Credit: Shervin Lainez

LANCASTER, PA – The 2012 season of the Long’s Park Summer Music Series will open Sunday, June 3, 2012, and continue every Sunday night through August 26. Opening the 2012 Season June 3 with a modern spin on classic soul will be a gritty blues powerhouse and her nine-piece band, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds. “Our programming committee worked especially hard this year to find just the right group to open our 50th anniversary season,” explained Richard Low, who chairs the dedicated committee of volunteer, eclectic music lovers.

“Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds embodies what the Long’s Park Summer Music Series is all about…talented musicians—both rising stars and legends of their genre—who instill innovation and energy into their sound. Our audiences have come to trust that we’ll bring them musicians they may not know now but will almost certainly hear about soon.”

After much speculation and interest the non-profit Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation announced its 50th annual summer of free music at Long’s Park.

A special twist for this landmark season will be a special holiday concert Wednesday, July 4. The traditional Independence Day patriotic concert with music, cannons and fireworks will precede the holiday on Sunday, July 1, 2012.

All concerts will begin at 7:30 pm.

On June 10 Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra will return to Long’s Park after their much anticipated 2011 appearance was rained out. The 18-piece Latin band captured the 2008 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year.

Southern-fried soul sensation Mia Borders and her band will appear June 17. The sultry singer-songwriter USA Today was declared “one of the hidden surprises” of the 2010 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Her 2010 album, “Magnolia Blue,” earned her a nomination as Best Emerging Artist at the Big Easy Music Awards.

June 24 will feature the next generation of folk music on the Long’s Park stage: Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion. Folk legend Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter and her husband were saluted by Vintage Guitar Review for their knack of “navigating country, pop, folk and rock.” Music lovers may have heard them interviewed on NPR’s “Mountain Stage.”

On July 1 Long’s Park will kick off the Fourth of July holiday early with its traditional patriotic concert. Returning for their fifth year will be The 257th Army Band, Charlie Smithgall’s historic cannon brigade and a spectacular fireworks display. Helping underwrite the July 1 patriotic concert will be FOX43 and HACC Lancaster.

Founding cosponsor of the Long’s Park patriotic concert is the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival. Underwriting assistance has been provided by the James Hale Steinman Foundation.

A special concert on the July 4th holiday will bring Allegro: The Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster from Franklin & Marshall College’s stage at Barshinger Center for Musical Arts to Long’s Park. Under the direction of Brian Norcross, the orchestra will treat its audience to joyful works by the masters.

On July 8 a perennial favorite of the Long’s Park Summer Music Series committee, City Rhythm Orchestra, will return to celebrate Stan Kenton’s 100th birthday. For its third appearance in the park the band will be super-sized to 23 members to share a retrospective look at the legend’s big band and swing music of the 40s, 50s and 60s. Happy birthday, Stan Kenton, and happy birthday, Long’s Park!

July 15 will find one of the world’s greatest fusion bass guitarists and his jazz/funk band at Long’s Park. The Victor Bailey Band will showcase internationally renowned Victor Bailey, who captured international recognition in the 80s when he helped transform the innovative jazz fusion super group, Weather Report. More recently the Philadelphia native has toured and recorded with artists as diverse as Joe Zawinul, Mary J. Blige and Madonna.

Concertgoers will be in for a treat July 22 when the California-based, roots rock band Dawes comes to town. With last summer’s appearance on “Late Night with David Letterman” under their belts, the LA quartet sits on Rolling Stone’s Top 50, No. 5 on last year’s American Songwriter list and on Huffington Post’s Best Music of 2011 list.

What a performance Long’s Park has on tap July 29 when it welcomes MarchFourth Marching Band on their 2012 “Magnificent Beast” tour. About the only thing these musicians have in common with a traditional marching band are their costumes and their pulsing percussion and brass. Their music? A mix including jazz, ska and metal. Their fire eaters and stiltwalkers? Go figure. No wonder Bethlehem’s 2012 MusikFest’s will open each night with them leading the parade.

