Ravinia 2021 - Issue 3

DAVID BLANKS (KNIGHT); MARK SELIGER (DURITZ) PAVILION 8:00 PM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2021 GLADYS KNIGHT GLADYS KNIGHT Affectionately known as the “Empress of Soul,” Gladys Knight has been in the music business for more than 50 years. She began singing in a church choir at age 4, and three years later she won the grand prize of televi- sion’s Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour , after which her mother swiftly brought other family members together to form a backing group known as The Pips. Gladys Knight and The Pips began recording in the early ’60s, before Knight was even out of her teens, scoring a handful of hits with songs like “Every Beat of My Heart,” “Letter Full of Tears,” and “Giving Up.” The group made its big break later that decade when it released its first album on the burgeoning Motown label in 1967, immediately making waves with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and riding that success forward to the top-10 hits “If I Were Your Woman” and the Grammy-winning “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye).” Knight and The Pips firmly established themselves as one of the top R&B groups of the day with their first album on the Buddah label, Imagination (1973), which featured the number-one hit “Midnight Train to Georgia” as well as the top-five singles “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.” Shortly before beginning her solo career in earnest in the early ’90s, Knight joined Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John to record the Grammy-winning, crossover number-one hit “That’s What Friends Are For” in 1985 and contributed the title song to the 1989 James Bond film License to Kill . Knight made two solo albums in the late ’70s, but 1991’s Good Woman signaled the true start of the new phase of her career, topping the R&B chart and adding “Men” to her catalog of hits. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995, and the following year Knight and The Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004 she was presented BET’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Gladys Knight first played Ravinia in 1992 and tonight makes her fourth appearance. A MESSAGE FROM ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY Allstate is proud of our strong partnerships with local nonprofit organizations that nurture the cultural richness of our hometown of Chicago. We applaud Ravinia for its long-term commitment to diversity, world-class performances and the many community and educational programs that enrich the lives of so many people in our city. PAVILION 8:00 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2021 BUTTER MIRACLE TOUR COUNTING CROWS COUNTING CROWS Shortly after its formation in the San Fran- cisco Bay Area, Counting Crows was thrust into the limelight when the group filled in for Van Morrison at the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The group released its debut album, August and Every- thing After , later that same year and saw the single “Mr. Jones” soar into the top five of Bill- board ’s Hot 100 Airplay and Top 40 charts. The album quickly reached seven-times plat- inum sales and also leaped into the top five. Lead vocalist and songwriter Adam Duritz confronted the band’s apprehension with its newfound fame in the 1996 follow-up Recov- ering the Satellites , which again sent Counting Crows up the charts with the single “A Long December.” Following the platinum live album Across a Wire , Counting Crows returned to the studio for This Desert Life (1999)—which featured the group’s first Hot 100 single, “Hanginaround”—and Hard Candy (2002). The latter featured a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” that was later re-recorded for the movie Two Weeks Notice with guest vocalist Vanessa Carlton. In 2003 Counting Crows released its first “greatest hits” album, Films About Ghosts , which was reissued the following year to include its Oscar-, Grammy-, and Golden Globe–nominated contribution to the Shrek 2 soundtrack, “Accidentally in Love.” The group’s 2008 concept double album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings , extend- ed its streak of top-10 studio albums to over a decade and won critical acclaim for the contrast between its driving first half and mellow second. Late in 2018, Counting Crows decamped to a recording studio for the first time since 2014’s Somewhere Under Wonderland for a new—but the first officially released—version of “August and Everything After,” performed with the London Symphony Orchestra. Duritz returned to new writing through 2019, creating the first of two four- song suites entitled Butter Miracle . The first set was released earlier this year along with the single “Elevator Boots,” shortly after Billboard placed Counting Crows at number eight among the top adult alternative artists of all time. Counting Crows first played Ravinia in 2010 and returns to- night for its fifth show at the festival. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 18 – SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 40