Gregg Allman, Bettye LaVette headline Flood City festival
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Gregg Allman, shown, and Bettye LaVette are among the musical acts at the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival.
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Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears are playing a free show at South Park on Friday, but you can also find the Austin, Texas, blues band in Johnstown this weekend with a whole lot more around it -- like Gregg Allman and Bettye LaVette.
They're all part of the three-day AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival in Johnstown.
Mr. Allman, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, arrives in good form, having rebounded from a liver transplant to release "Low Country Blues," his seventh solo recording and first in more than 13 years. With T Bone Burnett applying his swampy production, it's one of his most acclaimed solo efforts.
Ms. LaVette's career goes back even further, as she first hit the R&B charts in 1962 with "My Man -- He's a Lovin' Man." Her career never quite took off back then, but she has remained on the radar of old-school soul collectors, and in 2004 she won the W.C. Handy Award for Comeback Blues Artist of the Year for her album "A Woman Like Me." Last year, she released "The British Rock Songbook," featuring her take on classics by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Pink Floyd and more. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
JJ Grey & Mofro, from Jacksonville, Fla., comes with what Billboard has described as a "world-beating blend of Southern rock, blues and Florida swamp soul."
Also joining the bill are Project/Object featuring Ike Willis & Ray White, specializing in the Frank Zappa catalog; Cajun roots-rockers Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience; Cajun blues guitarist Tab Benoit; rockabilly band Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun; and Pittsburgh funksters TheBoogie Hustlers.
Last year, Flood City drew 10,500 people, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, according to marketing director Shelley Johansson. The space for the festival, Peoples Natural Gas Park, has been a work in progress, and next year, she says, it will be equipped with a 600-seat covered pavilion to hold concerts throughout the season.
First Published August 4, 2011 12:00 am