August at Long’s Park will begin August 5 with Lúnasa, the “hottest Irish acoustic group on the planet” (The New York Times). Its ingenious use and mastery of rhythm clearly made Lúnasa stand alone in Celtic circles since its formation in 1996, harkening a deeper precedent in jazz and progressive bluegrass. While “contemporary” and “traditional” would seem in conflict with each other, The Irish Echo ranked the group’s 2010 album, “Lá Nua #2, one of its top 10 traditional albums. That same year they were named Performers of the Decade in the LIVIES (LiveIreland.com) awards.

A classic soul legend is coming to Long’s Park August 12. Best known for fronting Booker T and the MGs, Booker T will bring his new band to Lancaster. The multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer holds four Grammys, including a prestigious Lifetime Achievement award. His latest album, “On the Road to Memphis,” released just last year, captured his latest Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album.

On August 19 American rock and folk singer-songwriter Joshua James and his band will take center stage. With iTunes naming his “Build Me This” album one of its Best of 2009 Indie Spotlight Singer/Songwriter albums, NPR also spotlighted him for one of their “Song of the Day” distinctions. Variety magazine cited the young Midwestern for writing “hard-bitten songs of family tragedies” and singing them “in a voice that’s as sun-bleached and wind-battered as a Nebraska cornfield.” No surprise he’s already performed at Sundance, SXSW and CMJ, winning legions of fans along the way.

The 50th Long’s Park Summer Music Season will close August 26 with amazing jazz pianist Michael Kaeshammer and a band with horns that will blow his audience away. The great, jazz-infused R&B showman has been called the “Canadian Harry Connick, Jr.” by many. Wrote the Montreal Gazette, “The boogie-woogie pianist best known as a must-see act reaffirms his true colors…he’s an R&B hound, particularly if there’s a New Orleans roll to the beat.” NOW Magazine placed Michael Kaeshammer among the jazz greats. “The hottest Canadian music export isn’t indie rockers,” it wrote. “It’s jazz musicians. First there was Diana Krall, then Michael Bublé and now Michael Kaeshammer.”

What a way to end a milestone season! Hats off to the Lancaster Sertomans who first envisioned an amphitheater in Long’s Park. No doubt they would be proud of how far the Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation has taken their dream.

The 50th annual Long’s Park Summer Music Series is produced and underwritten by the independent Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation. The 13 weeks of award-winning, live performances are presented free of charge at Long’s Park, thanks to generous sponsors, private donors and proceeds of the Labor Day weekend Long’s Park Art & Craft Festival. Season sponsors are Argires, Becker, Marotti & Westphal; Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority; Lancaster Sunday News and Susquehanna Bank.

Season media sponsors are WARM 103, 96.1 WSOX and WINK 104. Season lodging sponsor is Hilton Garden Inn-Lancaster, and season hospitality sponsor is Romano’s Macaroni Grill.

Season cosponsors include The Hershey Company’s Y&S Candies Plant, Lancaster County Community Foundation, Lancaster General Health, Members 1st Federal Credit Union, Nemours, Smithgall Pharmacy, UGI Utilities Inc. and WLCH-FM “Radio Centro.”

Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation also receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency.

Long’s Park concertgoers are invited to bring picnics, blankets and lawn chairs to the park. A selection of food purveyors will also be in the park, offering a complete meal’s worth of family foods and desserts. Long’s Park is an alcohol-free park.

Long’s Park is conveniently located at 1441 Harrisburg Pike in Lancaster, just off Route 30 across from Park City Center. All events and in-park parking are free of charge and held rain or shine, except in the case of dangerously inclement weather.

Additional information and links to musical previews of Long’s Park’s performers can be found at http://www.LongsPark.org or on Facebook. For details on corporate sponsorships of the Long’s Park Summer Music Series and to learn how to make individual and corporate contributions, contact the Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation at http://www.LongsPark.org.