27^th Annual Alive After Five Summer Concert Series

Award-winning vocalist/songwriter/harmonica icon Curtis Salgado sings and plays with soulful authority, never giving less than 100 percent. He plays each and every show like it’s the most important gig of his career. Salgado’s been perfecting his craft since he first began playing professionally in the late 1960s. He fronted his own group, The Nighthawks, inspired John Belushi to create The Blues Brothers, was co-star of The Robert Cray Band and sang and toured with Roomful Of Blues. Winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Artist Of The Year, Salgado effortlessly mixes blues, funk and R&B with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt.

Patrick Sweany likes the spaces in between. On a given night (or on a given album) he'll swing through blues, folk, soul, bluegrass, maybe some classic 50s rock, or a punk speedball. The one thing that most people notice about Patrick isn't his ability to copy - it's his authenticity. Like his heroes, folks like Bobby "Blue" Bland, Eddie Hinton, Doug Sahm, Joe Tex, Patrick somehow manages to blend all of these influences into something all his own. After 3 critically acclaimed CDs (the last two produced by longtime collaborator Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys), Patrick has expanded his touring radius to 49 states and the UK. He's played premiere festivals all over the U.S., and supported national acts such as The Black Keys, The Gourds, The Wood Brothers, Sonny Landreth, Hot Tuna and Paul Thorn.

Tony Furtado has lived primarily on the road for the last two decades. He is gregarious, insanely talented, engaging and entertaining on and off stage. He's been called a genius on banjo and slide guitar, and his own creative interpretation-hybrid of Americana and indie rock is captivating. Onstage, whether playing with a band or solo, he owns the room, mixing stories of his travels with musicianship that is off the charts.

Pickwick was formed in 2008 when singer Galen Disston began writing songs on his acoustic guitar while drummer Matt Emmett kept time in the background. By the beginning of 2010 the band, now a six-piece, was in a state of disarray. Ultimately, the band decided to throw out all of their old material and start over from scratch with a new collaborative approach to songwriting. Raised on indie rock and a love for lo-fi garage bands, the members of Pickwick found themselves entrenched in underground gospel and blues recordings from the 1950s and 60s as well as popular northern soul artists. This new reference point combined with a renewed appreciation for UK bands like The Animals, Spencer Davis Group and The Zombies helped the members of Pickwick cultivate their own unique take on garage rock, gospel and 60s-era pop while interpreting those genres through a modern lens.

Dave Alvin, Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and self-described "barroom guitarist," is widely considered to be one of the pivotal founders of the current Americana music scene. Since forming the highly influential roots rock/R+B band The Blasters with his brother Phil in 1979, and throughout his long and critically acclaimed solo career, Alvin has mixed his varied musical and literary influences into his own unique, updated version of traditional American music. Combining elements of blues, folk, R+B, rockabilly, Bakersfield country and garage rock and roll with lyrical inspiration from local writers and poets like Raymond Chandler, Gerald Locklin and Charles Bukowski, Alvin says that his songs are "just like California.

If Tim “Too Slim” Langford only played slide guitar, he would slither around most other blues guitarists and put a ferocious bite on their pride. However, as the sole six-string slinger, songwriter and lead singer of the power trio Too Slim and the Taildraggers, he is a total force of nature, leaving musical tracks for others to try and follow. The Taildraggers have created an eclectic style of blues and rock that has become a genre all its own. The band’s ever evolving musical direction cannot be classified into any box or category. The eclectic nature of the band allows Too Slim and the Taildraggers to easily crossover and appeal to audiences of various musical tastes.

Music has always played a central role in Ben’s life. His wit and skill as a singer-songwriter showcase an artist who is comfortable in both his own skin and with his impressive musical legacy (his father is James Taylor). Ben also made his acting debut with a recurring role on NBC’s “American Dreams” and has appeared in the pages of People Magazine, Vogue and even on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. His reviews and raves have been steady for over a decade now with more to come. Ben Taylor has previously toured with Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveler and Ziggy Marley, among others.

The Clumsy Lovers have brought their mix of fiddle and banjo-fuelled, bluegrassified Celtic rock to North American audiences for over a decade. With more than 2,500 performances under their belts, their high-energy shows have worn out dance floors and created a loyal following in 49 states and across their homeland of Canada. In addition to their live shows, The Clumsy Lovers have also released a series of award-winning and critically acclaimed recordings. But the Clumsy Lovers are still, first and foremost, a live band. Their spontaneous forays into musical mayhem can only be experienced in person, and after years of relentless touring the Lovers feel most at home on a stage.

Chuck Prophet shapes his restless career with inimitable subtle flair: a vivid parade of razor-edged one-liners camouflaged in a slack-jawed drawl, songs about heartbreak and everyman heroism, drenched in twisted lines of rude Telecaster. During an eight-year run with Green on Red, he cut his first major label session with legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, burned through a couple of big record deals, and ventured a debut solo effort, Brother Aldo (1990). These were the first steps in the career that shaped Prophet into a prolific rock 'n' roll classicist. He has written with a wide rage of artists from Dan Penn to Alejandro, laid down tracks on sessions for everyone from Warren Zevon to Kelly Willis and taken the stage with Jim Dickinson, Lucinda Williams and Aimee Mann, to name a few.