From Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids and beyond it was another simmering summer week of concerts, including Celeste Allison, Chris Canas, Luke Winslow-King, a songwriters’ fest and more.
Lighting Up Wings Event Center: Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks on stage. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTO GALLERIES
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
“Ain’t That Something,” indeed.
The second song of the night unleashed by the Tedeschi Trucks Band on Saturday at Kalamazoo’s Wings Event Center said it all, courtesy of mesmerizing sets by the bluesy rock headliner and country/Americana star Margo Price, who opened the show.
A crowd of 2,500-plus embraced it all, starting with a 12-song, 65-minute set by Price that earned a standing ovation and included a tribute to Tom Petty, part of an upcoming, country-propelled tribute to the late beloved rocker.
Margo Price (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
Tedeschi Trucks Band, meanwhile, had the crowd standing from the get-go thanks to Susan Tedeschi’s spellbinding voice, Derek Trucks’ magical guitar solos and the band’s ability to meld blues, jazz and more with stellar saxophone and keyboard work.
The two-hour set came to a close with Price joining the band on stage for Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and Leon Russell’s “Stranger in a Strange Land.” View the full set list online here. – By Derek Ketchum
The tour stop was just a sliver of the live music salvo unleashed for West Michigan audiences over the past week, including:
• Legendary country singer and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Tanya Tucker performing at GLC Live at 20 Monroe in Grand Rapids;
• Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers living up to their illustrative name on Thursday at the Riverwalk Plaza in Lowell as part of the Sizzlin’ Summer Concerts Series. The Michigan band took the audience on a psychedelically blissful journey, with the second half of the performance really bringing the band’s rich inner world to life — with grooves traveling and morphing, landscapes shifting and changing in joyful fashion. “This is What It Feels Like to Drown” spotlighted the band’s transitional motion, subtly shifting throughout, while “Help” maximized the funky groove as their saxophonist tore up the lakefront and broke into a skillful “Ghostbusters” at the end. – By Cassandra Kipp
Tanya Tucker (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
• Detroit’s Chris Canas Band lighting up the outdoor concert series at Liquid Note in Otsego with an energetic set that had the crowd up and dancing;
• The West Michigan Songwriter’s Festival embracing Nashville tunesmith and festival participant Steve Leslie’s composition, “There’s a Song in That,” with an engrossing songwriters-in-the-round session at Blythefield Country Club north of Grand Rapids with Leslie, fellow Nashville writer Brian Sutherland and West Michigan’s Sammie Hershock, Ralston Bowles and Dan Terry, who organizes and hosts the annual event;
• Soulful folk/indie-pop’s Celeste Allison entertaining hometown fans for State Theatre’s State on the Street series;
• Michigan native and acclaimed singer-guitarist Luke Winslow-King firing up the Grand Haven Free Fridays series at Lynne Sherwood Waterfront Stadium with his band before heading up north to perform at the Hoxeyville Music Festival.
• Kanin Wren’s Taylor Swift Experience regaling a sold-out crowd at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in the first-ever ticketed event for a Tuesday Evening Music Club show.
Browse photos from all of the shows below. And check out a separate recap, photos and video from Saturday’s Walk the Beat festival in Grand Haven at Local Spins here.
PHOTO GALLERY: Tedeschi Trucks Band, Margo Price at Wings Event Center
Photos by Derek Ketchum
PHOTO GALLERY: Tanya Tucker at GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Photos by Anthony Norkus
PHOTO GALLERY: Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers in Lowell
Photos by Cassandra Kipp
