Tag Archives: Kentwood concerts

Lexi Adams and her Nashville sounds opens City of Kentwood’s Winter Concert Series

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, Going Local, Kids Activities, Local Business, Local Entertainment, Recreation, Upcoming Events, WKTV Projects, ,
Lexi Adams. (Supplied by the artist)

By WKTV Staff

Lexi Adams, who will open the City of Kentwood’s free-to-the-public Winter Concert Series this week, is a singer/songwriter who offers up a mix of covers and original music that are “stories of life experience carefully crafted through each melody and lyric.”

The concert, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 17, will take place at the Community Room of Kent District Library – Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch, 4950 Breton Ave. SE, from 6:30-8 p.m. Guests are welcomed to bring their own beer, wine or nonalcoholic beverages to enjoy at the show.

Each concert will also have a food truck outside offering a range of cuisines and available for purchase, with Patty Matters Food Truck available on Feb. 17.

Michigan home but Nashville bound

Originally from southwest Michigan Lexi moved to Nashville Tennessee in 2008 to “pursue her love and passion for music,” according to her website. She moved back to Michigan with the intent of taking three months to immerse herself in her newly recorded EP but “she received many opportunities to play her music in the west Michigan area and that hasn’t stopped since.”

Lexi Adams. (Supplied by the artist)

Three months turned into 12, and she continues to pursue her love and passion for music in the local Michigan music scene. And while she hopes to eventually return back to the Nashville — “the city that stole her heart” — for the meantime, “Michigan is where it’s at!”

Lexi Adams’ sound, according to her website, “is Ryan Adams on a cool summer night, smoking cigarettes while leaning in for a kiss with Taylor Swift. It will leave you hurting and longing for more; wishing you had said what you really wanted to say to the love of your life before they walked away.”

For more information on Lexi Adams, visit her website here.

Can’t be there? WKTV will be 

WKTV will record all concerts and will replay them, as scheduled, on our cable channels as well as on WKTV.org by hitting the “Watch Live” button, and also later on-demand at WKTVlive.org.

Tentative run time for Lexi Adams’s concert will be The concerts will air on WKTV 25 Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 9 p.m.; and  Saturday, Feb. 26, at 10 p.m. Visit wktvjournal.org/wktv-on-air-schedule/ for a schedule of replays.

More information is available at kentwood.us/WinterConcerts. Also, according to a city announcement, “residents are encouraged to follow current public health guidelines to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Want music for New Year’s Eve in-home party? WKTV has an evening of concerts for you

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, Holidays, Local Entertainment, Recreation, Upcoming Events, WKTV Projects, ,
The Soul Syndicate. (Supplied by the band)

By WKTV Staff

ken@wktv.org

Staying in this New Year’s Eve — for whatever reason you care to choose — and not into college football bowl games? Want to catch some great music concerts? WKTV will replay its entire 2021 Kentwood Summer Concert Series to ring in the New Year.

Starting at 5 p.m. and running until after midnight, WKTV Community Media’s Community cable channel will rebroadcast five concerts leading off with Bootstrap Boys and running through the stroke of the New Year with The Soul Syndicate.

The schedule is: 

5 p.m. — Bootstrap Boys

6:30 p.m. — Benzing Graves

8 p.m. — Dalmatian Stone

9:30 p.m. — David Gerald Band

11 p.m. — The Soul Syndicate

Don’t know some of the bands? WKTV produced previews of each (follow the links to the stories).

WKTV broadcasts on Wyoming and Kentwood cable channels. Comcast cable, Channel 25 is the Community Channel, where sports events and other community events are shown. WKTV can also be found on AT&T U-verse 99.

For complete schedules of programs on WKTV channels, see our Weekly On-air Schedule.

David Gerald, and his ‘Power Trio’, set to bring Detroit power sounds to Kentwood summer concerts

3-bottom, Beer, City of Kentwood, Going Local, Kids Activities, Local Entertainment, Recreation, Upcoming Events, WKTV Projects, ,
David Gerald (Courtesy of David Gerald)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

It is no coincidence that guitarist and vocalist David Gerald likes to call his tight, taught guitar-bass-drum group a “Power Trio” — seeing him on video, hearing him on vinyl, tells you he knows that his hometown Detroit blues, R&B and rock sound is all about bringing the power to the stage.

Which, we can assume, he and his trio will do, Thursday, July 29, as they visit the outdoor Kentwood Summer Concert free series for a 7 p.m. gig.

Gerald also knows all about the blues, coming from a family that lived it, and grabbing the power, from a father who grabbed it.

Gerald is the son of rural Mississippi born and raised parents, and while he was born in Detroit, the youngest of 11 children, six of his siblings were born and partly raised in Mississippi.

