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PrintSummer Sizzle
Teton summers wave in music as visiting artists and local acts alight on venues all around the valley. A quartet of local music promoters are responsible for many of the summer shows staged on both sides of the Tetons.
Don Kushner
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Don Kushner, Center for the Arts
For the Center for the Arts’ Center Presents series, Don Kushner aims to reach a broad spectrum of genres—a goal he has achieved this summer by booking bands of all stripes, from bluegrass to jazz, funk to folk.
Center Presents begins on a high note with An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt on June 15. Other headliners include Steve Martin picking his banjo with The Steep Canyon Rangers on July 24, and Jonny Lang with JJ Grey and Mofro on August 16. The summer sweep ends with Punch Brothers—a “modern classical” bluegrass band featuring mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile—on August 31.
Amidst the touring stars, the season peppers in local acts like the Hootenanny on July 18.
Kushner tries to nab bands that are already in the “neighborhood,” a region bound east to west by Denver and Boise and north to south by Bozeman and Salt Lake City. As such, many of the artists are stopping in Jackson while touring with new material, like Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, who just released a joint album, “Rare Bird Alert.” Amos Lee is cruising through August 9 with his new release, “Mission Bell.”
Center Presents continues well into 2012 with: the frontier-meets-machine fantasia of Cirque Mechanics’ Boom Town; Grammy-award-winning The Klezmatics; saxophone great Maceo Parker; the JH Showcase – a celebration of local creativity; and Rockapella with its a cappella hip-hop.
For a full schedule and to buy tickets, visit www.jhcenterforthearts.org.
