Week II: Greensky Bluegrass, Sublime with Rome, Gavin DeGraw, Phillip Phillips, Spokane Symphony close Festival at Sandpoint
Yes, weekend one of the Festival at Sandpoint has just begun, but it’s not too early to start looking ahead to weekend two.
On Thursday, Greensky Bluegrass (7 p.m., $39.95) will kick off the second weekend of the festival. (See related story.)
On Aug. 10, Sublime with Rome (7:30 p.m., $64.95) will take the stage.
It’s been three years since Sublime with Rome – former Sublime bassist Eric Wilson, singer/guitarist Rome Ramirez and former Tribal Seeds drummer Carlos Verdugo – released its sophomore album “Sirens,” but fans won’t have to wait too much longer for its follow up.
Ramirez told the Sandpoint Reader last month that the band hopes to release its third album early next year.
In the meantime, fans can check out the new single “Wicked Heart,” which the band released July 27.
There’s a good chance fans will hear that and more new material at the Festival at Sandpoint show, as, according to Ramirez,the band plans its sets using a rule of thirds.
“We try to keep it a third hits, a third legacy and a third of Sublime with Rome,” Ramirez said. “There’s so much that’s happened with Sublime, we like to kind of space it out.”
On Aug. 11, singer/songwriters Gavin DeGraw and Phillip Phillips (7 p.m., $74.95) will stop by the festival as part of their co-headlining tour.
DeGraw burst onto the scene with “I Don’t Want to Be” in 2003 and followed that song with a steady stream of hits: “Chariot,” “Sweeter,” “In Love with a Girl” and “She Sets the City on Fire,” from his most recent album “Something Worth Saving.”
But DeGraw has always managed to walk the line between chart-toppers and rootsier, soulful tunes.
“It’s important that I, as an artist, continue to evolve and at the same time, to not forget what makes me tick musically to begin with,” DeGraw told The Spokesman-Review last year. “Pretty much every record, I make it a point to put something on that album that’s essentially a real dedication to my original audience, so they know I haven’t at all abandoned the ‘Chariot’ version of Gavin DeGraw.”
After winning “American Idol” in 2012, Phillips had an instant hit on his hands with his coronation song “Home.”
But ever since his win, Phillips too has proven he’s more than a one-hit wonder.
“Gone, Gone, Gone,” from “The World From the Side of the Moon” and “Raging Fire,” from “Behind the Light” dominated airwaves, and now on the other side of a lawsuit against 19 Recordings, it looks like “Miles,” from Phillips’ latest album “Collateral,” is doing the same.
As per tradition, the Festival at Sandpoint closes with a performance from the Spokane Symphony, conducted by Gary Sheldon, (7:30 p.m., $10.95/youth through 18 years old; $39.95/adults) and a fireworks finale on Aug. 12.
The first two Festivals at Sandpoint featured three performances from the Spokane Symphony, each with a different conductor.
A few soloists were added to the mix in 1985, and eventually the lineups grew to include other performers, but the Spokane Symphony has always had a home at the Festival at Sandpoint.
Sheldon too has quite a history with the festival, having worked as the festival’s principal conductor for the past 20 years.
In celebration, this year’s finale performance will feature some of Sheldon’s favorite pieces from his tenure.
Gates open at 4:30 p.m. for the “Taste of the Stars” wine tasting, free for attendees 21 and older.