Photo credit: Kayla Jean
Trapper Schoepp
Welcome to our daily digest of Summerfest picks, previews, promotions and opinions. Here's what's happening at the Big Gig on Thursday, June 27. Land here looking for our latest Summerfest coverage? Click here for the newest Summerfest previews and reviews.
UPDATE: Due to the inclement weather that passed over the grounds, Summerfest has extended the late re-entry policy to 8 p.m. (normally 7 p.m.). If you had left the grounds to avoid the thunderstorm, you will be let back in if you had your hand stamped.
Milwaukee’s Trapper Schoepp is part of the Willie Nelson-headed Outlaw Music Festival at the amphitheater, an all-day (and into the night) event. But there’s more than Americana on the Summerfest grounds: check out Lizzo’s pop hip-hop at the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse or X’s rootsy punk-rock at U.S. Cellular Connection Stage. Oh, and it's Throwback Thursday!
Local Picks
Vincent Van Great @ Johnson Controls World Stage, 8 p.m.
Outlaw Music Festival @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater, 1 p.m.
Willie Nelson turned 86 in April and may not have many trips to Milwaukee left in him. Which makes his appearance headlining the massive seven-act Outlaw Music Festival a must-see event.
Nelson, whose 69th(!) studio album, Ride Me Back Home, comes out a week earlier, is not scheduled to take the amphitheater stage until 10:15 p.m. But arrive early to soak up the rest of this rich lineup.
Milwaukee’s own Trapper Schoepp will open the proceedings with his distinct, Midwest-influenced Americana. Schoepp released his memorable third album, Primetime Illusion, in January. Dawes will be up next. These likable folk-rockers have issued six albums since 2009, including last year’s Passwords, and the band manages to sound retro yet contemporary at the same time.
Alison Krauss needs little introduction. The Illinois native garners universal recognition as a first-rate bluegrass-country artist. She recorded with Union Station and Robert Plant, appeared on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and won more Grammy Awards than any other female artist.
Counting Crows, survivors of the early-’90s alt-rock scene when 1993’s “Mr. Jones” bounced all the way up the Billboard charts to No. 5, have consistently performed and recorded over the past three decades. Given that many other artists from the band’s glory era have disappeared, every Counting Crows concert is a celebration. The Avett Brothers, a folk-rock quartet featuring two real brothers, are expected to release their 10th studio album this year. The band also was the inspiration for a new musical that will premiere in 2020 in Berkeley, Calif., featuring Avett Brothers music.
Phil Lesh & Friends features the Grateful Dead’s founding bassist fronting an ongoing project with a rotating lineup of musicians who interpret the spirit and context of the Grateful Dead’s work—and that of several other influences—in new and compelling ways. (Michael Popke)
Lizzo @ Harley-Davidson Roadhouse, 10 p.m.
Pop meets hip-hop superstar Lizzo has dominated 2019 since releasing “Juice,” an infectiously upbeat, funk-tinged anthem of self-confidence and body positivity, and the bass-heavy bop, “Tempo,” which boasts an appearance from hip-hop innovator, Missy Elliott.
Not long after the singles dropped, the Minneapolis-by-way-of-Houston artist made her rounds twerking while simultaneously showing off her flute-playing skills across the late-night show circuit and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and immediately sold out the first leg of her tour in support of her third studio album, Cuz I Love You. Her latest record, which debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 back in April, is dense with the same empowering soul-pop combined with hints of gospel and near effortless freestyling that first spawned a diehard fanbase back in 2013 with Lizzobangers.
Given her heartfelt lyrical affirmations in songs like “Good As Hell” (I do my hair toss / Check my nails / Baby how you feelin’? / Feeling good as hell) and her captivating, high-energy style of showmanship, Lizzo’s rapid ascension into the mainstream comes as no surprise. She’s been made into countless memes and has seemingly won over the hearts of everyone from legendary singer-songwriters like Elton John to contemporary pop artists like Shawn Mendes. In addition to her near six month-spanning headlining tour, Lizzo is set to perform at Indy Pride Festival and SacPride2019 for LGBT Pride Month. Lizzo has appeared as a guest judge on the 10th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and has shared the stage with the sisters of Haim, Southern soul favorites like St. Paul and The Broken Bones, and riot grrl rockers like Sleater-Kinney. (Nayeli Portillo)
Steve Earle & The Dukes @ Harley-Davidson Roadhouse, 4 p.m.
Steve Earle’s tutelage began in the mid-’70s with mentors Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, a pair of songwriters par excellence. By 1986, Earl’s debut album Guitar Town announced a new songwriter was in town (Nashville). Since then he has pursued his muse down the backroads of bluegrass to the highways of hard rock, relocating to New York City.
In 2001, Earle, Van Zandt and Clark released a live album of the trio trading songs and stories. When Van Zandt passed, Earle recorded a tribute collection. Two years ago, Clark passed which afforded Earle an opportunity to honor his other mentor. On the recently released album GUY (New West Records), The Dukes add twang and energy to the resignation and darkness Earle brings honestly to the material.
