San Francisco’s Summer Of Love Legends Headline Benefit for New Orleans Musicians Clinic July 4th Weekend
$30.00 Advance - $40.00 Day Of Show
GATES OPEN AT 5PM - SHOWTIME AT 5:30PM
TO PURCHASE TICKETS CLICK HERE or ON POSTER ABOVE
Tickets may also be purchased at “select” branches of Whitney Bank and H&R Block in the Greater New Orleans area.
- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Trey Merrill
Tel (985) 789-0001 Fax (985) 727-0084
Email: treymerrillpresents@gmail.com
[New Orleans – June 9, 2008] From the Golden Gate Bridge to Lake Pontchartrain, billed as the Summer Of Love’s 40th Anniversary, San Francisco’s most legendary performers from the Woodstock era are set to descend upon Mandeville, a small and historic community just north of New Orleans over the 4th of July weekend.
The concert, also a salute to the New Orleans Pop Festival of1969, headlines Jefferson Starship, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and It’s a Beautiful Day along with the JJ Muggler Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd vocalist Jo Jo Billingsley – in a benefit concert for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, Friends of the Dew Drop Inn and other local charities.
Event co-producer Trey Merrill said the original San Francisco Summer of Love took place in 1967, which would technically make it the 41st anniversary of the inaugural event. Most of these artists also appeared at the1969 New Orleans Pop Festival, making it the 39th anniversary of our Summer of Love. “Things were hazy back then,” Merrill joked, “When one summer of love left off, another one picked up.”
The 2008 Summer of Love concert ushers in this year’s Mandeville Seafood Festival, long organized by festival director Bill Dobson. Until Merrill’s association with the festival, Seafood Fest featured a generous booking of the best of local and regional talent that brought in over 10,000 festival-goers per day and 30,000 for the July 4th fireworks display.
All that changed when the festival outgrew its lakefront venue and moved to the park. Merrill said he approached Festival Director Bill Dobson and Entertainment Coordinator Donna Varnado about bringing in national acts to benefit New Orleans musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The response was an overwhelming yes. They graciously accepted to add national acts in the name of a phenomenal cause – Louisiana’s musicians – which coincided with a benchmark of their own, the 30th anniversary of the festival.
To Merrill, known for promoting eclectic and vintage acts from Leon Russell, Karla Bonoff, Randy Travis and the Phunk Junkies, landing the Summer of Love was the thrill of a lifetime.
“As history parallels a social and political climate reminiscent to the late 1960s and 1970s, to land the Summer of Love artists and bring them to Louisiana to benefit one of this state’s greatest resources – its musicians – is history in the making,” Merrill said.
Jefferson Starship, steered by Paul Kantner, will perform works from the band’s earlier incarnation as Jefferson Airplane (Somebody To Love, White Rabbit, Wooden Ships, Volunteers) and then deliver later Jefferson Starship works. With 31 original albums under their belt, excluding compilations and reissues, festival-goers will be treated to a full Starship experience.
The music and persona of Janis Joplin will come alive when Big Brother & The Holding Company’s San Andrews, Peter Albin and David Getz introduce former Joe Cocker vocalist Kacee – who has portrayed the gutsy Joplin in the Off-Broadway production of Love Janis for the past several years. Audiences can expect classic renditions of Down On Me, Summertime, Piece Of My Heart, Bye Bye, Baby, Ball & Chain and Me & Bobby McGee.
Quintessential grandfathers of the jam band movement, Quicksilver Messenger Service, that initially served as a musical vehicle for folk singer Dino Valenti, Quicksilver has endured heartaches with the passing Dino as well as founding guitarist John Cippolina and keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. Fueled by founding members Gary Duncan and David Frieberg (also a Jefferson Starship alumni), the band will perform such songs as (Have Another Hit of) Fresh Air, Who Do You Love, What About Me, and a generous helping of tunes off of the off the Happy Trails and Shady Grove albums mixed in with a few surpirses.
It’s a Beautiful Day will mark a historical reunion when David & Linda LaFlamme reunites with guitarist and New Orleans native Billy Gregory, an original member who has not played with the band for 35 years. David LaFlamme, the violin virtuoso who’s band found fame when their hit White Bird became a staple of college and FM radio across America. Still today, the band’s signature breakout is “a breath of life on many classic rock stations,” Merrill said. Although their self-titled debut album also introduced the singles Time Is and Bombay Calling, it was their second album Marrying Maiden, with no hits, that actually sold more copies. They released four albums in their short time at the top of the charts.
Jo Jo Billingsley, former background vocalist with Lynyrd Skynyrd and now a preacher in Alabama, has just released a CD entitled I Will Obey. This Southern rocker will bring her gospel influence to the stage when she joins the JJ Muggler Band to open the evening festivities. With three albums under their belt, Southern jam band JJ Muggler, is top dog when it comes to supporting many classic and Southern rock acts of the past. In their 30-years of gigging, they have played many festivals and roadhouses across the Southeast. Their festival performance will consist of a mix of original songs and Billingsley’s selection from the Lynyrd Skynyrd repertoire.
The Mandeville Seafood Festival takes place from July 3-6, 2008.
