Woodland Park Zoo Press Release

A major fundraiser for the zoo, WaMu ZooTunes presented by Carter Subaru is held outdoors in the zoo’s North Meadow where concert-goers spread out with blankets and low-backed patio chairs. With tickets under $30, and kids 12 and under free, the festival seating performances offer the best concert bargain in the Northwest. Thanks in part to WaMu’s sponsorship, ZooTunes raised more than $920,000 last year to support the zoo’s animal care, education programs and wildlife conservation initiatives throughout the world.

In addition to WaMu, this year’s concert series is sponsored by: Carter Subaru, No Wasted Notes, Metropolitan Market and The Mountain 103.7 FM.

Info:
For more information, call the WaMu ZooTunes presented by Carter Subaru hotline: 206.615.0076. Or visit the zoo’s Web site: www.zoo.org.

Who:
June 17 Indigo Girls - $24. After over two decades and eight studio albums together, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, known to their legion of fans as Indigo Girls, have played thousands of shows. They've operated within the music industry, without ever being a product of that industry, gaining the respect of their peers, not to mention an extremely loyal fan base. It's an audience that most artists would envy: one that eagerly awaits new music from the duo, and greets older songs like old friends including their album, “All That We Let In.” The credits on the album are similar to those of 2002's “Become You.” The Indigo Girls returned to Tree Sound Studios in Georgia and, again, used producer Peter Collins and the core band of keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Carol Issacs, bass player Clare Kenny and drummer Brady Blade.

June 20 Herbie Hancock Trio - $21. Herbie Hancock will appear with Nathan East on bass and Vincent Peter Colaiuta on drums. Herbie Hancock will always be one of the most revered and controversial figures in jazz. He has cut a zigzagging forward path, shuttling between almost every development in electronic and acoustic jazz and R&B over the last third of the 20th century. Hancock recorded several electric albums of mostly superior quality in the '70s; he continued his chameleonic ways in the '80s, scoring an MTV hit in 1983 with the scratch-driven, proto-industrial single “Rockit” (accompanied by a striking video); launching an exciting partnership with Gambian kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso that culminated in the swinging 1986 live album Jazz Africa; doing film scores; and playing festivals and tours with the Marsalis brothers, George Benson, Michael Brecker and many others. In 1998 he issued “Gershwin's World” and in 2001's “Future 2 Future,” he continued to explore the future of straight-ahead contemporary jazz with 2005's “Possibilities.”

Nathan East: East's musical breakthrough came while he was a member of a band named Power. They were hired as the road band for a Stax revue and the recognition brought the attention of Barry White, who hired the band for a national tour. His current group, known as Fourplay, sold half a million copies of its debut album and it remained at number one on Billboard's contemporary jazz charts for 33 weeks. Their 1993 release, “Between the Sheets,” reached number one, went Gold, and received a Grammy nomination. In 1995, their third gold album, “Elixir,” inherited the number one position from Kenny G's “Breathless” and held on to the top spot for a record 92 weeks. Fourplay's fourth album entered the jazz charts at number one.

Vincent Peter Colaiuta: Vince (Vinnie) Colaiuta is a versatile and well-rounded musician. He’s been heard on over 600 recordings made between 1983 and 1993. A drummer by profession, Colaiuta's collaborations involve many of the great names in pop, rock, and jazz: Al Kooper, Chick Corea, John Patitucci, Herbie Hancock, the late Frank Zappa, Natalie Cole, Billy Joel, Jose Feliciano, Judy Collins, and countless others. Additionally, Colaiuta was a regular feature on comedienne Joan Rivers' television talk show. His solo debut in 1997, an album aptly called Vinnie Colaiuta, featured guest spots by Colaiuta's professed idol, Herbie Hancock, as well as Chick Corea, Sting and John Patitucci. Colaiuta was named the number one All Around Drummer of 1996 by a readers' poll in Modern Drummer. He also received the Drumbeat Drummie Award for Best Studio Drummer in 1998.

