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ParkFest rolls on Tuesday with Saturday Shoes, Chris Wurster
The echoes barely gone from Saturday's Independence Day celebration, Robe-Ann Park will be awash in sound again Tuesday with another installment of ParkFest.
Chris Wurster and Saturday Shoes will perform in the weekly summer concert series presented by the Greencastle Civic League. Wurster will kick things off at 6:30 p.m., followed by the eclectic indie combo.
This week's food vendor will be Burgers & Such.
Like a many musicians, Wurster picked up his first guitar as a teenager. That led to a folk group in high school, a pop group at DePauw and a country rock duo in Denver.
Then came family and jobs -- occasional jams with friends -- and a performing hiatus.
Since retiring two years ago, Wurster has played the Greencastle Farmer's Market, local restaurants and bars, the Songwriters Showcase at Players Pub in Bloomington and ParkFest for the first time last summer.
He organized a Crosby Stills Nash and Young tribute at Chief's in March, featuring local musicians as well as DePauw friends from Bloomington with whom he jams regularly. And he performed an original song, "Awesome Castle," for the "Harvest" concert last year with Fifth House Ensemble.
Wurster also sings in a barbershop quartet, "Whatever Four," and performs with the Putnam County Playhouse.
ParkFest stalwart Saturday Shoes is an alt-country and indie rock cover band. The band's mission is to eschew popular music for the raw, quintessentially American sound of alt-country and indie rock. However, they have been known to be suckers for disco and 1970s soft rock.
All labels aside, the band still has a wide array of songs to choose from, so listeners can expect broad choices in the set list. Recently the band has covered artists from Bob Dylan to Foxygen, from the Grateful Dead to the Drive-By Truckers. The list of artists they cover is simply too long to print.
Saturday Shoes is a band that anyone can enjoy. They may cover a song from 50 years ago or from last week.
In the end, Saturday Shoes is simply devoted to having and providing a good time.
Much like summer itself, ParkFest is coming to an end much faster than most would care to believe. Just two dates remain on the schedule after this week.
On Tuesday, July 14, music will be provided by Lexi Len and the Strangers as well as Gus Moon. After a week off for the Putnam County Fair, the final week will feature John Bean and Dominique Rivers on Tuesday, July 28.
Putnam Inn will be the food vendor for the final two shows.