, Penn State Altoona, online at www.ticketmaster.com or www.bjc.psu.edu or charge by phone at (814) 865-5555.

Hailing from good-ole-downhome State College, The Allegheny Ridgerunners are a bluegrass band of seasoned musicians with a wide variety of musical backgrounds. Inspired by the old-style bluegrass of the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, and many of the 'greats", The Ridgerunners emphasize close trio harmony singing and a large helping of fiddle and banjo. When they're not playing bluegrass, they may just as easily be playing at a symphony orchestra concert or Irish céilí!

A potluck will be held at 3:00 p.m. at the Lemont Village Green/Granary (behind the Center for Well Being). Music will start at 4:30 p.m., and a jam session will be held following the concert.

The Disco Biscuits are an entirely different band today than they were when they first broke out of Philadelphia in the mid-90s, but they are still very much the pioneers of “trance-fusion,” bridging the gap between electronic music and jam bands.

The Rhythm Devils began as the duo of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann and his percussionist partner Mickey Hart. Over the years, they transcended rock and roll drum stereotypes with polyrhythmic explorations of the world of percussion.

The community is invited to a musical performance by local jazz ensemble Slide Zone at The Oaks at Pleasant Gap.

From central PA, Slide Zone is a jazz ensemble comprised of five trombones, guitar, bass and drums. The group plays arrangements from various artists, as well as its own original compositions and arrangements.

Chairs will be provided, but community members may bring their own chairs and blankets to enjoy the evening of music. Light refreshments will be served.

This free musical performance is hosted by The Oaks at Pleasant Gap, a retirement community operated by Allegheny Lutheran Social Ministries (ALSM). The Oaks offers independent living and personal care options.

On March 11, 2010, Great Big Sea celebrated their seventeenth birthday as a band. And like almost every one of their many anniversaries spent together, they celebrated it by playing a concert, this one in Omaha, Nebraska. For the players it was an important landmark, but for the fans, some of whom had travelled hundreds of miles, it was a chance to spend a night with a band that has come to define the energetic spirit of Newfoundland. Somewhere along the way, Great Big Sea ceased to be just a band – for the three core members and their assorted collaborators, it’s a way of life.
“No one is more surprised than us that we have lasted almost 18 years,” points out lead singer Alan Doyle. “Like most bands, when we started we were just looking forward to the next tour, the next show or the next song. Then, after a few years we realized that we liked doing this more than anything else. So we kept going.”
The band has its roots in St. John’s rowdy pubs, where co-founders Sean McCann and Bob Hallett met while playing Newfoundland folk songs for boisterous crowds made up of hard-partying university students and off-duty fishermen. In 1993, after meeting fellow socio-holic and pub stalwart, Alan Doyle, they started Great Big Sea in an attempt to create a new approach to Newfoundland folk music. This approach combined their original music with the traditional sounds and instruments they had grown up with. In 2002, drummer Kris MacFarlane joined the band, and a year later bass player Murray Foster came aboard.
Their latest album, Safe Upon the Shore, reflects the newest twists in their original plan. The album is a feast of creative impulses recorded in fits and starts over a six month period. Some of it was recorded in New Orleans with producer Steve Berlin, while other songs were recorded at the band’s studio in St. John’s. The band used guerilla setups to record the rest of it on tour buses and in various dressing rooms.
“A lot of this was recorded straight onto Alan’s laptop, as soon as we had the ideas,” says Sean McCann, singer and bodhran player. “As for the rest, for a long time we wanted to record somewhere with a vibe, somewhere with an atmosphere that might seep into the songs themselves. There is nowhere on the continent, really, that has more of a vibe than New Orleans.”
The band took advantage of a wide range of collaborators. During the fall of 2009 they hosted a mini songwriting retreat in Western Newfoundland with musicians and writers Jeremy Fisher, Jeen O’Brien, Paul Lamb and Joel Plaskett.
“At this stage, we sometimes all kind of know each other’s ideas too well,” explains multi-instrumentalist and singer Bob Hallett. “It’s too easy to do the obvious. Writing with a big group of people pushed everything into different directions. Of the songs we started there, we ended up using a bunch of them on the album.”
“Some of these songs took a long time to grow up, some of them came to us ready to head out into the world,” added McCann.
The songs on Safe Upon the Shore cover the many strains of the band’s inspirations, but also reflect the real concerns of men trying to balance family and life while spending so many months in the adolescent world of a touring band. Nothing But A Song speaks of the backstage tensions that sometimes test their own relationships, while Dear Home Town is about the things that get left behind. The delicate Follow Me Back is pure sentiment, a small love note to those who have stayed with them for so many years. The boisterous folk rock of Road To Ruin and Wandering Ways talk about the band’s raucous years in the pubs. Long Life, the albums driving opener, is all about the passage of time and the constant push and pull between band and home.
While music fashions come and go, Great Big Sea has continued to build audiences across the continent. A hard working approach to touring and performance, along with a genuine love for the music they perform, has kept the band growing despite being pretty much immune to musical fashions. Numerous side projects, from Doyle’s acting and soundtrack work to McCann’s solo projects to Hallett’s writing, keep them busy when they aren’t touring with the band. While some groups might bristle at these distractions, for Great Big Sea it is just fuel to the fire that drives their artistry.
“There’s a lot of creativity in this band, “says Doyle, “too much for an album every two years. We all have lots of other ideas, ambitions, and paths we want to travel – that said, we wouldn’t have stuck together this long if we didn’t know how special this band was. We are not finished yet by a long shot.”

