Riverbend Preview: Friday, June 12th

You're getting your country hits on the main stage tonight.

The side stages are counter programming.

We're getting Funk, Jazz and some great Texas music tonight.

THE RECOMMENDATIONS

Alejandro Escovedo is the easy pick here.  He's the best songwriter at Riverbend this year, and one of the best in the country, period.  This is why so many people go to Austin to listen to real music.

We haven't gotten a lot of jazz this Riverbend.  This is your chance to catch a master performing a jazz hybrid that's easy to take for the masses.  A perfect chill show when you want out of the big Riverbend crowd.

THE PREVIEWS

Natural Habitz

7:45-9:00

Bud Light (Olgiatti)

There is precious little hip-hop at Riverbend.

Here is a chance to catch some local rappers who got together at Chattanooga State.

7:45-9:00

Bud Light (Olgiatti)

Midnight Star has been bringing the Funk since 1980.

They gave us hits like Operator, Freak-A-Zoid, Headlines, Slow Jam, Don't Rock the Boat & Snake in the Grass.

From their beginnings at Kentucky State, they build themselves as a strong live act... and they're still proving it almost 30 years later.

Here are some vintage 80s videos.

8:00-9:15

Unum

There are several local bands on stage tonight.

Our favorite here at News 12 is land camera.

Tobias Parrish profiled them in a Scenic City Scene report.

Here is a performance of My Old Disease from here at the station.

9:30-11:00

Unum (Hunter Museum)

The Jazz Crusaders began in 1960 as a group that would combine jazz with R&B.

Wayne Henderson was the trombonist in the original quartet.

During the seventies, the morphed into the more main-stream Crusaders and scored some R&B hits.

In the 21st century, the group has broken into two revival outfits.

Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and Stix Hooper continue on as the Crusaders, while Henderson tours as the Jazz Crusaders.

Here is a live show in Amsterdam just last week.

And a live take on the Crusaders best known song, Street Life, with Patti Austin on vocals (though I'm partial to the B.B. King version myself).

9:15-10:30

TN Valley Credit Union

Escovedo is a proven songwriter and performer who stands with anyone else at the festival... Coca Cola stage included.

He'll play Bonnaroo on Saturday, but you can catch him under the Walnut Street bridge first.

Escovedo was a founding member of the legendary San Francisco punk band, Rank and File.

He went solo in 1992, and has kept the critics' hearts a twitter with his great songs.

He's working that musical territory between rock and country, that put Austin, Texas on the map.

You can count Bruce Springsteen as a fan (check out this show when the Boss called him up on stage) .

Now a couple of my favorite Escovedo tunes, beginning with the immortal Castinets ("I like her better when she walks away").

And then I Was Drunk.

9:15-10:30

TN Valley Credit Union

More Texas music from Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros.

He's from San Antonio.

And they describe his band as a Texas Hill Country Super Group.