ArtBeat by day: Sat., July 18th

Music on the Seven Hills Park Stage

12:00pm — Mariana
Fun and educational, Mariana’s music is a bowl of magical stories mixed with a delicious sauce of creativity and uniqueness.  The assorted flavors of reggae, folk, rock, blues, bossa nova, tango and jazz make the perfect blend  for a multicultural recipe the entire family will enjoy. 

1:00pm — Crossfire
Traditional bluegrass band that also takes the genre to unexplored territory playing numbers such as “Last Dance with Mary Jane” (Tom Petty) and an unbelievable rendition of “Secret Agent Man”  (Johnny Rivers). The 18-year-old banjo player Ben Marshall grew up listening to Flatt and Scruggs mixed with Jane’s Addiction (he proudly notes he was voted “oddest kid in his high school”). Jeremy Place screams on his mandolin and writes the fastest instrumentals known in bluegrass. The band is rounded out by three veteran bluegrass musicians: Dennis who flat picks on his Martin D-28, John who does fiddlin, didlin & bowing from bluegrass to cajun, and Russ who plays a mean doghouse bass.

2:00pm — Group Saloum
Group Saloum, America’s hottest Afro-mbalax band, are joining in the festivities for a special performance. Founded by world-renowned griot percussionist Lamine Toure, Group Saloum fuses Senegalese mbalax with elements of jazz, funk, reggae, and Afrobeat. Group Saloum performs original Afro-mbalax music highlighted by the infectious rhythms of Toure’s sabar drums, drawing upon the collective creativity of some of Boston’s most talented musicians. This ten person band “kicks out a hard-hitting dance mix that spans the percussive fury of Sengalese mbalax” according to Banning Eyre of The Boston Phoenix.

3:00pm — Choro Democratico
Turn up the summer heat with this hot Brazilian music ensemble! Boston’s own Choro Democrático plays traditional and modern Choro, including original compositions by group members. Choro was born in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s through a melding of European dance forms, such as the polka and waltz, with uniquely Afro-Brazilian rhythmic feels, including the Lundu, Maxixe and Samba.  Although the Portuguese word “chorar” suggests crying or sadness, Choro music ranges from melancholic to festive. Choro Democrático features the following instruments: flute, violin, mandolin, cavaquinho, 6-string guitar, 7-string guitar and pandeiro.

4:00pm — Dirty Truckers
A rough-and-tumble mix of snarling guitars, barstool ramblings, and raw attitude, the Dirty Truckers are fixtures on Boston’s rock landscape. Their latest CD, “Loose in the Joints,” is “equal parts raunch, riffs, and romance” according to Jonathan Perry of The Boston Globe. In 2009, the Truckers were finalists in WBCN’s 31st Annual Rock n Roll Rumble and placed first in Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands.

5:00pm — You Can Be a Wesley
This foursome of Boston University students, fronted by guitarist and singer Saara Untract-Oakner, play music reminiscentof Broken Social Scene, Metric & New Order.  Once you hear one of their beguiling and earnest indie rock songs—“Creatures” is the perfect example—prepare to have a new favorite local band.