The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page F012

F12 Thursday, September 19, 2013 F12 The Beacon Journal September 19, 2013 Enjoy.ohio.com Kent music festival is boasting new name and broader focus By Malcolm Abram Beacon Journal popular culture writer The Kent State Folk Festival, an annual event since the 1960s is dead. Long live the Kent Stage Town Music Festival. Yes, the venerated Kent State Folk Festival has rebranded, giving itself a new name and a broader musical focus as acts in a variety of genres from reggae to blues to jazz to rock and of course folk will fill various venues around Kent tonight- Sunday with the sounds of music. The festival, presented by WKSU (89.7-FM) and Kent State University has essentially adapted the format traditionally used on the final Friday of the four-day festival where several concerts are spread throughout Kent venues and on Kent campus. many years, Town Fridays have set the tone for the rest of the folk said WKSU Executive Director Dan Skinner in a news release.

performances broadened the definition of folk to embrace other genres like jazz, Americana and blues that have roots music at their core. is a celebration of sounds and we want everyone to join in the The event will kick off with a free concert on the new Student Green at the heart of Kent State featuring popular L.A.-based indie-folk rock band Dawes and special guests Good Old War and Liz Frame and the Kickers. On more than three-dozen venues will be home to live music featuring area bands such as the Fez Monkeys at Bar 145, local legends 15 60 75 The Numbers Band at the Venice Cafe, Ashley Brooke Toussant at the Bistro on Main, and jazz Phat Man Dee the Cultural District at the Empire. Go to kentstateroundtown.org for the full schedule of acts and venues. The lineup for the festival is: 5 tonight Dawes and Good Old War with Liz Frame and the Kickers and others on the Student Green.

Free. Various times Friday Free concerts at 36 venues throughout Kent. 8 p.m. Friday Pure Prairie League and Poco at the Kent Stage, 175 E. Main St.

$35. Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday Free workshops at various venues. 8 p.m. Saturday Black Prairie with Ashleigh Flynn at the Kent Stage.

$24. 7 p.m. Sunday Legends Night at the Kent Stage featuring Leon Redbone with Brewer Shipley and guest emcee Alex Bevan. $35. Tickets are available at www.the kentstage.

com. Call 330-677-5005 for information. Malcolm Abram can be reached at thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online at www.ohio.com/ or follow him on Twitter malcolmxabram. Acts in variety of genres will fill different venues in Kent starting today like Elf where he performed the standard holiday duet Baby, Cold Outside with Zooey Deschanel, and he has made cameos on Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street.

His deep baritone voice has been heard in commercials hawking beer and dog food. Yet Redbone has built a career on his own terms. He looks to the gentle and unadulterated songs of the past for inspiration, in an era when loud and often overproduced music dominates the airwaves. He prefers touring to recording, having released only 11 studio albums over the course of his career, the most recent more than a decade ago. Appearing before an audience me to actually remember songs, which is always a good he said.

an intensely private figure in the public eye, reluctant to discuss matters that directly relate to his music, leading to much conjecture about his nonmusical life. Asked about the funniest or most ridiculous rumor heard about himself, Redbone said that about everything is ridiculous or preposterous, from my What Redbone is most comfortable talking about is music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that inspires him: Portuguese and Italian operas, and the music of Eide Norena, a Norwegian soprano from the 1920s and who toured the Midwest. Redbone says he finds plenty of sentiment in these pieces. it is, a moment in that song that expresses something that you quite know what it is, but the expression is there and it captivates the listener to continue to try to delve into why does this sound so own method for reaching audiences involves some trial and error. He rehearse his songs exhaustively; rather, he presents songs, and leaves it to his listeners to find any sentiment in them.

introducing people to stories that they would otherwise probably not have heard. The main thing is to satisfy yourself and to find some things that you like and see if something that you could actually perform and present to an audience, if it seems like a good Redbone said. members maybe play it themselves or like it. all you can really hope Redbone Continued from Page F11.