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center is excited to announce that it is hosting its first-ever live Music Festival at its center in Petersburg on Sunday, September 26 from 11AM to 8PM. The festival is a fundraiser to support the Creek’s efforts to build a covered stage that will host future events like this as well as provide teaching space for its educational programs. The Shaver’s Creek Music Festival will feature six regional, high-energy, acoustic, Americana and bluegrass bands as well as several local food vendors.

The live music lineup for the day includes local acts John Cunningham & Friends, Pure Cane Sugar, Tussey Mountain Moonshiners, Tolins Bluegrass Revue, and Ted & the Hi-Fi's, and will culminate with a rocking performance by Philadelphia’s own Wissahickon Chicken Shack. According to Shaver’s Creek Assistant Program Director Paul Brigman, “These bands are going to be lively and energetic. People should plan to bring their dancing shoes!”

When you get hungry from all of that dancing, food vendors will be on hand to fill your belly and quench your thirst, including Doan’s Bones Barbeque, Standing Stone Coffee Company, and Gemelli Bakers, who will be onsite from 12-6PM with their portable pizza oven. A percentage of each vendor’s sales will go to support the covered stage project.

Tickets are on sale now, and cost $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, and $10 for children ages 6-12. Children ages 5 and under are free. To pre-order tickets call Shaver’s Creek at 814-863-2000, or stop by the Creek seven days a week, 10AM-5PM. Coming soon you will also be able to purchase tickets at Appalachian Outdoors in State College. Only a limited number of tickets are available for this event so purchase yours today!

For more information on Shaver’s Creek programs, visit their website at www.ShaversCreek.org.

