Major Recording Stars on WildFest Stage this July 4th

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Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys will headline the Wild Center's WildFest celebration on Wednesday, July 4. This free day-long festival begins at 10:00 a.m. at this 31-acre Museum in Tupper Lake, New York.

• Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys will headline the Wild Center's WildFest '07 on July 4 in Tupper Lake, New York.
• Musician Martin Sexton plays again this year at the Wild Center's WildFest. This day long July 4 celebration in Tupper Lake, New York, begins at 10:00 a.m.

TUPPER LAKE, NY (06/28/2007)(readMedia)-- Martin Sexton played Madison Square Garden recently with Peter Frampton. He played Carnegie Hall and the Fillmore. Sexton’s on every indie music insider’s list of top acts to see live. Blues rocker and multiple Grammy winner John Mayer calls Sexton “the best live performer I’ve ever seen.” Actor Paul Newman says “if you are sitting down, you will immediately want to stand up.” Sexton will play as part of a daylong festival at the Wild Center’s WildFest ‘07 on July 4th. The festival opens at 10:00 a.m. adjacent to the Museum’s campus in Tupper Lake.

Ralph Stanley will also hit the WildFest stage with his Clinch Mountain Boys. Stanley is the uncontested lord of American bluegrass. His recent Grammy for the multiple award winning soundtrack album from the George Clooney movie O Brother Where Art Thou won him a whole new international following. The New York Times calls his haunting voice “otherworldly,” a “national treasure,” and describes his rendition of the song Oh Death as a “masterpiece.”

Stanley has every award a musician or artist could amass. He’s a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts. When the nation’s first families of country music gather, Stanley’s at the head of the table. If the United States named living national treasures, he’d have that too. When the Carter family wanted to record a tribute album to June Carter Cash, Stanley recorded his rendition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken at the Carter home in Virginia. Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys are a fitting band to play alongside Stanley, as they include some of the finest musicians in a tradition of American music that stretches back over generations.

Stanley and Sexton both have mountain roots: Stanley from the Clinch Mountains in Virginia; Syracuse native Sexton now spends time in the Adirondacks.

The Wild Center is a new natural history museum for the Adirondacks, and its WildFest has a nature theme. This year it’s about birds, and two of the other bands represent the opposite ends of the migration path for Adirondack birds. The local George Bailey Trio picks up the Adirondack end of the story, and Rick Davies & Jazzismo will bring up the South American part. Jazzismo is lead by trombonist Rick Davies backed by some of the top Latin jazz musicians in New York. Davies has played with the likes of Tito Puente, Johnny Colon, Charlie Palmieri, and Marc Anthony. Birds that migrate from the Adirondacks to Cuba and Latin America are going to recognize the lively music played by this famed group from New York City.

Finally, WildFest ’07 will feature a children’s concert by the Zucchini Brothers, a group hailed as the “Beatles of kid music.” Festival organizer Tracy Thomas, who is setting up the children’s tent and entertainment, sought out the Zucchini Brothers. “July 4th is supposed to be a family day, and we know the kids will dance to the other bands, but we wanted them to go home buzzing about what a great time they had, just like the parents.”

WildFest ‘07 is free. Other attractions at the festival include the Children’s Tent and Bird Exhibitors Tent that will feature noted bird experts from around the nation. WildFest will include a public “Ceremony for the Birds” that pick up on the Wild Center’s tradition of inviting visitors and neighbors to be part of the Museum’s ongoing celebration of the natural world. The ceremony will include a parade of birds, music and a chance for the audience to participate in the celebration. Visitors will be treated to a preview of the Wild Center’s Wings over the Adirondack experience that will include a Bird Skywalk and Skytowers. When the Skywalk is complete, it will showcase nearly 100 bird exhibits, and will take visitors up to the top of the tree canopy. WildFest ’07 visitors can also enjoy tours of what is now one of the ‘greenest’ buildings in the Adirondacks.

For more information on WildFest ’07, the Wings over the Adirondacks experience and the Wild Center, visit www.wildcenter.org or call the Museum directly at (518) 359-7800.

The Wild Center is a new kind of natural history museum that mixes the indoor and outdoors in unusual ways. There are waterfalls inside, and exhibit labels in the woods outside. Hiking trails outside the Wild Center are like museum exhibit halls, except they are in the forest, with labels that trained staff can change daily. Live otter and bird sounds mix with the splashing cascade of falling water from a trout-filled stream. Films from field scientists doing research in the Adirondacks showcase the world that surrounds the Museum. The Wild Center is open year round.

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Contact:

Lela R. Katzman Full Spectrum Communications (518) 785-4416 fsclela@verizon.net