“I knew when Guy died that I’d have to make a record, because I don’t want to run into that mother*cker on the other side having made Townes’ record and not made his,” Earle said in a New Yorker interview. “I don’t even know whether I believe in that, you know, but I am not taking any chances.”
At their best, Clark’s literate, poetic songs were lived-in; rough-hewn and delicate, a balance Earle’s best songs achieve. The bio page on his website sheds more light on the project: There was another reason, Earle said, he couldn’t “get out of” making GUY. “You know,” he said, “as you live your life, you pile up these regrets. I’ve done a lot of things that might be regrettable, but most of them I don’t regret because I realize I couldn’t have done anything else at the time. With GUY, however, there was this thing. When he was sick—he was dying really for the last 10 years of his life—he asked me if we could write a song together. We should do it ‘for the grandkids,’ he said. Well, I don’t know... at the time, I still didn’t co-write much, then I got busy. Then Guy died and it was too late. That, I regret.” (Blaine Schultz)
X @ U.S. Cellular Connection Stage, 4 p.m.
Read our review of the show here.
They were one of the West Coast’s first punk rock bands when they surfaced in 1977. By the time they released their debut album, Los Angeles (1980), X had already honed an entirely distinctive sound. The intelligence of their songwriting was one thing that set them apart. The other was their rootedness in music that predated the 1960s influences brandished by The Ramones and other first generation punks. X was exploring American music at a time when mentioning “Americana” would have drawn puzzled stares from most music fans.
From the get-go, the urgent harmonies of singer Exene Cervenka and bassist-vocalist John Doe suggested some weird echo of Appalachia. The reverberations of rockabilly were audible in Billy Zoom’s guitar playing. Anchoring the music with swift strokes, drummer D.J. Bonebrake provided the underpinning.
And their songs were memorably melodic and lyrically knowing within the hard skin of punk rock. Los Angeles included their frenzied cover of The Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” and displayed the wry humor of their own songwriting with “Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You’re Not.” Los Angeles’ follow-up, Wild Gift (1981) included the enigmatic “White Girl” and the fiercely catchy “In This House That I Call Home.” Both albums have deservedly ranked on many lists of Top-500 albums of all times.
They were fortunate in having The Doors’ Ray Manzarek as producer for their first two LPs. He guided X while allowing the band to be true to their direction. Afterward, they jostled with record execs who wanted to peddle them as metal. Breaking and up and reforming, X remain active as a recording and touring act in his recent years. But more than most of the original wave of punk bands, their early music continues to endure without the crutch of nostalgia or the aid of context. Those songs still ring true. (David Luhrssen)
10,000 MANIACS @ Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard, 4 p.m.
For too many people, the indie rock group 10,000 Maniacs is still just the band that launched singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant, who was 17 when she joined with some Jamestown, N.Y., musicians in 1981. But lots of water—and music—has passed under the bridge since Merchant left the group for a solo career in 1993.
The band’s current tour, with its stop in Milwaukee, is celebrating 25 years of Mary Ramsey, who took over Merchant’s role as lead singer. Along with Ramsey, who also plays violin, founding members John Lombardo (guitar), Dennis Drew (keyboards) and Steve Gustafson (bass), along with early members Jerry Augustyniak (drums) and Jeff Erickson (guitar), still color their contemplative rock with a sometimes hard, punkish edge.
10,000 Maniacs went through a wide variety of iterations and member lineups during its 35-plus years. The band even performed at the MTV 1993 inaugural ball for President Bill Clinton.
The Maniac’s current tour taps into songs from various periods in its career, which should mean a little something for everyone no matter where you may have caught up with them. “Candy Everybody Wants,” “Like the Weather,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag/Hey Jack Kerouac” and “Trouble Me” are perennial favorites, as are covers of Roxy Music’s “More Than This” and the Patti Smith Group’s “Because the Night.” Ramsey performs an emotionally compelling rendition of the song, originally written by Bruce Springsteen. “These Are Days,” Ramsey’s signature tune, often closes the band’s encore set.
And the name? The band started as Burn Victims, but quickly changed to 10,000 Maniacs in homage to Two Thousand Maniacs!, a 1964 splatter film that was one of the first of the California “grindhouse” genre. It’s no surprise that the innovative musicians still perform, while the gory low-budget movie long ago bled its last drop. (Michael Muckian)
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Today's Promotion: Throwback Thursday Presented by Pick 'N Save
Get into the fest today for just $5 if you arrive between noon and 6 p.m. You can buy in advance at summerfest.com or at the gate. It's also Summerfest's version of double bubble from noon to 6 p.m. All beverages are 50 percent off.
Here's Today's Complete Lineup
Read more of our Summerfest coverage, including editor picks, concert previews, daily promotions and opinions here.
