This weekend sees one of the biggest musical events taking place at The Sage, Gateshead.
From an experiment a few years ago the SummerTyne American Festival has played host to International acts from around the world with a flavour of country and Americana music.
Taking place from this Friday ( 22nd July) through to Sunday 24th this years event promises to be filled with a cornucopia of musical styles to suit all tastes.
Apart from an electic musical mix visitors can examine varying degrees of art at the Poster Fayre, enjoy a trip with the SummerTyne Idols Musical Heritage Tour aboard a Routemaster bus, relax and take in specially curated film programmes of shorts and film features, or board up on HMS SummerTyne (river cruise boat ‘The Latis’) and be entertained by Paul Burch, Jen Gunderman and Dan Walsh.
Apart from the concerts taking place within The Sage, free entertainment also takes place on the ‘Jumpin Hot Club’ outdoor stage area with various acts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, these include performances from The Savoy Cajun Band, Richmond Fontaine Acoustic Duo, Smoove and Turrell, Redlands Palamino Company, John Strong, Justin Townes Earle, Hogseye, John Miller and his Country Casuals, The Lucky Strikes, Sean Taylor,The Cornshed Sisters, Jess and the Pimptones, Little Mo Trio, Damascus, Nathalie Stren, The Buffalo Skinners, Leslie Roley and Friends and a host of others.
Fridays indoors events include performances from The Secret Sisters (Hall Two) with support from Samantha Cain and in Hall Two Raul Malo performs with the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra.
On Saturday Sarah Jarosz appears in Hall Two in an afternoon performance indoors, whilst Abigail Washburn plays Hall Two for the evening. Hall One’s evening performance features the Soul Queen of New Orleans Irma Thomas with her Soul Rebels Brass Band.
Sundays performances include sets from Chris Scruggs, son of Gail Davies, and in Hall Two an evening performance from Chuck Prophet and The Spanish Bombs.
Hall One’s final performance on Sunday concludes with singer/songwriter and actor Lyle Lovett who will perform with his Acoustic Group, this is his only British appearance. Sarah Jarosz appears again as support.
All outside events are free, and tickets for the indoor shows can be obtained from the box office by calling 0191 443 4661. Further information can be obtained by logging on to www.thesagegateshead.org.
All in all it is a musical feast not to be missed with all musical tastes catered for.
On this weeks’American Connection’ show I’ll be playing tracks from headlining artists.