Fantastic Fourth Music Legends Join Forces With Local Favorites For Festival This Weekend

From rock ‘n’ roll to country and soul. From jazz to gospel and blues.

Starting tonight at Riverfront Park, the Spokane American Music Festival will take participants on a tour of a vast landscape - a musical landscape - that spans both this country’s miles and its years.

Hear the history of Motown come to life with a performance by the legendary Martha Reeves and the Vandellas Friday night.

Listen to “The Big Man” Clarence Clemmons - of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band fame - draw the sweet sounds of rock and soul from his sax Saturday night.

Local favorites like the Coeur d’Alene Marimba Ensemble, Sammy Eubanks and Nancy Lynn Allen will add their music to the mix.

Even The King will be there … or someone who looks a lot like him.

Last year, the Spokane American Music Festival replaced Neighbor Days as the community’s official Fourth of July event. It drew an estimated 85,000 people.

This year promises to be even bigger with 30 different concerts and performances over four days - tonight through Sunday. All the concerts are free.

Toss in jugglers, two beer gardens, 50 arts and crafts booths and food stands from 22 area eateries - Azar’s Restaurant, Leo’s Bistro and Papa Rossi’s among them.

Oh, and don’t forget the fireworks.

The fireworks display, scheduled for Friday at 10:10 p.m., has jumped from the 1,996 explosions last year to the 2,350 planned for this year. That makes it the largest fireworks show ever presented in Spokane. Check out these highlights:

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

“I’d stop breathing if I didn’t sing,” says Martha Reeves. “It’s what I was born to do. It’s the job God gave me.”

Indeed, the songstress’ soul-filled brassy vocals have played an important part in the history of rock, pop and soul.

With tunes like “Come and Get These Memories” and “Jimmy Mack,” Reeves and the Vandellas became one of Motown’s premier women groups (along with the Supremes). Their biggest hits, “Dancing in the Street” and “Heat Wave,” are among the most popular dance records to spring from the ‘60s.

“Our music was based on love and happiness and rhythms,” Reeves said recently during a telephone interview from her Detroit home. “We encouraged people to laugh and have a good time and dance.”

Reeves began singing at her mother’s urging when she was just 3 years old. She still remembers getting candy in her grandfather’s church for a performance.

Growing up poor in Detroit, Reeves saw music as both a way to make her mother happy and a way to pull the family of 12 children out of poverty. With the money she earned from singing, Reeves was able to buy her father his first new suit.

Reeves, along with high school friends Annette Beard and Rosalind Ashford, first sang as the Del-Phis. They were later chosen to sing behind Marvin Gaye on “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” and then, in 1962, formed as the Vandellas.

The two Vandellas have changed over the years, but Reeves remained as the core and lead singer of the trio.

Under the pressures of a hectic performing and recording schedule, Reeves became addicted to prescription drugs in the 1970s and eventually suffered a nervous breakdown. But, she was able to turn her life around and has been off drugs since 1977.

“I was reborn in 1977 and anything I do from that point on is my second chance,” she says. “I’m going to do it right.”

To that end, Reeves says she stays busy with piano and golf lessons, a heavy performing schedule and work on a new album in which she - finally - has full control.

“I’m creating and producing my own songs for the first time in my career,” she says, pointing out that Motown provided the songwriters and gave her little creative leeway except in the singing style. “I’m insisting on doing it myself. It’s like I’ve grown up in my music development.”

Reeves will perform Friday night at 9 p.m. with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra in the Lilac Bowl. Carolyn Crawford and Karen McMurray will join her as the Vandellas.

Clarence Clemmons

“The Big Man” has performed with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Aretha Franklin, Roy Orbison and Patti LaBelle.

But it is the late leader of The Grateful Dead that Clarence Clemmons, the 55-year-old sax superstar, holds as one of his all-time best-loved musical partners.

“Jerry Garcia was one of my favorite guys to play with because he saw the music the same way I do … as pure energy, uncomplicated,” Clemmons says. “It’s all about love and he loved the music the way I love it. We had very short but very powerful moments together.”

Clemmons was 9 years old when his father got him a sax instead of an electric train for Christmas.

Nicknamed “The Big Man” because of his 6-foot, 3-inch stature, Clemmons has performed with many different artists but is best known for his 19 years of scorching sax with Springsteen’s E Street Band.

It was the early 1970s and Clemmons was playing in a band part time and working as a counselor at a boys home when he was introduced to Springsteen.

“I walked to the club he was playing at and asked if I could sit in. I sat in and the magic started,” Clemmons says.

Springsteen decided to fly solo in 1989 and the E Street Band split up. Still, Clemmons is often asked whether a reunion lies somewhere in the future.

“The answer is I don’t know,” he says, explaining that he and Springsteen talk once in a while. “He hasn’t said when but it may happen.”

