Chris Treadway: Summertime means Point Richmond concert series
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 06/06/2011 05:53:28 PM PDT
Updated: 06/06/2011 05:53:29 PM PDT
This week will mark a decade since a group of volunteers founded the Point Richmond Music Summer Concert Series and built it into a popular annual attraction.
The free monthly series features double bills of performers from 5:30 to 7:45 p.m. on the second Friday of each month from June through September in the historic downtown setting of Park Place and Washington Avenue.
Opening the kickoff event at 5:30 p.m. Friday is Sekhou Senegal, brothers Assane and Ousseyane Kouyate who couple bass, keyboards, and percussion drum with traditional West African instrumentation of their native Senegal.
The music continues at 6:45 p.m. with the Blind Lemon Phillips band, a concoction featuring vocalist and guitarist Charley Phillips, the Lemondrops backing vocal duo of Mz Dee and Ron E. Beck and a full horn section known as the Lemon Squeezers.
Each concert evening features a no-host bar benefiting the Malvern Wilson Alumni Association, a raffle, children's activities and art exhibitions by Arts of Point Richmond and the Point Richmond Art Collective.
The concert series was conceived as a way to promote the business district and a dedicated group of Point Richmond Music volunteers made the idea a reality and built it into one of the neighborhood's signature events. For more about this year's series, go to www.pointrichmondmusic.com.
Contact Chris Treadway at 510-262-2784 or ctreadway@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/christreadway. Stay up-to-date on West Contra Costa news at IBABuzz.com/westcounty.
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