Cherry Crescendo: This Year’s Cherry Fest Concerts!

By Kristi Kates | June 23, 2018

Once your stomach is full of all things cherry, you’ve played bingo ’til you dropped, watched the parades, swam in the bay, cheered on your favorite Cherry Idol, and turned your eyes to the skies for the Blue Angels, you might be wondering what else you can do at the Traverse City Cherry Festival. Well, ready yourself for the concert stages — and a rich lineup that truly has something for every fest-goer.

JUNE 30 – Pat Benatar with Loverboy (6pm - Bay Side Music Stage)
Relive the spandex-bedecked ’80s with rock diva Benatar, who brought that decade such over-the-top rock melodrama as “Love is a Battlefield,” “You Better Run,” “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” and “We Belong.” Her last album was 2003’s Go, although she’s released a couple of standalone holiday and benefit tunes since then. Opening for her will be the amplified bar-band sounds of Canadian rockers Loverboy, whose hit singles “Working for the Weekend” and “Turn Me Loose” were anthems for many throughout the same decade. The band’s last album was 2014’s Unfinished Business.

JULY 1 – Here Come the Mummies (6pm – Bay Side Music Stage)
Who are the Mummies? Chances are you’ll never know — the members perform under wraps (literally) to hide their real-life identities; rumor has it it’s a way for well-known Nashville studio musicians and their pals to tour with less hassle from their respective record labels. They’ll bring you plenty of funk, though, as their peppy novelty tunes are real crowd-pleasers. Some of the Mummies’ songs have been featured on TV shows like Big Shots and Scrubs.

JULY 2 – Dan and Shay (6pm – Bay Side Music Stage)
The country music duo of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney hail from Nashville and have notched three Top 40 singles to date. They’re also fresh off of their very first win at the CMT (Country Music Television) Awards, where they surprised the crowd by beating Brothers Osborne and Florida Georgia Line for Best Duo (for their tune “Tequila”). Get prepared for their upcoming big-stage country performance in TC with a listen to their brand new album, Obsessed.

JULY 3 – Buddy Guy wsg Quinn Sullivan (6pm - Bay Side Music Stage)
Still cranking out the blues at 81 years old, Louisiana-born and Chicago-grown Guy’s guitar work has influenced everyone from Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) and Jimi Hendrix to pop performer John Mayer. Just two years ago, he toured as opening act for Jeff Beck — and that after snagging a Grammy Award of his own for Best Blues Album. With his first album stretching back to 1967, you can bet he’ll have a wealth of blues tunes to draw upon for his Cherry Festival performance. By contrast, 19-year-old Massachusetts blues guitar prodigy Quinn Sullivan will open.

JULY 4 – Three Days Grace (6pm – Bay Side Music Stage)
This Canadian band — singer/guitarist Adam Gontier, bassist Brad Walst, and drummer Neil Sanderson — is newly promoting its 2018 album, Outsider, the host for its latest single, “The Mountain.” With a sound somewhere between hard rock, alternative rock, and post-grunge, Three Days Grace is set to put on an energetic show full of Gontier’s deft guitar solos and strong vocals. Three Days Grace is also doing some shows with Avenged Sevenfold and Prophets of Rage this summer (that trio of bands will be at the DTE Energy Music Theater near Detroit in August), but this is your chance to see the band stealing the show alone.

JULY 5 – Sheryl Crow with The Sisterhood Band (6pm Bay Side Music Stage)
She’s rock, she’s pop, and she’s country — singer-songwriter Crow has stretched her musical accomplishments across all three categories since she first hit the public’s ears with her hit Tuesday Night Music Club album back in 1994. Her list of hits is long and familiar to anyone who’s ever switched on a pop radio station. You may recognize “All I Wanna Do,” “Strong Enough,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “My Favorite Mistake,” “The Difficult Kind” and “There Goes the Neighborhood,” for starters. Up next, the pending release of her upcoming duets album, tentatively titled Snap, on which she’s rumored to be collaborating with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Keith Richards, among others. Will we get any sneak previews of those tunes? You’ll have to check out the Cherry Festival show to see. Opening for Crow will be the country rock duo of Ruby Stewart (Rod Stewart’s daughter) and Alyssa Bonagura, aka The Sisterhood Band.

JULY 5 – Song of the Lakes (7pm – Grand Traverse Pavilions)
Local favorite Song of the Lakes carries on the grand tradition of singing “the praises of the Great Lakes.” This four-piece outfit actually got its start in the early 1980s and has widened its repertoire throughout the years, adding the flavors of jazz, Latin, and acoustic music to its own sound, whether customizing a cover, crooning a beautiful ballad, or presenting some original music from one of its own half-dozen albums.

JULY 6 – Dustin Lynch (6pm – Bay Side Music Stage)
American Country Artist and Tullahoma, Tennessee, native Lynch first started a band when he played at Nashville’s famed open mic night at the town’s Bluebird Cafe, leading him to move to Nashville shortly thereafter. He went to college and earned a degree in biology but chose to pursue his musical calling instead — a good choice, considering he’s notched five No. 1 country music singles since 2014. He’ll be in Traverse City promoting his third studio album, Current Mood, and is sure to offer up a rollicking good Nashville time.

JULY 7 – Darci Lynne and Friends wsg Pelican212 (6pm – Bay Side Music Stage)
The skillful Darci Lynne — a talent ahead of her time at just 13 year of age — was only the third ventriloquist to win the national television competition show America’s Got Talent, where she won for her seamless ventriloquism talent, her ability to sing impressively while “throwing” her voice, and her collection of personable puppets. Opening act Pelican 212 also appeared on America’s Got Talent; the young band features 12-year-old trumpet-playing twins Max and Kolbe Rees.

For tickets and more information on all of the above shows, visit cherryfestival.org.