Clemmons certainly isn’t waiting around. He has taken on screenwriting and acting side projects. He landed a recurring role on the CBS series “Nash Bridges” and has been cast is three upcoming movies.

Still, music - and especially the sax - remains his greatest passion.

“I guess it was just made for me,” Clemmons says of his instrument of choice. “I look at it as an extension of myself. The saxophone is my love.”

Clemmons and his newly formed band perform Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Clocktower Meadow.

Lydia Pense and Cold Blood

A dynamic singer who emerged from San Francisco in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Lydia Pense is back with a mixture of rock, rhythm and blues and funk.

The various members of the band Cold Blood have performed with Tower of Power, the Temptations, Jefferson Starship, Bonnie Raitt and Huey Lewis.

Catch Pense and Cold Blood tonight at 7:30 in the Clocktower Meadow.

Jim Boyd and Rez Bound

A popular Native American trio, Jim Boyd and Rez Bound combine the sounds of contemporary folk with the music of their heritage.

Boyd has played on stage in conjunction with readings by Native American writer Sherman Alexie and has appeared at national festivals with The Indigo Girls.

The band plays at 2:45 p.m. Friday in the Clocktower Meadow.

The Gentlemen Jugglers

This juggling duo, who have juggled together since they were 11 years old, combines a sense of humor with hand-eye coordination and balance.

They can be seen riding 10-foot unicycles while juggling everything from bowling pins, knives and torches. They will perform throughout the day Friday on all three stages - the Clocktower Meadow, Imax Meadow and Lilac Bowl.

Kaz Murphy

With guitar in hand, Kaz Murphy and his band whip out a sizzling alt-country sound even though they’re from urbanland Seattle.

Backed up by Jacque Grad on accordion, violin and organ, Murphy’s songs are passionate and sometimes cynical and sad, but refuse to make you want to cry in your beer.

Catch the band at the Clocktower Meadow Saturday at 1 p.m.

Sally Firecracker

Seattle rock band The Amish Cowboys have disbanded and reformed into Sally Firecracker.

A five-piece band that features guitar, mandolin, violin and keyboards, these guys play adult rock in the vein of the Gin Blossoms, REM and Counting Crows.

Kat Burns (formerly of Arla Snell) is now the lead singer with Amish founder Jeff Ramsey on guitar, Rob Stewart on bass and vocals, Roger Johnson on drums and Mark Zyla on keyboards.

Sally Firecracker plays Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in the Clocktower Meadow.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL SCHEDULE Thursday Clocktower Meadow 5 p.m. - Nothin’ Personal (rockabilly blues) 7:30 p.m. - Lydia Pense and Cold Blood (R&B)

Friday Clocktower Meadow 11 a.m. - The Coeur d’Alene Marimba Ensemble (Marimba/African music) 12 p.m. - Gentlemen Jugglers (family entertainment) 1 p.m. - Norman Foote (children’s entertainment) 2:45 p.m. - Jim Boyd and Rez Bound (Native American music) 4:30 p.m. - The Cast from Carousel (show tunes) 5:30 p.m. - Men in the Making (‘50s and ‘60s music)

Imax Meadow 11:30 a.m. - Staley/Thomsen (classic/favorites) 1:30 p.m. - Isaiah Dalager (originals) 2:30 p.m. - Gentlemen Jugglers 3:30 p.m. - Isaiah Dalager 4:30 p.m. - Gentlemen Jugglers

Lilac Bowl 7 p.m. - Gentlemen Jugglers 7:30 p.m. - Official greeting (city/county officials) 8 p.m. - Elvis with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra (rock ‘n’ roll) 8:15 p.m. - Spokane Jazz Orchestra 9 p.m. - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas (rock/soul/nostalgia) 10:10 p.m. - Fireworks display

Beer Garden (Lilac Bowl): Staley/Thomsen - 3 p.m./4:30/6/10:45 p.m.

Saturday Clocktower Meadow 11 a.m. - Sammy Eubanks (country) 1 p.m. - Kaz Murphy (Americana/alternative-country) 3 p.m. - Eh Trane (jazz) 5:30 p.m. - Sally Firecracker (original rock) 8 p.m. - Clarence Clemmons and band (soul/rock)

Sunday clocktower Meadow 12 p.m. - Nancy Lynn Allen (folk) 2 p.m. - Moonlighters featuring Diana Redlin (rock/blues) 4 p.m. - Voices of Calvary (gospel) 5:30 p.m. - Too Slim and the Taildraggers (blues)

Food court Imax Meadow Thursday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Arts and crafts booths Clocktower Meadow/Howard Street/Honey Locus Lane Thursday, Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Beer gardens Clocktower Meadow Thursday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. (also at Lilac Bowl) Saturday: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Festival store Clocktower Meadow Thursday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.