ShenandoahAmusements

Kathy Mattea, the beloved singer of such classics as “18 Wheels and A Dozen Roses,” and many other hits will open the 46th summer season of the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival in Orkney Springs, Va., on Friday, July 18 at 8 p.m .

The appearance at the Festival is part of her tour to promote her newest CD, “Coal.” The recording is gathering rave reviews from across the nation. USA Today says that Ms. Mattea “remains one of Nashville’s most spiritual singers” and the songs are “as fine as any she has recorded.” The new record should put Ms. Mattea back on more people’s radar, the Chicago Tribune says: “...she always was more of a literate folkie than mainstream country queen.” The new record “is an acoustic beauty.”

The concert is made possible in part by a grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Tickets are $33 reserved pavilion and $28 general admission lawn.

The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Ensemble will pay tribute to the man whose smooth alto sax sound was the signature of the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival on Saturday, July 19 at 8 p.m.

This year marks the centennial of Johnny Hodges, the saxophone player who, according to Duke Ellington, “had a tone so beautiful it brought tears to the eyes.” Big band leader Benny Goodman called Hodges “the greatest man on alto sax I’ve ever heard.”

The music is historic but the Ensemble’s performance of it also swings! It’s lost none of its jump. The Festival’s dance floor, adjacent to the pavilion, will be open for all those who want to dance the night away.

Tickets for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Ensemble concert at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festiva1 are $20, reserved pavilion and general admission lawn.

A symphonic dance mix with a foreign flair highlights the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra’s classical concert on July 26 at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival.

The orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Paul Gambill will play a few familiar favorites and some lesser known pieces, including music from France, Hungary and Argentina. The evening will include Astor Piazzolla’s Concerto for Bandoneon, with Argentine master Raul Jaurena on the traditional instrument that gives the tango its characteristic sound. The evening will also include Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta and Debussy’s famous “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.”

Ticket prices are $35 Preferred Pavilion, $30 Regular Pavilion, and $25 lawn.

Edwin McCain, a mainstay of the American roots rock scene and the author of some of America’s most popular tunes of the past 10 years will make his first appearance at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival in Orkney Springs, Va. with his acoustic trio on Friday, August 8.

With such hits as “I’ll Be,” “I Could Not Ask for More” and “Solitude,” he has sold over two million albums in the U.S. “Edwin McCain knows how to deliver a tune. His aching tenor works best when served up raw, brimming with unfiltered emotion,” the music publication Paste Magazine said.

Tickets for the Edwin McCain concert at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival are $25 reserved pavilion and $20 general admission lawn.

The bluegrass music legend Ricky Skaggs, with his band Kentucky Thunder, will appear at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival in Orkney Springs, Va., on Saturday, August 9 .

No amount of superlatives does justice to the nearly 40-year career of Ricky Skaggs. By age 21, he was already considered a “recognized master” of one of America’s most demanding art forms, but his career took him in other directions, catapulting him to popularity and success in the mainstream of country music. Now the road has brought him back to where it all began—bluegrass music.

His most recent release, “Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: A Tribute to 1946 and 1947” was his fourth consecutive album to debut at the top of the Billboard bluegrass chart. The magazine praised the disc as “nothing short of brilliant.”

The release of “Honoring the Fathers” has been met with critical raves. USA Today said Skaggs and his ace pickers, Kentucky Thunder “set the modern standard” for bluegrass. The New York Times said of the disc “there is an unmistakable integrity to his effort here... its subject, like its execution, comes across as admirably vivid.” The Associated Press said the album is “A proper balance between reverent tribute and good fun.”

Tickets for the Ricky Skaggs concert at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival are $40 reserved pavilion and $35 general admission lawn.

One of them is named Eddie, but he’s not from Ohio! Eddie From Ohio, the alternative folk group with “tight, four-part harmonies and compelling folk-pop rhythms,” (The Washington Post) will play at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival on Saturday, August 30 at 7 p.m .

Too energetic to be labeled just “folk” and not angry enough to be pegged “alternative” Eddie From Ohio continues to defy description with their unique blend of vocals and acoustic instrumentation.

The group got its start in the early nineties, when three JMU grads teamed with a Virginia Tech singer and started playing covers in neighborhood bars across the state. They soon “graduated” to a successful recording career, festivals, theatres and performing arts centers from coast to coast.

Tickets for Eddie From Ohio are $25 in the reserved pavilion and $20 on the general admission lawn.