June 27 Brandi Carlile - $19. Authentic. That's the first word that springs to mind when you encounter Brandi Carlile. From her rootsy bell-clear voice to the palpable emotion that seeps through every song on her stunning debut album, everything about this 24 year old from rural Ravensdale, Washington is the real deal. Deeply driven to be an artist, Carlile's life-long love affair with performing began when her musician mother brought her out onstage, at age 8, at the Northwest's version of the Grand Ole Opry. Carlile sang Roseanne Cash's “Tennessee Flat-Top Box.” From then on, Carlile performed everywhere she could. Her determination and work ethic paid off in late 2004 when she signed with Columbia Records, home to several of her favorite artists including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, and James Taylor, whom she has shared a stage with. The timeless quality of her debut album for Columbia, “Brandi Carlile,” is proof of her intention to become a classic artist alongside her labelmates. The album is a showcase for Carlile's expressive voice, which can turn from a tough, bluesy growl to a vulnerable, aching falsetto on a dime. Her recent release, “The Story,” is a collection of soul-baring ballads filled with yearning, heartbreak and a cautious sense of joy, produced by Grammy-winner T Bone Burnett.

July 18 Patty Griffin - $21. Every Patty Griffin album offers, often simultaneously, beauty and challenge. Her latest release, Children Running Through, is easily the best sounding record of her career. It continues the remarkable creative evolution that's quietly established Griffin as a vital and singular musical force. It also belies her persistent sensitive-singer-songwriter image æ a limiting perception that fails to fully convey the emotional depth and breadth of her songwriting or the emotive power of her fluid, soulful singing. Indeed, the new disc's 12 Griffin originals maintain a timelessly truthful resonance that echoes a variety of styles, most notably the classic R&B and gospel music that have long been a source of inspiration for the artist. “I just wanted to write from the heart and let it be,” Griffin says of the project. “Some
of the most beautiful music I've ever heard is when you catch somebody singing to themselves. I wanted to make music that had that feeling.” That sort of heartfelt forthrightness has won Griffin a fiercely loyal fan base that's continued to expand, even as she's retreated from the cookie-cutter machinery of the mainstream music industry. Among her higher-profile admirers are the Dixie Chicks, who recorded much-loved versions of the Griffin compositions “Top of the World,” “Truth No. 2” and “Let Him Fly”; Emmylou Harris, a longtime supporter who's covered several Griffin songs, and who lends her iconic harmony vocals to the Children Running Through number “Trapeze”; and Solomon Burke, who covers “Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)” on his latest record.

July 25, 26 Pink Martini - $26.50. Part language lesson, part old-fashion Hollywood spectacle, the Portland, Oregon-based “little orchestra” was created in 1994 by Harvard graduate and classically trained pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing and public broadcasting. Equally at home performing on concert stages and in smoky clubs, Pink Martini draws a wildly diverse crowd. In 1998, the ensemble made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony under the direction of Norman Leyden. Pink Martini has since performed with symphony orchestras across the country.

Pink Martini’s debut album, “Sympathique,” was released independently in 1997 on the band’s own label, Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog) and quickly became an international phenomenon, garnering the group nominations for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards. Seven long years later, the highly anticipated follow up, “Hang On Little Tomato,” was released and climbed to #1 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list.

July 29 Great Big Sea - $19. “The Hard and The Easy” is the eighth release from Great Big Sea, the St. John's-based, Juno-nominated band that fuses Newfoundland traditional music with modern pop in a crowd-pleasing formula both heartfelt and vital. Great Big Sea's blend of instruments like mandolin, bodhran, fiddle, and concertina, along with their vocal harmonies, revels in the melodies they create and the Newfoundland tunes they love.

“ The Hard and The Easy” is the follow-up to “Something Beautiful” (2004). This solid and straightforward acoustic album of traditional and local songs is a first for singers and multi-instrumentalists Sean McCann, Alan Doyle and Bob Hallett, but it's also a logical progression. Newfoundland music and Newfoundland culture are both their genesis, and their raison d'etre.

