Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • D4

4D WWW.FREEP.COM THURSDAY, PLAY MUSIC Michigan Philharmonic summer concert: Music 7:30 p.m. Kensington Metropark, 2240 W. Buno, Milford. michiganphil.org. Free.

by Brendel Hightower Classical music event Most tickets available at www www.livenation www.ticketweb.com. Additional charges might apply. THURSDAY Will Downing: With Avery Sunshine, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10, MotorCity Casino Hotel, FRIDAY Shreya Ghoshal: 8 p.m.

Aug. 25, Fox Theatre, Run-DMC: 8 p.m. Aug. 27, Chene Park, $TBA. Frankie Ballard: 9 p.m.

Sept. 7, Saint Hall, $TBA. J. Roddy Walston the Business: 7p.m. Sept.

10, Saint Hall, $TBA. Riff Fest 2017: With Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch and more, 1:30 p.m. Sept. 29, DTE Energy Music Theatre, Mike Gordon: 8:30 p.m. Oct.

1, Saint Hall, $TBA. Paul Cauthen: 8:30 p.m. Oct. 4, The Shelter, $TBA. The Church: 7 p.m.

Oct. 5, Magic Stick, The National: 7 p.m. Oct. 8, Masonic Temple, Tori Amos: 7:30 p.m. Oct.

31, Michigan Theater, The Breeders: 7 p.m. Nov. 1, Magic Stick, $25. Ibeyi: 7 p.m. Nov.

9, Magic Stick, Echosmith: 7 p.m. Nov. 14, Majestic Theatre, Jay-Z: Nov. 18, Little Caesars Arena, Nick Offerman: 8 p.m. Dec.

9, the Fillmore Detroit, The Infamous Stringdusters: 8p.m. Nov. 14, Saint Hall, $TBA. Rick Springfield: 8 p.m. Dec.

29, MotorCity Casino Hotel, by Brendel Hightower Tickets on sale Tents, food trucks and a pop-up biergarten will take over Ferndale this weekend for the Pig Whiskey fest, but more to the event than booze and barbecue. also a three-day showcase for local music. Thirty regional acts will be lining up to perform this weekend, either outdoors between the W.A.B. (Woodward Avenue Brewers) and the Emory (on Troy Street) or later at afterpartiesat the nearby Loving Touch. The two high-energy headliners are the Electric Six, the always well-received hell raisers of electro-rock and dance-metal, and Laith Al- Saadi, the blues troubadour who won national attention as afinalist last year on Pig Whiskey was launched in 2010 just as food trucks were catching on locally.

This menu includes barbecue from 18 local restaurants, including Rock Roll BBQ and Slows Bar BQ in Detroit. On tap: a dozen local breweries, including like and B. Nektar, and more than 70 distilleries offering multiple varieties of whiskey. The free, all-ages fun will start at 6 p.m. Friday as Pig Whiskey kicks off its eighth year.

In honor of the occasion, here are eight of this top musical acts. Friday The High Strung (outdoor stage): This well-oiled machine makes power-pop anthems featuring kinetic percussion, expressive bass grooves and four-part (sometimes five-part) harmonies. impossible not to get amped up for rousing jams like You or at the Door of Self- The Erers (Loving Touch afterparty): The Erers will just run you over with volume. The tidal crash of feedback-fringed riffs and howling choruses blends the ferocity of something like metal with the brash vibes of garage rock. The group also has quite a presence.

Expect a predominantly black wardrobe, long hair, growling guitars, melodically snarled vocals, heavy drumming and some soul-shaking distortion blasting from the amps. Saturday Libby DeCamp (outdoor stage): DeCamp is a rising star in the roots, Americana and folk scene. Raised near Romeo, the 21-year-old troubadour who now calls Detroit home has an angelic voice augmented by a blend of guitars (and occasionally a banjo). It sometimes seems to belong to another era, specifically the 1930s and and the heyday of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. DeCamp is definitely an artist to watch in the year ahead.

Laith Al-Saadi (outdoor stage): Al-Saadi has a gruff, growling voice perfect for the blues, but he sweetens it when he turns his attention to soul singing. His signature guitar style can be refined and stately like Mark or intense like Jimi Al-Saadi is a crowd pleaser who made it to the final four on the 10th season of Rah the Son (Loving Touch afterparty): Rah the Son is the recording and performing moniker of Detroit pop-fusionist Rahbi Hammond, who has a voice and delivery that sometimes suggests the flow of hip-hop. Bass and drums as well as some dreamy synthesizer vibes are prevalent on his summery tracks. The background in theater augments his stage presence, and he uses it to compel audiences to dance. His funk song is a bit of a party starter.

Sunday Eleanora (outdoor stage): With baroque elements like violins and a rhythm section that suggests Eleanora brings a refreshing elegance to its rock music. The subtly dazzling guitars can break loose into some sweet shredding, but the radiant, soulful harmonies of singers Leah Woods and Julia Stephenson are the heart of the group. Earth Engine (outdoor stage): This ensemble is on a mission to aggressively renovate the possibilities of rock music with multiple guitars, bass, keyboards, harmonies and inventive arrangements. Its sound has the freeness of jazz, the esoteric textures of psychedelia and the unpredictability of prog-rock. The wild musical rides can hit the 5-, 6- or 7-minute mark, but just go with it.

