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Celebrate Virginia Live will bring top-notch national touring acts to Fredericksburg Date published: 4/30/2009
BY JONAS BEALS When it comes to getting mainstream live entertainment, most locals hit the road. That might soon change. Tomorrow night, The Wailers (of Bob Marley fame) will bring their positive vibrations to Central Park. They are one of 10 national touring acts already scheduled for the Celebrate Virginia Live outdoor concert series. It should be a welcome option for auditory locavores. "I've had my eye on the area for three or four years," promoter David Peterson said. "It's been sort of a slow burn of watching Fredericksburg evolve, and I think the community is ready to step up." Chew on this: Country music superstar Travis Tritt is on the lineup. So are Gin Blossoms, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Little Feat and local one-man jam band Keller Williams. Every Friday evening from now until the middle of July, you have a reason to get out of the house, but not have to go out of town. Peterson also promotes the Innsbrook After Hours concert series in Richmond. He said when the time was right to try to expand the Innsbrook series, Fredericksburg came to mind and he came up for a visit. "I got there and said, wow, this place has become really vibrant. "There's not a tremendous amount of empirical research to rely on," he said. "But I want to see if our model can work in communities that are somewhat under-served." Fredericksburg certainly fits that bill. The local population has boomed, but entertainment options have struggled to keep up. Celebrate Virginia Live might be exactly what local residents want. VIEW FROM DOWNTOWN Fredericksburg has produced its fair share of famous players--Saffire, Keller Williams and The Seldom Scene come to mind--but the downtown music scene has sometimes struggled. Talk to a group of local musicians and you learn that Fredericksburg is chock-full of talent, but it can be hard to get people to listen. When it comes to live music, there seems to be an invisible barrier between the city and the hundreds of thousands of people who live in the surrounding counties. Central Park and Celebrate Virginia are technically part of the city. Philosophically, those suburban commercial centers are a world away from historic downtown. Most of the active players and venues are downtown, but most of the potential ears are a gridlocked drive away.
Date published: 4/30/2009
He is from the Burg??? wow did not know...he sings a mix of music eclectic?
Definitely check out the Keller show on May 8. It should be a lot of fun to hear him playing to his hometown crowd!
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