Big Head Todd and The Monsters’ ninth studio album Rocksteady – released July 20 on the group’s Big Records imprint, distributed by Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group – finds the veteran Colorado band returning to their DIY roots and forging into surprising musical territory.
Funky, lilting, and melodic, the new collection features founding members Todd Park Mohr (lead vocals and guitars), Rob Squires (bass), and Brian Nevin (drums), with keyboardist, steel guitarist, and backup vocalist Jeremy Lawton, who joined The Monsters in January 2004. Lawton produced and mixed the album.
Rocksteady cuts across a broad swath of stylistic terrain. “Beautiful,” the set’s first single, offers a sunny Caribbean vibe, as does the band’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden,” long a concert staple. “Back to the Garden” and the homage “Muhammad Ali” pulse with a roots rock groove, while the set’s title track is based in the like-named, revved-up Jamaican style that preceded reggae’s arrival in the late ‘60s. “I Hate It When You’re Gone,” dressed with a full horn section, is blazing old-school R&B, while a version of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” is burning Chicago blues in a Monsters pocket.
“It’s a soul/Caribbean record that rocks,” Mohr says. “We almost went out of our way to take all the rock out of it, but it really rocks. It’s the very first album we’ve ever done that’s this cohesive and focused. That's what makes it shine and stand out from our other albums."
Rocksteady is the latest chapter in a rock ‘n’ roll career that stretches back nearly 25 years. Founded in 1986 by Mohr, Squires, and Nevin, then University of Colorado students, Big Head Todd and The Monsters became one of the region’s most popular acts through constant touring. After issuing two popular independent releases on their Big imprint, the band hooked up with Irving Azoff’s Giant Records for the platinum album Sister Sweetly (1993). The Monsters issued four chart albums on Giant and Warner Bros.
Their formidable reputation rests on their stage performances; Big Head Todd and The Monsters Live was recorded on the fabled H.O.R.D.E. tour. Over the years, the group has developed a close relationship with their fans: Their last album, All the Love You Need, was released as a free download, and was snapped up by half a million of The Monsters’ followers.
Rocksteady can be seen as Act One of a two-act Big Head Todd spectacular, since the band cut enough tracks to fill two CDs. A projected future release will include the sessions’ more hard-edged material.
Mohr says, “We went into the studio and recorded over thirty songs. We've always been a versatile group with a wide range of influences and so our albums tend to be an eclectic mix of different genres of music. Somewhere along the line we realized we had a group of songs that fit together really well as a soul/R&B/Carribian kind of thing. So we set aside some of the harder rock stuff in order to focus on a soulful, danceable sound."
Lawton adds, “We were noticing we had these two different directions in songs. Big Head Todd albums are always like a buffet – there’s always a rocker, and then there are a couple of mood songs, and then there are some R&B/soul songs. We said, ‘Let’s try to concentrate on one of the branches of the tree.’ We went towards this fun, happy R&B kind of sound.”
Mohr attributes some of the funk in the Rocksteady sound to the influence of the late Nigerian Afrobeat titan Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his son Femi Kuti, whose work he had been listening to deeply, and to his ongoing fascination with reggae and its intersection with punk rock.
While Big Head Todd and The Monsters have worked with such well-known producers as David Bianco, Jerry Harrison, and David Z, the band found their sound refreshed by working essentially on their own with Lawton at the helm in his home studio, recording on their own schedule.
“Obviously, I have high regard for producers,” Mohr says. “In this case, I didn’t think anybody else was going to put the time into it – into following each strand. And being able to decide in the middle of something that you have two albums instead of one isn’t something you normally can do in a producer scenario. There is just too much pressure and not enough time. For me it’s all about being able to have the time and the resources to do things your way, and the right way. It’s only when you do it yourself that you have that luxury.”
As ever, the hard-touring Monsters will go out to meet the fans this summer. “The quality of the relationship between the band and the fan is the most important aspect of our career,” says Mohr. “We’ve always realized that. That’s why we do cruises with fans, and we sign autographs after shows. We still try to play every request. We listen to our audience and do whatever we can to acknowledge that relationship.”

The Eagles will be headlining at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on October 22 as part of the band’s “Fall 2010 Tour.” The Eagles - Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit – will perform hits from their more than 35-year career, such as “Hotel California,” “Desperado,” “Life in The Fast Lane,” “How Long,” and much more.

TICKETS:$201.00, $137.00, $87.00, $51.00
www.bjc.psu.edu, all Ticketmaster outlets, or charge by phone at 814-865-5555.

more info soon!

Carrie Underwood
w/ Billy Currington, Sons of Sylvia
Date: Saturday, November 13 at 7:30 PM
Tickets On Sale: Saturday, April 24 at 10:00 a.m.
Prices: $35.50, $45.50, $55.50

Tickets go on sale to the general public Saturday, April 24 at 10:00 a.m. and can be purchased at the Bryce Jordan Ticket Center, Downtown Theatre, Penn State Altoona Campus, online at www.ticketmaster.com or www.bjc.psu.edu or charge by phone at (814) 865-5555.