(Photo courtesy of Les Schwab Amphitheatre)
On May 27 Alabama Shakes will open the new season at Les Schwab Amphitheater. The iconic group is an American rock band that offers up a distinctive and soulful roots rock sound. Alabama Shakes recorded their debut album, Boys & Girls and Hold On was the hit single off the album. The band recorded their second album, Sound & Color in 2015.
The band recently won three Grammys (Best Alternative Music Album, Sound & Color; Best Rock Song, Don’t Wanna Fight; Best Rock Performance, Don’t Wanna Fight).
June 5 free music brings three-time Grammy-nominated Afro-Caribbean music group Tiempo Libre, one of the hottest Latin bands today. Equally at home in concert halls, jazz clubs, festival stages and dance venues, Tiempo Libre is celebrated for its sophisticated tropical music featuring an irresistible, exhilarating mix of jazz harmonies, contemporary sonorities and seductive Latin rhythms.
June 18 Slightly Stoopid is a seven piece Southern California based band known for their multi-instrumental cross-genre blend and describe their music as “a fusion of folk, rock, reggae and blues with hip-hop, funk, metal and punk.” Stoopid released their eighth studio album titled Meanwhile…Back at the Lab in 2015. Bringing the rhythms and the sounds far more to the forefront than before and driven by methodized chorus sections and outstanding vocal performances from both frontmen.
SOJA offers up reggae groves with an 8-piece band that includes keyboards, saxophone and trumpet as well as drums and guitars. Zion I is an American hip hop duo from Oakland consisting of Baba Zumbi and Amp Live. The Grouch, is an American rapper and producer. He is a founding member of Living Legends, an underground hip hop collective based in Los Angeles. Eligh is a rapper and producer from Los Angeles and a member of Living Legends. The Grouch & Eligh are knowm for their live shows and an amazing stage presence.
June 19 free music Bel Mizik is a seven member band consisting of musicians who come together to create a unique sound, while striving to tell the story of their diverse backgrounds and collective experience. With instrumental roots in rock, jazz and the Blues, the group adds in a Hip Hop front end along with Caribbean and Latin breaks. Inspirational and soulful lyrics in English and French Creole broaden the colorful canvas of sound the band brings to the table. Translated from the Haitian phrase “Beautiful Music”, Bel Mizik members Anael Jeannis (vocals), Rodrick Meyer (organ/keyboards), Rob Roy (drums/percussion/vocals), Nathan Zito (guitar), Ryan Babichuk (bass), Malcolm Lewis (tenor sax) and Terry Baber (trombone/steel pan) reach into the majestic beauty and musical diversity that is the Pacific Northwest, and bring you intonations that move your body and shake your soul.
June 25 Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals are back. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals will follow up their triumphant reunion tour last summer with Call It What It Is, their first new studio album in over eight years released in April. “Making music again with the Innocent Criminals has been a priority for a while now,” Harper told Rolling Stone last year. “It was time.
“I thought we would be more energized and revitalized by thinking outside the box and starting with new material in the studio before we dug into the old stuff,” said Harper of the reunion album. “It was meant to be a signpost that we’re here to forge new ground musically and personally.”
Tracing their roots back to 1993, the Innocent Criminals include percussionist Leon Mobley, bassist Juan Nelson, drummer Oliver Charles, keyboardist Jason Yates and guitarist Michael Ward.
Opening band The Jack Moves are a Newark, NJ duo consisting of singer and multi-instrumentalist Zee Desmondes and drummer/producer Teddy Powell. Their music is influenced by soul, hip-hop, rock and lots of indie bands. Zee says, “It’s about taking all of those influences and making something unique out of it.”
June 26 free music Five Pint Mary
July 2-3 Widespread Panic is a southern rock jam band from Athens, Georgia. The band draw influences from blues-rock, progressive rock, funk, jazz fusion and neo-psychedelia. Making music for over 30 years Widespread Panic has broken attendance records at major venues throughout the country, including a staggering almost 50 sold-out shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Philips Arena in Atlanta and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival where Panic has headlined numerous times, breaking the single day attendance record.
The band has also headlined most of the major U.S. festivals, including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Lockn’ Music Festival, Outside Lands Music Festival and many more. The band has a loyal fan base and are widely renowned for their live performances.
Widespread Panic will host a food drive at the concert in Bend. To date the band’s Feeding People Through Music endeavor has raised over $130,000 and 22,000+ pounds of food for communities across the country.
“Joseph first came to prominence in the mid-1980s with still-beloved cult band Little Women, a reggae-rock proto-jam band that dominated the Rocky Mountain club scene for nearly a decade, and notably helped break jam giants Widespread Panic, who looked up to Joseph and opened for his band before rising to prominence. To this day, many of Panic’s favorite concert staples were written by Jerry Joseph, including such blazing epics as North, Chainsaw City and Climb to Safety.” Dennis Cook
Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons are about to release By The Time Your Rocket Gets to Mars where Joseph delves into some of the most challenging territory of his 30+ year career. The bulk of songs were penned after Joseph’s recent trip to Afghanistan, where he volunteered as a music teacher. Joseph’s full band includes Steve Drizos on drums, Steven James Wright on bass and Jeff Crosby on guitar.