David Gerald. (Courtesy of David Gerald)

“Because segregation and racial discrimination were so bad in Mississippi at the time, my dad moved the family north to Detroit when he was 33, so we’d have a better chance at the American dream,” Gerald said in supplied material.

And Gerald’s version of the American Dream is playing his beloved Detroit-sound music — what he calls “blues-infused rock and soul hybrid” — with his lead guitar a central figure since he first pickup one up at age 14.

“I was lucky enough to have a neighbor who was a guitarist and gave me scrap guitars. I would piece them together and build ‘Frankenstein’ guitars,” Gerald said. “They were horrible to play and sounded bad, but I had to play music. It was and is my destiny. I finally scraped up enough money to buy an old amp and I was happy.”

After cutting his teeth and honing his guitar skills in the 1980s, he says he began to explore the music of blues guitar heavyweights like Albert King, ZZ Hill, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan — and his sound “evolved and expanded to where it is today.”

His 2009 debut CD, “Hell And Back,” reached #1 on Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart for Michigan based artists and remained in the top 20 for many weeks in a row. His newest album, “N2U”, was released in April 2018.

“N2U” had “been a long time coming,” he said. “I put together these songs for myself, my friends and supporters. It’s all about new thoughts, new experiences and deeply felt emotions. I hope everyone who listens can find something that touches them. Something they can relate to.”

For more information on the David Gerald Band, visit davidgerald.com.

The Kentwood Summer Concert Series has two more Thursday night dates: The Accidentals on Aug. 5 and a rescheduled night with The Soul Syndicate on Aug. 19.

Concerts will be livestreamed by WKTV for those who would prefer to enjoy the performances from home.

Before the music starts, get a little treat at Kentwood Farmers Market. (WKTV/K/D. Norris)

All concerts will begin at 7 p.m., and conclude around 8:30 p.m., on the lawn behind Kentwood City Hall, 4900 Breton Ave. SE. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring a blanket or chair. Each concert will feature food trucks, which will have food and beverages available for purchase. Guests may also bring their own food and beer or wine.

All are also invited to visit the Kentwood Farmers Market, which overlaps with the concert schedule as the market will take place 4:30-7:30 p.m. each Thursday in front of the Kent District Library – Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch, 4950 Breton Ave. SE.

More information is available at kentwood.us/SummerConcertSeries.

No ‘Accidental’ plan to get through pandemic hibernation — West Michigan band makes new music, longs for the road

City of Kentwood, Entertainment, Local Entertainment, Upcoming Events, WKTV Projects, ,
The Accidentals — Savannah “Sav” Buist, Katie Larson and Michael Dause — in a remote April 2021 interview with WKTV. (WKTV)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

If The Accidentals plan works the way they envision, Katie, Sav and Michael will be playing music off their just-dropped release, “TIME OUT (Session 1)”, live and in front of an audience in Kentwood and elsewhere this fall — that is, after all, where they felt most at home before the pandemic hit the fan(s) and the bands.

It is not that their 2020 was a complete loss, as they made clear during a late April interview with WKTV‚ where they debuted a live cut of “Might As Well Be Gold”, a song co-written with Maia Sharp.

The Accidentals in private concert. (Special for WKTV)

“Might As Well Be Gold” is included on the “TIME OUT (Session 1), which was released May 7, a collection of songs which includes the single “Wildfire”, co-written by Kim Richey  — who has worked with the likes ofTrisha Yearwood, Radney Foster, Brooks & Dunn — and which is getting The Accidentals a fair amount of national notice and airplay.

The appropriately named “TIME OUT” EP was, in fact, written during quarantine over Zooms with Richey and other legendary songwriters including Tom Paxton, Dar Williams and Mary Gauthier and more. And they found their pandemic hibernation led them to a new, maybe more introspective, way of writing music.

“We found things that work for us and found things that didn’t work for us,” said Savannah “Sav” Buist, who along with Katie Larson and Michael Dause, make up The Accidentals. “But I think it was just nice to have the time … We tired so consistently that when we come home Katie and I just tend to spit out songs within a week and then not really look back. It was nice to look back … This year I learned to take my time, to come back to a song.”

The Accidentals (Supplied/Courtesy Aryn Madigan)

The Traverse City based power pop trio with a soft, classical heart talked with WKTV about coming home from Nashville when things went south due to the pandemic, about writing music via Zoom, and how a “ping pong” of musical ideas bouncing back and forth helped keep them stay sane and productive during the long, quiet months.

The also talked about the anticipation of getting back on the road after years of playing something like 200 shows a year at festivals such as the Rocky Mountain Folk Fest, Summerfest, SXSW, and Electric Forest, and well as sharing the same stage with the likes of Brandi Carlile, Joan Baez, Andrew Bird, and The Decemberists.

For more information on The Accidentals and their new release, visit theaccidentalsmusic.com.