R & B

Earthdance Northern California announced its 2010 festival running Sept. 17-19 will be its last year at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville CA, after which it will move to a larger venue. Early bird ticketing opened for an allocation of 500 tickets at the discount price of $140. The festival plans a "grand farewell" to the grounds that have hosted the event for eight seasons.

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Ravinia Festival, the Chicago area concert series that claims to be America's longest running music festival, announced its popular music schedule, supplementing the previously released Chicago Symphony Orchestra repertory season schedule.

The most in-demand tickets could be for two performances by Sting backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra as well as shows by Crosby, Stills & Nash, Sheryl Crow, and Carrie Underwood.

But there are a huge number of major stars in every popular music genre, including Backstreet Boys, Big Head Todd And The Monsters, Bobby McFerrin, Buddy Guy, Cheap Trick, Colbie Caillat, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Earth, Wind & Fire, Garrison Keillor, George Benson, Jethro Tull, John Hiatt & The Combo, Nancy Wilson, Nelly Furtado, Peter and Paul, Poi Dog Pondering, Procol Harum, Sheryl Crow, Soulive, Squeeze, Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, The B-52s, The Beach Boys, The Bodeans, The Cat Empire, The Four Tops, The Levon Helm Band, The Moody Blues, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, The Swell Season, The Temptations, Train, and Vince Gill.

Doheny Blues Festival added blues organ legend Booker T. Jones and four others to its 2010 lineup, bolstering a bill headed by Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Black Crowes for the May 22-23 event at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point CA.

Booker T. took home his first Grammy Award as a solo artist last month, winning the trophy for best pop instrumental album for his 2009 release Potato Hole, which he recorded with the Drive-By Truckers. The artist is best known for his decades of work with his former band The MGs.

He appeared at numerous festivals in 2009 with the DBTs, but is booked at fewer festivals in 2010 with solo billing. At Doheny, he'll be a featured act on Sunday, May 23, playing before Crosby, Stills & Nash close out the festival.

Also named for the upcoming festival are long-time blues-rock favorites The Fabulous Thunderbirds, acoustic blues guitarist Otis Taylor, Euro bluesman Igor Prado with Lynwood Slim and New Orleans funksters Big Sam's Funky Nation.  

Headliners: Mary J. Blige, John Legend

Notables: Robin Thicke, Teena Marie, Joe Sample, Boyz II Men, Cassandra Wilson, David Sanborn

Comment: Only in its fifth year, Miami's Jazz in the Gardens has followed the model of Jazz-Aspen or Jazz + Sonoma in programming for a well-heeled corporate audience with two nights of big-name light jazz and R&B performers. It runs March 20-21 at Sun Life Stadium (formerly Dolphins Stadium) in Miami.

Among the most prominent city festivals—which we define as supersized, cross-genre affairs that celebrate the cultural experience of the locality in which they are based—New Orleans has Jazzfest, Seattle has Bumbershoot and Milwaukee has Summerfest.

Coming up in the ranks in this category in recent years, Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis TN (which is part of the bigger Memphis In May celebration) now makes its claim to counted among the biggest and best city fests in the country. And more than many of those cities (New Orleans excepted), Memphis boasts a proud history as a music city that was a birthplace of "the blues."

After a fair amount of rumor-mongering, the lineup for the April 30-May 2 event, which takes place in the city's Mississippi riverfront Tom Lee Park, was announced yesterday, and it would be hard to say anyone could be disappointed by the caliber and mix of artists.

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Kelly Clarkson, The Bangles, The Go-Go’s, Courtyard Hounds (Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks), Martina McBride, Suzanne Vega, Anjulie, Anya Marina, Jesca Hoop, Kate Miller-Heidke, Lucy Schwartz, Miranda Lee Richards, Nikki Jean and The Rescues

The returning Lilith Tour, already boasting an eye-popping, genre-busting lineup of top female artists, added a bakers dozen new acts, including some major names.

Kelly Clarkson, The Bangles, The Go-Gos, Martina McBride, Suzanne Vega and the newly formed Court Yard Hounds with Dixie Chicks sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire top the second round list.

Also named wer Anjulie, Anya Marina, Jesca Hoop, Kate Miller-Heidke, Lucy Schwartz, Miranda Lee Richards and Nikki Jean and The Rescues.

The total lineup now numbers 63 and includes other star names like tour founder Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, Miranda Lambert, Colbie Caillat, Ke$ha, Emmylou Harris, Sugarland and Sara Bareilles.

With all the attention paid to the big national festivals, some events that are local institutions seem to fly under the radar on the national scene.

SunFest in West Palm Beach FL is such a case. The festival has run since 1982 on the waterfront in the South Florida city, bringing in top name entertainment and more than 275,000 attendees to what is billed as "Florida's largest music, art and waterfront festival." Yet it gets relatively little attention outside its region and among spring-season vacationers.

Its lineups are consistently strong and diverse, but the 2010 list announced today is especially impressive, with top names in alternative rock, classic rock, country, R&B, hip-hop and reggae, among other categories. Maybe it is that very diversity that causes it to be overlooked, with strong entries but no critical mass in any one category.