Rock

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.

Additions: .moe, The Infamous Stringdusters, Crooked Still, Jessica Kilroy and Benny Galloway, Pete Kartsounes, Crunchy Western Boys

Comment: Joining compatriots and host band Yonder Mountain String Band, .moe gives the Pacific North jamgrass festival another marquee jam name that will draw fans from near and far. Plus, The Infamous Stringdusters and Crooked Still give the festival two of the top progressive bluegrass acts going, three counting Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, a standby at the festival. Another previously announced standby is Danny Barnes, who leads the festival's traditional Super Jam, which will be a hoot as usual with all the above acts plus more artists to be named. Of course, Yonder closes all three nights as usual.

The producer of one of the most prominent city music festivals, Milwaukee's Summerfest, has put skin on the bones of its previously announced plan to launch an alternative rock festival for June 4-5 on the Summerfest grounds.

Milwaukee World Festival Inc. announced that festival now has a name, Verge Music Festival, a preliminary website, and an initial lineup headed by indie favorite Weezer.

The move gives fans from around the Lake Michigan area an alternative (or a complement) to Chicago's massive Lollapalooza and helps to fill a gap left by the demise of Rothbury across the lake. It also gives Milwaukee World a brand extension for Summerfest, which it claims is the "world's largest music festival and which opens three weeks later on June 24.

The festival will feature three stages of music along with action sports, shopping and other attractions.

Besides Weezer, the initial lineup includes notable acts Three Days Grace, AFI, She & HIm, Rogue Wave, The Raveonettes, Cold War Kids, Eagles of Death Metal and Crash Kings.

Thumbnail for home page: 

Widespread Panic and The Black Crowes top the second batch of acts named for the 20th anniversary High Sierra Music Festival, joining The Avett Brothers as a powerful headlining threesome. Other notable new names are The Radiators, The Mother Hips, Lotus, and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros. Among lesser known new acts, jazz-funk fans will have a chance to catch the Coryell, Auger, Sample Trio, a configuration of second-generation musicians (yes, that Coryell) making a name for themselves.

See our High Sierra Music Festival page for interactive links to all the acts, or visit the festival website for ticket information and details.

Harvest of Hope Fest, the spring fest extravaganza of underground alternative, punk, indie, rock, and hip-hop, has its final lineup and schedule set. Since the initial blast, the major new names are Broken Social Scene, 7 Seconds, Bear in Heaven, Charli 2na (of Jurrasic 5) and Glint.

Other new adds are Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets, Avi Buffalo, Ben Davis & the Jett$, Broadway Calls, Crime in Stereo, David Rovics, Gringo Star, Holopaw, Japanther, Kid Sister, Matt Pond P.A., Mucca Pazza, Port O'Brien, Shawn Fisher and the JG's, ShellShag, Staring Daggers, Supervillians, The Blacklist Royals, The Riot Before, This Bike is a Pipebomb, Weatherbox, Yelawolf.

The festival runs March 12-14 at St. Johns County Fairgrounds in St. Augustine FL. Besides the non-stop music, attendees can enjoy on-site camping, beer garden, carnival rides, games and more. The festival supports  The Harvest of Hope Foundation, which provides services for migrant farm workers.

The full outlines of Pitchfork 2010 are beginning to shape up with a dozen new names added to the 11 already named. The most prominent additions are Toronto indie rockers Broken Social Scene; Panda Bear, the solo project by Animal Collective member Noah Lennox; veteran punk blues band The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; and underground hip-hop artist El-P.

Also newly named were Titus Andronicus, Bear in Heaven, The Smith Westerns, Dàm-Funk, Girls, CAVE and Allá. They join previously announced Pavement, Modest Mouse, LCD Soundsystem, St. Vincent and more for the influential Chicago indie festival, which runs July 16-18 in the city's Union Park.

Visit FP's Pitchfork page for artist breakouts and the festival webpage for all the details. Three day passes are already sold out, so don't hesitate to get single-day tickets if you plan to go.

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.

Thumbnail for home page: