Kathy Mattea

Kathy Mattea has played bluegrass country and western since 1976, when she joined her first band in college. She started recording in 1983 and has recorded 17 albums, with thirty singles claiming a spot in the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts, with twelve in the top ten and her hits "Goin' Gone" (1987), "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" (1988), "Come From the Heart" (1989) and "Burnin' Old Memories" (1989) reaching the number one spot.

She’s won three Academy of Country Music awards, four Country Music Association awards and Grammys in 1991 for Best Female Country Vocal Performer with the single “Where You’ve Been”, and in 1994 for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album with her 1993 effort, Good News.

She also has a genuine philanthropic streak, being an outspoken supporter of HIV/AIDs charities during the 1990s epidemic in the somewhat conservative context of country music. She was given two awards for her efforts the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award and the Harvard AIDS Institute Leadership Award.

She’s a well-accomplished old dame and, at 55, she’s as young and sprightly as in her late 1980s heyday. It’s truly an honor to watch such an established country star perform and it’s a night we’ll all remember as being great.

It’s not every day that you see a mainstream 7-piece jam band complete with trumpet and saxophone hit the road, but similar to the likes of Moon Taxi and The Wild Feathers, the New Orleans based Revivalists deliver the enthusiastic twang of a southern alt rock band playing with a genuine and undeniably innate sense of rhythm.

For such a big outfit, the guys are close yet comfortable on stage, each ingratiating himself inconspicuously before coming together as a group both mentally and musically for the drop. Vocalist David Shaw’s rough yet rich delivery is at times reminiscent of Ray LaMontage’s husky but passionate tone (especially when he’s stripped down with only a guitar). Shaw not only genuinely inflects his commitment to the song using his powerful voice, but also through his onstage presence, fumblingly calculatedly around onstage while continuously encouraging the crowd and interacting with the front row die-hards.

The unrelenting saxophone, along with the trumpet, pierce the melody, adding to the highly energetic and involving performance; it’s exactly what you’d expect from a 7-piece jam band.

With an EP and two albums under their belt, including a 2014 re-release of the two-disc City of Sound, The Revivalists offer a grand, one-of-a-kind musical experience, continuously touring North America with the entire band in tow.

Steven Curtis Chapman is an extremely talented contemporary Christian music artist, having won five Grammys and a countless number of Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. But he is not just a musician, he is multi-talented with acting, producing and writing under his belt as well; in addition to all of that, he is also a big advocate for adoption.
Despite all of his major success, he is very humble and down to earth. During his shows he shows a clear passion for his love of making music. He is also very good about addressing the crowd, thanking them for their love and support. Because of his advocacy for adoption he also says a piece about the issue and how beneficial it is to different people. The most important part about his shows though, is his music. There is a reason that he has been so recognized, and when you see him live there is no question as to the validity of his popularity. No matter if you are Christian or not, he has a way of drawing in a crowd to his music. The love that he is trying to give comes through the music and passes through every single person in the venue.

The Kent Stage is a great place to see a band or person up close and personal because of it's size. In my opinion the Taylor Hicks concert was a lame concert. I expected more. He sang fine but only played 1:25 minutes and talked longer between the songs than the actual length of the songs. Then when he finished his last song and said goodbye the lights came on and he never did an encore. All and all my wife and I were very disappointed. I think Taylor was disappointed in the small crowd and really didn't care to play for such a small audience.