2019 Sweetland Concert Series Presented by:

All-Pro Auto Group

Sweetland Amphitheatre at Boyd Park is proud to announce an impressive lineup for the 2019 Sweetland Concert Series including Dwight Yoakam, Black Jacket Symphony, Buddy Guy, John Prine and Mavis Staples!

For questions about tickets, contact TicketsWest at 888-479-6300. 

Buddy Guy

Friday, May 3, 2019

8:00pm, Gates Open at 7:00pm

The title of Buddy Guy’s latest album says it all: The Blues Is Alive and Well. The legendary blues artist’s eighteenth solo LP and follow-up to 2015’s Born to Play Guitar showcases his raw and unadulterated sound, its fifteen tracks a true pleasure for aficionados and genre newcomers alike. “I got children and grandchildren who didn’t know who I was, but nowadays we can play outdoor concerts and see kids that are eight, nine, twelve years old coming to me and saying, ‘I didn’t know who you was, but I read what Eric Clapton said about you,'” Guy explains when discussing his mindset around the new record. “I’m always trying to make an album that someone accidentally plays where some kid hears it, picks up a guitar, and helps keep the blues alive.” And it only takes one listen to The Blues Is Alive and Well to realize that Guy’s mission has been more than accomplished here. The record is arriving on the heels of a spate of high visibility for the 82-year-old performer: at the 2016 Grammys, he picked up a trophy for “Best Blues Album” honoring Born to Play Guitar, and that same year he hit the road for a U.S. tour opening for Jeff Beck. In addition to bringing the house down for a recent sold-out performance commemorating the closing of New York City’s B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill, he recently appeared on David Letterman’s Netflix talk show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. A truly restless and energetic performer, The Blues Is Alive and Well is the latest triumph in an already-legendary career. Even as Guy pushes forward with his astounding career, he’s careful not to forget his late contemporaries who inspired him along the way. “I went to sleep yesterday and woke up and all the great blues players are no longer with us. Muddy, Wolf, B.B.—they’re all gone. Before they passed away, when they were in their prime, we used to have a drink and a laugh and talk about how when one of us is gone, the others have to keep it going. I’m trying to do something to keep this music that I love so well alive.” And with The Blues Is Alive and Well, it’s clear that the music—and Guy himself—ain’t going away anytime soon.

Mavis Staples with Anderson East

Saturday, August 3, 2019 8:30pm, Gates Open at 7:00pm

Mavis Staples

At the beginning of her eighth decade of singing truth, Mavis Staples delivered If All I Was Was Black (ANTI- Records), ten songs about America today, where the present is filled with ghosts of the past. “Nothing has changed,” Mavis said in early August, just days before the world watched neo-Nazis march with swastika flags in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a young woman was murdered. “We are still in it.” If All I Was Was Black represents Mavis’ third collaboration with songwriter and producer (and Wilco frontman) Jeff Tweedy. Their first partnership in 2010, You Are Not Alone, won a Grammy Award for Best Americana album. Their second effort together, One True Vine, was a Grammy nominee. But If All I Was Was Black marks the first time Tweedy has composed an entire album of original songs for Mavis’ legendary voice and a nation she’s uniquely poised to address. In the wake of the race-baiting and rhetoric of exclusion appearing not just on the streets in 2017 but issuing from statehouses and even the White House, Mavis and Tweedy found themselves in sync and wanting to say something about the fissures dividing the country. “We’re not loving one another the way we should,” Mavis confided, as if sharing the secret to happiness, or something better. “Some people are saying they want to make the world great again, but we never lost our greatness. We just strayed into division.”

Anderson East

Anderson East recently released his new album, Encore. Produced by Grammy winner, Dave Cobb, the album debuted #1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart. Encore hit the charts as #5 on the Top Rock Albums, #10 Top Current Albums Chart, and has become a #1 on the iTunes Singer/ Songwriter Chart. Anderson East has also been nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2018 American Awards.