These young players will guide you on a new kind of trip. Palaces (Loving Touch afterparty): Pig 2017 lineup is rich in folk, blues and Americana, but Palaces is an act for the avant-garde indie rockers in the audience. The young duo dresses its propulsive, woozy rock riffs with lots of dreamy distortion and reverb. Its performance is a must-see for lovers of thick guitar drones and layered effects. 8must-see musical performances at Pig Whiskey fest in Ferndale By Jeff Milo Special to the Detroit Free Press ERICK BUCHHOLZ Rah the Son, who performs Saturday at the Loving Touch, has a background in theater.

PIG WHISKEY 6p.m.-midnight 11 a.m.- midnight 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun. East 9 Mile East Troy Downtown Ferndale pigandwhiskeyferndale.com Free Techno? Detroit gave birth to an art form that spread worldwide. Hip-hop? New York is the birthplace of that genre. But a daily dance show that aired on WGPR-TV between 1975 and 1987, served as a midwife to both.

At its height, it was easily the hippest show on local TV. Nat Morris served as host and executive producer for most of those years. A native of North Carolina, he was initially recruited to work as a host on WGPR radio before getting into TV. Thirty years later, the show is about to hold a reunion this Saturday in Dearborn. In advance of the vent, Morris chatted the beginnings, impact and more: QUESTION: How did you get in on this? ANSWER: When I got hired (in 1972) they told me they were going be the first African-American owned television station.

But that ring a bell to me. I was only interested in radio. But sure enough, in 1975, they signed on the air. Was there a blueprint for the show? We (Morris and co-host Ray Henderson) were told: the deal. You guys are deejays.

All you have to do is go in there, play some records and let the kids No training whatsoever. They brought us into a room and put the camera in front of us. Thirty minutes. That was the total training we had. The next thing we knew, we were on.

How did you get dancers? They went to Martin Luther King High School, into the apartment buildings and projects in the area, knocking on doors, letting people know we were going to have a teenage dance show. where it came from an east-side show. I know anything about TV except what I saw on think it would be that much. At first, I want to do it. But I knew, from the word around the station, if they asked you to go on TV, you better go on or you better pack your bags.

I want to pack my bags. So I went on. What were the challenges? The TV station started tanking immediately. I know if we were using demo equipment, or used equipment or what, but we play commercials right from day one. The equipment work.

I heard that General Motors bought commercials way in advance but when it came time to play them, play They said keep the money, play the commercials, ruining our image, see ya later. There was a lot of infighting about what should be done, or what should not be done. But our show was the most popular thing on the air from day one. We had cameras, worth maybe 85-grand. But two years later, maybe less, it was time to change the tubes out.

(That was) 35- grand. We do it. So we were on the air with mismatched cameras. It was just horrible. But because they needed programming, they cancel the show out.

They just left us alone. It remain horrible forever, did it? No. I put in a proposal in 1979 to allow me to take over the show. They were talking about cutting my pay down to $5 an hour. I really making that any money to start with, but then they were going to give me two hours an hour before the show, an hour during the show, ten hours a week, ten times five.

I guess they were trying to make me quit. I said to them: me see what I can do to make it My good friend and buddy from the station, Electrifying Mojo (a legendary Detroit deejay) helped us out. He cut a new voice-over opening. That helped to lift it up a little. I changed the look from what it had been.

You were pushing for something like a Detroit version of Did you get close? It never did look like That was the goal. I pushed for a better set, but Dr. William V. Banks (the founder of the station) told me set is not the It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about. He had a lot of wisdom.

These older guys, they spoke in parables. set is not the So when that sunk, I began to look at it in those terms, to put more elements in the show, because even I was bored looking at it. I started to tweak it. And then, it really started to We had Stevie Wonder on there, the Manhattans, we had Luther Vandross, we had Teddy Pendergrass when he first broke away from Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, the Spinners. Did you make money? Never did make much money.

Would it be possible to get a show like this going again? I think it was a product of the times. You look at shows like Think You can These shows are spending a lot of money on the sets, they bring in choreographers. Our show was totally unrehearsed, totally raw. Everybody could do what they wanted to do. I just told everybody: Just show up like going out on Saturday night.

When I took it over, I started letting white kids come on. Some of the black kids were saying, are you letting these white kids come on? This is supposed to be a black show. This is our I put the word out: say anything racial, any racial slurs, going to tell you something I just noticed recently: This is 2017. I saw a stack of pictures from 1983, packed away all of these years. I had cards with their names.

Most of them, the white kids, ended in ski, cki. I know if they were Polish or what. They come from the same area. I just know they had rhythm. If you had to write the legend, what would it be? The show made a lot of things happen.

We helped establish techno. We were at the beginning of hip-hop. I thought when the show was over, it was over. But 30 years after the first episode, I asked myself: Why do I still get calls? I think the spirit is embodied in those tapes. Iwalk by and I can feel the spirit of certain people.

We captured a period of Detroit we were captured at our finest. what keeps people talking about it. People want to see themselves in their heyday. Plus, going to be celebrating my 70th birthday. I want to throw two parties.

Detroit TV dance show throws 30-year anniversary party NAT MORRIS a daily dance show, aired on WGPR-TV between 1975 and 1987. By Tim Kiska Special to the Detroit Free Press SCENE REUNION 6p.m.-midnight Sat. Ford Community Performing Arts Center 15801 Michigan Dearborn. $20 in advance. Available at www.thescenereunion.com.

NAT MORRIS Nat Morris was the host..