Saddle up cow persons. There’s plenty of live music to check out this weekend, so let’s get to it.
From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday at Lock 3 Park in Akron, funk fans can get their groove on when Con Funk Shun headlines the music at the 30th annual Akron African American Cultural Festival.
For much of its history, the festival has been known as the Lane Field Festival because it traditionally has been held at Lane Field in southwest Akron on the July 4th weekend.
However, this year, festival organizers got the bright idea to move the festival downtown and the folks at Lock 3 Park agreed.
This year’s theme is ”Fi-hankra,” a West African symbol of brotherhood, safety, security, completeness and solidarity. There will be plenty of activities, food, drink and wares from local African-American businesses as well as a health pavilion with information, screenings and testing for prostate cancer, HIV and heart disease.
Onstage, the music will be headlined by R&B/funk band Con Funk Shun, which during its heyday in the mid-1970s to early 1980s garnered four gold records and a string of hit singles that should be familiar to anyone who spent any part of the era partying in someone’s basement lit by blue (sometimes red) lights.
Con Funk Shun never had the crossover success of some other bands such as Earth, Wind and Fire, but it’s one of those bands whose songs you know but may have forgotten who recorded them.
Its hits include the horn-laden funk workouts Ffun, Chase Me, Shake and Dance With Me and Got to Be Enough as well as the ballads Love’s Train and Baby, I’m Hooked (Right Into Your Love).
Bring your dancing shoes.
Kent has the blues
If you’re looking for a lot more ”B” in your R&B, then Kent is the place to be on Friday and Saturday for the second annual Kent Blues Fest featuring 17 acts playing venues all over Kent. Most are free.
Kicking things off will be Colin Dussault’s Blues Project from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Home Savings Bank Plaza, at East Main and North Water streets. Other bands and venues include the Numbers Band from 9 p.m. to midnight Friday at Ray’s Place, 135 Franklin Ave. and the Midlife Chryslers, featuring Michael Stanley, from 9:30 to midnight Friday at the Water Street Tavern, 132 S. Water St.
For a complete schedule, go to http://www.kentbluesfest.com. At 8 p.m. Saturday, the James Cotton Blues Band and Guy Davies will play the Kent Stage as part of the festival.
Not to disparage any of the other performers on the bill, but James ”Superharp” Cotton is the real deal. The 75-year-old Mississippi native played blues harp with Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters in the 1950s (sometimes subbing for the erratic Little Walter) and toured with Janis Joplin. His resume includes playing with B.B. King, the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Todd Rundgren and Freddie King.
His 1997 album, Deep Blues, garnered him a Grammy and
he’s been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Smithsonian Institution. He’s also won numerous Handy Awards (sort of the Grammy of the blues).
Power up at Blossom
On Tuesday, the revived female empowering music festival Lilith Fair will return to Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls.
The Sarah McLachlan-led festival picked a tough economic year to bring back an all-day festival and like the Jonas Brothers, Christina Aguilera and American Idol Live, Lilith Fair has had to cancel several dates due to slow ticket sales.
Nevertheless it looks like Northeast Ohioans will still have a chance to wallow in estrogen-fueled music.
The festival has three stages — the Village, the B and the Main. The Village Stage will be populated by singer/songwriter and former Ohioan Kate Tucker, Australian-born singer/songwriter Butterfly Boucher and Malaysian singer/songwriter Zee Avi.
The B Stage will welcome (yeah, that’s right) singer/songwriter Nikki Jean and indie-soul-popster (and singer/songwriter) Anjulie.
The Main Stage will feature Serena Ryder, Sara Bareiles and 50-minute sets from the Dixie Chicks side project Court Yard Hounds (featuring sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison) and Queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige. Of course, the fair will be closed by Sarah McLachlan.
Keys to success
The Black Keys are bringing their latest headlining tour to Nautica Pavilion on Saturday. If you’ve seen them a few times before, this show should be a little different with the addition of two backup musicians to help flesh out the newer material from their Top 5-charting album, Brothers.
Speaking of brothers and Akronites making good on the national music scene, Musica in Akron will host a show by young country duo the Carter Twins.
Now these aren’t long lost nephews of June Carter Cash and neither are they the slightly better known Carter brothers, aka pop music/reality TV stars Aaron and Nick Carter. No, these Carters are Josh and Zach, a couple of 19-year-old guys born and raised in Akron trying to get their foot in the country music door.
In 2009, the twins released a single, Heart Like Memphis, that made it to No. 54 on the Hot Country Charts. They then relocated to Nashville with their family and have been working on an album, writing a gaggle of songs with pros including Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift co-writer Liz Rose and writer Tia Sillers, who won a Grammy for I Hope You Dance.
Their music is pretty slick, catchy and commercial — country pop with the kind of smooth harmonies that only close relatives can create.
And being 21st century artists, the twins have a phone number you can call to find out what’s going on with them, a la Houston rapper Mike Jones, whom no one is calling these days. The number is 615-866-6257 and I’m sure they’d like to hear words of encouragement from their hometown folk.
Riding for Hattie
Also this weekend, bikers will band and ride together for a good cause.
On Sunday, the Hattie Larlham Center for Children with Disabilities will host the 17th annual Motorcycle Ride benefit sponsored by the Greater Akron Motorcycle Foundation in cooperation with Kings Kids and Righteous Riders.
The ride will begin in Akron at the Motorcycle Club Foundation (1540 Smith Road), make a stop at Carlton Harley Davidson (a sponsor) in Mantua and end at the Center also in Mantua.
Those who make the trip will be rewarded with a few hours of music by the Memphis Band, a local R&B group from the 1980s that recently reunited after the loss of founding member and drummer Bill Skinner.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.