Ravinia 2019, Issue 1, Week 2

7:00 PM THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019 PAVILION THE WOOD BROTHERS –Intermission– LAKE STREET DIVE † † Ravinia debut THE WOOD BROTHERS Brothers Oliver and Chris Wood grew up in Boulder, CO, and went their separate ways after high school. Oliver briefly attended UC–Santa Cruz before following some fellow musicians to Atlanta, while Chris set off for New York and the New England Conservatory of Music. Oliver discovered a passion for songwriting in addition to his guitar and formed the blues-roots band King Johnson, while bassist Chris teamed up with John Medeski and Billy Martin to form the jazz-funk trio Medeski, Martin & Wood, with which he still plays. It wasn’t until their respec- tive groups shared a bill in North Carolina and Oliver sat in with his brother’s band that the two recognized and appreciated their connection. The brothers’ first studio album, Ways Not to Lose , was engineered by Medeski and released in 2006, when it was named the Amazon.com edi- tors’ number-one pick in folk music. Medeski also produced their 2008 follow-up, Loaded , which also featured Medeski and Martin joining the brothers in performance on the album. In 2010 The Wood Brothers hit the road with roots-rock phenom Zac Brown, who wooed the brothers over to his label and produced their third full-length album, 2011’s Smoke Ring Halo , along with Grammy-nominated producer-engineer Jim Scott. The brothers added drummer Jano Rix to the mix in 2012 for a new tour and a pair of live albums before returning to the studio to lay down The Muse for release in 2013. After a move to Nashville, putting them in the same city for the first time since early adulthood, The Wood Brothers cut 2015’s Paradise in Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye studio, capturing the number-one slot on Billboard ’s Heatseekers chart with the release. The trio recorded a sold-out set at Levon Helm’s famed Woodstock Barn for the 2017 live album Live at the Barn , then spent the next year working in multiple studios with multiple mixing engineers, seeking out the perfect sound for each track on 2018’s One Drop of Truth . Tonight’s performance is The Wood Brothers’ first return to Ravinia following their 2012 festival debut. LAKE STREET DIVE With a singular mix of soul, R&B, and whole- hearted rock and roll, Lake Street Dive makes music that’s timeless yet immediate, exuberant yet reflective. The band came to life in 2004, when original members Michael Calabrese (drums), Bridget Kearney (bass), Rachael Price (vocals), and Michael “McDuck” Olson (guitar, trumpet) were studying at the New England Conservatory; Akie Bermiss (keyboards) joined the band in 2017. Over the coming years, Lake Street Dive steadily built a following through a series of independent album releases, count- less club tours, and a few lucky breaks. Their first two discs, the self-produced In This Epi- sode… (2007) and Promises, Promises (2008), caught the ear of Signature Sounds Records, which signed the group for an eponymous al- bum release in 2011. Lake Street Dive began to find widespread popularity with its 2012 EP Fun Machine , entering Billboard ’s Heatseekers chart courtesy of their imaginative covers and spirit- ed, original soul. Bad Self Portraits emerged in 2014, soaring up to number 18 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of its selfie-referencing title track. In the midst of a rigorous touring sched- ule, as many as 100 dates a year, Lake Street Dive got picked up by Nonesuch Records, which is- sued 2016’s Side Pony , named for bassist’s Kear- ney’s diverting hairstyle. In addition to keeping the band in Billboard ’s top 40, the album put the band atop each of the rock, folk, and alternative albums charts. In the 15 years since its forma- tion, Lake Street Dive and its infectious vitality have only magnified in appeal, as proven with its 2018 album Free Yourself Up . Along with earn- ing lavish acclaim, the Boston-bred act’s most recent full-length debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 and spent a virtually unprecedent- ed seven-and-a-half months on the non-com- mercial radio charts. The group also issued the EP Freak Yourself Out for Record Store Day 2018, comprising five bonus tracks from the Free Yourself Up sessions. Lake Street Dive is making its Ravinia debut. JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 91