The cornfields will be filled with the sound of music this weekend when about 50 bands and 400 volunteers combine their efforts in the annual Freedom Fest, a Christian rock festival on a Snohomish farm.
Bands performing on two stages include Skillet, Seventh Day Slumber, Pillar, The Classic Crime and The Afters.
Skillet was nominated for a Grammy for the single “Savior” and has won fans with a blend of classic rock riffs, a pop side, some piano and strings in their originals, and a long list of song topics.
Award-winning Pillar, a major player in the rock/metal community, brings music from “The Reckoning,” which adds some punk attitude to the festival. Another headliner is Classic Crime and the hopeful music from their album “Albatross.”
Inspirational speakers, a children’s stage, vendors, an artists’ tent and a 50-foot tagging-graffiti wall are also part of the mix.
Fresh Paint: The Arts Council of Snohomish County sponsors two bands during its weekend festival. Afro-Cuban percussionist Arturo Rodriguez and traditional blues rockers B.D. and the Rockits will perform. Rodriguez crosses the musical boundaries of jazz, pop, rock and folk music; blues-based rock is at the foundation of B.D. and the Rockits.
Second Edition: Founded in the 1980s by three ex-New Christy Minstrels musicians, the band continues the folk music tradition. Co-founder Paul “Buck” Stierle still performs with classics from the ’50s and ’60s and other hits. If you liked “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “Jet Plane,” “Green Green” or “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” this concert’s for you.
Hot Club Sandwich: The high-energy band came out of Seattle’s gypsy jazz scene, thriving on mandolin, violin, guitar and upright bass and classic string songs from the 1930s and ’40s.
African All Stars: The final concert in the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park summer concert series highlights the diversity of African music. Five band leaders who have toured internationally have settled in Seattle and formed this hot dance band while representing music from their four African nations and beyond.
Campbell Road: The quartet performs original arrangements of traditional Irish and Scottish music with mostly traditional instruments. The family band has gone under the name Campbell Road since 1997.
Miles from Chicago: The dance band is the finale in Marysville’s Sounds of Summer concert series. It turns out an eclectic mix of R&B, swing, rock, soul and blues classics with an upbeat attitude. The lead vocalist is Mark (Miles) Bushbeck, originally from Chicago, who has fronted the band for several years.
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra: SRJO may be the Northwest’s premier big-band jazz ensemble, which will perform a tribute to Miles Davis’ “Birth of the Cool.” The music combines the dissonant elements of bebop (without the edginess) with big-band swing plus some of the techniques of orchestration and classical counterpoint.
Out and about: Country star Clay Walker performs Saturday, Northwest Washington Fair, Lynden … Handful of Luvin’ performs high-energy folk-rock, 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Port Gardner Landing, Everett.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Pillar
Clay Walker
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
Skillet
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