August 1 Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - $19. Béla Fleck is often considered the premiere banjo player in the world. In 1982, he joined the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, where he made a name for himself in the country-bluegrass world. At the same time he was releasing a series of solo albums for Rounder Records. In 1989 he formed the Flecktones. They made their self-titled debut recording in 1990 by playing a “blu-bop” mix of jazz and bluegrass and soon became a commercially successful, critically-acclaimed and award-winning band. (Fleck – the only musician to be nominated for Grammys in jazz, bluegrass, pop, country, spoken word, Christian, composition and world music categories – also recorded solo releases including 1994’s “Tales from the Acoustic Planet” and last year’s “The Bluegrass Sessions – Tales from the Acoustic Planet Volume 2.”)

“ Outbound,” their new Columbia CD, features the band performing with an all-star cast of guest artists including vocalists Shawn Colvin and Jon Anderson (of the group Yes), guitarist Adrian Belew, oboe player Paul McCandless, and keyboardist John Medeski (of the jazz jam-band Medeski, Martin & Wood).

August 8 Robert Earl Keen with special guest Todd Snider - $17. Robert Earl Keen – as an artist, writer, and painter of southern aural landscapes – is better than ever. On his 12th album, he gives us what is possibly his finest collection of Southern Lit songs. While his last outing, “Farm Fresh Onions,” won great acclaim for eclectically showcasing some of his more raucous material, “What I Really Mean” is a welcome return to the acoustic country side of this revered singer/songwriter. Besides Keen’s delicious writing, part of the joy of this record is the incredible talent he’s drawn to the project, including Danny Barnes, whose blithe banjo rolls melodically throughout, guitarist/producer Rich Brotherton, and mixing engineer Ed Cherney, who made a name with Bob Dylan, the B-52s and Roy Orbison, among others.

Todd Snider: For 12 years, Snider has been a satirist, class cutup and the rare artist who understands and celebrates the connections between the Stones, Dylan, John Prine, Mitch Hedberg, Kris Kristofferson, Hunter S. Thompson and Randy Newman. “The Devil You Know,” a sparkling, smiling, snarling portrait of the doomed, starts and ends with uncertainty and moves through manual labor, prostitution, heartbreak, crime and fidelity in the middle. This album brings us people who greet hard luck and bad karma with parties, curses, promises and bottle-swigs. And then there’s “A Tale Of Two Fraternity Brothers,” a glimpse at the other side of the coin and an evocation of the good times of a couple of buddies, one of whom winds up as the leader of the free world.

August 15 Old Crow Medicine Show with special guest The Be Good Tanyas - $17. “Big Iron World,” produced by David Rawlings, is the sophomore collection of songs by Old Crow Medicine Show, who once again dive headlong into the musical past and return with a few time-tested themes for the present. These themes spring from the hardest hitting notes of America’s music vernacular, tapped from sources deep in the ground but refined and redefined by fresh new voices. Willie Watson’s voice sears across the album like a revelation. From the spooky, slow drag of “Don’t Ride That Horse” to the lashing urgency of “God’s Got It,” Watson moans and coos, delivering with the kind of intensity that makes you wonder how a boy brought up in the bleak conformity of the “Big Iron World” could learn to sing with the voice of an American Original. All this pulses with the stabbing beat that only OCMS can deliver. The firebrand bass slap of Morgan Jahnig, the rake of Kevin Hayes’ guitjo, the drilling banjo fever of Critter Fuqua, the hell-bent fiddling of Ketch Secor, the red hot attack of Willie Watson guitar, the gunfire crack of Gillian Welch’s drums, all expertly harnessed and finely tuned by the precise ear of producer David Rawlings.

The Be Good Tanyas: The music could be described as a mixture of deep country, early American folk and blues, and soul. Or it could be described in terms of the instrumentation: three true-singing women who play guitar (acoustic and electric), banjo, mandolin, and invent gorgeous harmony. Frazey Ford (guitar, vocals), Samantha Parton (guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals), and Trish Klein (electric guitar, banjo, vocals) each did their fair share of roaming, from Vancouver to the Prairies, San Francisco to New Orleans, the Ozarks to the Himalayas, before their personal quests brought them together musically. Their commonality of experience, purpose, vision, and tremendous talent are the key to the cohesive vibe of the band. With CDs consistently selling out in stores across Canada since the October 2000 release of “Blue Horse'”(Festival Distribution), a ton of airplay, and bookings in clubs and festivals across North America, they're well on their way to becoming a household name – at least in households that care about good music.