ALTON - Alton Amphitheater Commission Chairman Robert Stephan Tuesday morning made the first of what is likely to be several announcements of legendary talent coming to the Riverbend region this summer.
The Steve Miller Band and Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives have signed to take the stage at the Liberty Bank Alton Amphitheater Friday, June 21.
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“A Friday night in June on the Alton Riverfront with The Steve Miller Band and Marty Stuart will be a great night for Alton and the region,” said Robert Stephan, Alton Amphitheater Commission Chairman.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, at www.libertybankamphitheater.com, the Alton Visitor Center, 200 Piasa St., Alton, and through Metrotix outlets. VIP, reserved and general admission tickets will be available starting at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 22 with VIP tickets selling for $150 per person; reserved tickets are $72 per person and general admission $48.50 per person. A VIP ticket includes entry to the concert, assigned seating in the VIP area, reserved parking and access to the VIP tent on the side of the stage with private concessions. A reserved ticket provides entry to the concert and assigned seating. No reserved parking is provided. General Admission provides entry to the concert and seating in the general admission lawn area.
“The buzz around this concert is going to be loud and we are confident that the VIP tickets will sell quickly. We’ve sold out on shows in the past within 24 hours and we often have lines out the door in the opening moments of ticket sales,” Amphitheater Commissioner and Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau President and CEO Brett Stawar noted.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller will kick off his summer tour at the Liberty Bank Alton Amphitheater. His hits include “The Joker,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Rock’n Me,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Jet Airliner,” and “Jungle Love.” Miller has sold tens of millions of records and his music has been streamed well over 2 billion times.
It was Miller’s 1973 album “The Joker,” that made him a superstar. That album reached No. 2 on the charts and was the first of three consecutive Top 20 albums for Miller. Over his 55 year career, Miller has released 18 studio albums, six live discs and eight compilations, 10 of which went gold or platinum and charted Top 40. His most recent studio disc was 2011’s “Let Your Hair Down.”
Five-time Grammy Award-winning country singer Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives includes musicians Marty Stuart, Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson, and Chris Scruggs. Steve Miller has described the group as “one of the best singing and playing bands EVER and not to be missed.” Stuart has had nearly 20 Top 40 singles in a recording career of more than 40 years. He is best known for his breakthrough hit “Arlene” in 1985.
“I know this is going to be one of the best musical pairings we’ve ever done and an amazing evening of great American music,” Steve Miller said. Stuart echos those thoughts saying, "Steve Miller is a treasure and a true world-class musical citizen. I so respect him as a singer, a songwriter, guitar slinger, historian, art connoisseur, bandleader and friend. It's an honor for the Superlatives and I to run the roads of the nation and share the stage with the Steve Miller Band this summer. I predict some amazing musical moments out there on the horizon."
The show is billed as “An Amazing Evening of Original American Music – Classic Rock Meets Classic Country”.
The iconic Liberty Bank Alton Amphitheater offers an intimate outdoor concert setting tucked alongside the Mississippi River. The amphitheater has hosted Sugar Ray, The Beach Boys, Kenny Rogers, Uncle Cracker, Sister Hazel, Travis Tritt, The Charlie Daniels Band, John Michael Montgomery and others.
“This will be an incredible show at arguably one of the greatest settings for live music in the Midwest,” said Dan Herkert, Alton Amphitheater Commissioner. “Rarely does one find a live music venue with such a beautiful setting and such a close proximity to the performing artist.”
Alton Mayor Brant Walker hailed the concert saying, “We are looking forward to a great summer on the Alton Riverfront.”
Additional events planned for the Liberty Bank Alton Amphitheater include returning favorites the Alton Food Truck Festival, Bikes and BBQ Festival, Fireworks on the Mississippi, as well as the return of the Jazz and Wine Fest, Alton Expo and Senior Services Plus Feed the Need.
About Steve Miller:
Steve Miller has been an enlivening presence on the American music scene for more than half a century. To begin with, he was a mainstay of the San Francisco music scene that upended American culture in the late '60s. With albums like Children of the Future, Sailor and Brave New World, Miller perfected a psychedelic blues sound that drew on the deepest sources of American roots music and simultaneously articulated a compelling vision of what music - and, indeed, society - could be in the years to come. Then, in the '70s, Miller crafted a brand of pure pop that was smart, polished, exciting and irresistible - and that dominated radio in a way that few artists have ever managed. Hit followed hit in what seemed like an endless flow: “The Joker,” "Take the Money and Run," "Rock'n Me," "Fly Like an Eagle," "Jet Airliner" and "Jungle Love," among them.
To this day, those songs are instantly recognizable when they stream on the radio - and impossible not to sing along with. Their hooks are the very definition of indelible. Running through Miller’s distinctive catalog is a combination of virtuosity and song craft. And that’s no accident. His parents were jazz aficionados, not to mention close friends of Les Paul and Mary Ford, so, as a budding guitarist, Miller absorbed valuable lessons from that musical tradition. When the family moved to Texas, Miller deepened his education in the blues with family friend T-Bone Walker. Miller then moved to Chicago, where he played with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Paul Butterfield.
That range of sources informs his music to this day. In recent years, Miller has fully immersed himself in the blues and its many byways. As he has always done, he continues to find creative outlets for the full panoply of his musical passions. On his successful tours with the Steve Miller Band, he complements the commercial peaks of his extensive catalogue with lesser-known songs that expand his fans’ awareness of the range of his work.
As a member of the Board of Directors at Jazz at Lincoln Center, he has curated and headlined shows that explore themes like the bridge from blues to jazz in the music of guitar great T-Bone Walker; the distinctive sounds of the blues triangle of Memphis, Texas and Chicago; the resonances between the singular musical creations of Ma Rainey and Miles Davis; and the deep American roots music of Appalachia. He is also a member of the visiting committee of the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Indeed, five of his guitars will be displayed in “Play It Loud: The Instruments of Rock and Roll,” a groundbreaking exhibition at the Met that will run from April 8 through October 1 of this year. With each listen to the beauty and immediacy of his work, whether at its most playful or most serious, is palpable. As always, whether he was riding the top of the charts or traveling the endless blue highways of American music, you can hear him playing and singing with conviction and precision, passion and eloquence, making music that is at once immediately accessible, thrillingly alive in the present, and more than able to stand the test of time. - Anthony DeCurtis.
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