Jerry Joseph has worn a lot of hats over more than three decades in the music trenches – righteous rocker, hyper-observant cultural observer, spiritual & political firebrand, force of nature live performer – but the bedrock of what he does has always been songwriting of the highest caliber.
July 10 free music Kinzel & Hyde
July 17 free music Taking Dixieland Jazz To New Heights is a fitting slogan for this high energy band from Bend,Oregon. All of these versatile musicians are equally at home in the Symphony playing Beethoven as they are on the street corner playing Louis Armstrong. The magic with this group exists in the the way they interact with the audience. Humor and the unexpected play a big part in the show. No one plays Folsom Prison Blues like this band. Look for them soon at a venue near you. Better yet, contact that venue and tell them that you want Summit Express Jazz Band.
July 24 free music Kitchen Dwellers
August 5 Brandi Carlile’s music is a mix of alt-country, Americana, rock and folk. It is her stunning voice that has captivated listeners since her debut in 2005. The most well-known Brandi Carlile tunes, The Story and That Wasn’t Me, are dynamic journeys in themselves, encompassing myriad emotions and varied stylistic touches.
Carlile’s most recent album The Firewatcher’s Daughter earned the singer-guitarist her first Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. Carlile and her indispensable collaborators, Phil and Tim Hanseroth (on bass and guitar), have always offered listeners both control and abandon, often within a single song. Take a listen to The Things I Regret, Eye and The Stranger at My Door off this album.
“My goal,” she says, “is to connect on a soul level with our longtime fans and friends, and to reach new people with the honesty of this music.” – Carlile
August 9 Jackson Browne’s lyrics and melody made him one of the 70s most iconic singer/songwriters. Get ready to enjoy classic songs including Running on Empty, Doctor My Eyes, For Everyman, Before the Deluge, The Pretender, Here Come Those Tears Again, You Love the Thunder, Somebody’s Baby and many more.
Accompanying Jackson on the road this summer are longtime band mates Val McCallum (guitar), Mauricio Lewak (Drums), Jeff Young (keyboards), Bob Glaub (bass), Alethea Mills (Vocals) and the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz (guitar, lap steel, pedal steel).
“This is my ideal band, with some of my favorite players, whose combined gifts provide the musical foundation and emotional underpinnings of my new songs,” says Jackson. “The interplay between Val McCallum and Greg Leisz – the effortlessness of their chemistry is a gift really, that just dropped into my lap. I feel fortunate to have them out on the road for this tour.”
Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Standing In The Breach, Jackson’s fourteenth studio album (released in 2014), is a collection of songs, at turns deeply personal and political, exploring love, hope, and defiance in the face of the advancing uncertainties of modern life.
August 11 Summer just wouldn’t be complete without a love-filled night with Michael Franti & Spearhead. Join us for the Soulrocker Tour Thursday, August 11. Tickets on sale now.
Special offer! A digital download of Michael Franti’s forthcoming album is included with every ticket you order for this show. You will receive an email with instructions on how to receive your download following your purchase. Opening band Zella Day.
Michael Franti & Spearhead will bring their blend of hip hop, funk, reggae, jazz and rock back to Bend for the fourth straight year for a fun summer night of jumping and dancing on the grass at the Amphitheater.
“I make music because I believe it can change people’s lives and make a difference in the world — it has the power to give us new energy and connects us to a stronger sense of purpose. This summer’s tour will be an opportunity for us all to come together, to celebrate life, each other and what it truly feels like to be alive. It will be a great summer to rock out! See y’all on the road!” – Michael Franti
August 12 Huey Lewis & the News is a San Francisco-based group that has been playing pop rock for three decades. Huey Lewis & the News have a contagious brand of straight-ahead rock n’ roll that has outlasted countless trends, selling over 20 million albums worldwide. The band has a driving, party-hearty spirit with hit songs Workin’ for a Livin, I Want a New Drug, The Heart of Rock & Roll, Hip to Be Square and The Power of Love.
August 31 One of rock music’s all-time greats, the Steve Miller Band has sold more than 30 million records in a career spanning more than 40 years. His trademark blues-rock sound made him one of the key artists in classic rock radio. His songs include Take the Money and Run, Fly Like an Eagle, Jet Airliner, Jungle Love, Abracadabra and many more.
September 3 NEEDTOBREATHE is a South Carolina-based band playing classic rock, Americana, folk-pop, and acoustic sound. “Described as a little bit woodsy and alarmingly catchy Bear Rinehart’s sincerity is unmistakable in his vocals, and the bluegrass backing culminates in something sweetly rich.”
The band received their first Grammy nomination in 2015 for their song Multiplied featured on Rivers in the Wasteland album. The band has also won several Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards drawing from the musical traditions growing up in the Deep South. The band will release their sixth studio album Hard Love in July.
Mat Kearney’s music is an unusual combination of pop, rock, folk, gospel, and hip hop, with swelling choruses, insightful and intelligent lyrics and songs you’ll want to hear over and over again. All I Need, Nothing Left to Lose, Where We Gonna Go From Here, Ships In The Night, Breathe In Breath Out and many more.
John Mark McMillan is a singer-songwriter interested in musical exploration, with an ear for melody and a poet’s eye for metaphor.
Welshly Arms combines their love of blues with rhythm and soul and rock to create a fresh throwback sound that represents their Midwestern roots. The band continued to establish a reputation for strong, spontaneous and explosive live performances.