Headliners for Taste of Chicago 2011 will include Loretta Lynn (July 1), the Jayhawks (July 2) and Natalie Cole (June 30).

Folded into the Taste lineup in Grant Park will be one-day versions of four formerly freestanding festivals: Viva! Chicago Latin Music Day (June 24), Gospel Music Day (June 26), Celtic Music Day (June 29) and Country Music Day (July 1). The consolidation was forced by a city budget crunch; lakefront festivals alone lost $1.7 million in 2008, $3.7 million in 2009 and $1.5 million in 2010.

Here’s the complete lineup announced Friday by the Chicago Park District:

June 24: Los Horoscopos de Durango

June 25: To be announced

June 26: Reverend Milton Brunson’s Thompson Community Singers and Donald Lawrence.

June 27:  Broadway in Chicago with the casts of “Beauty and The Beast,” “Million Dollar Quartet,” “West Side Story,” “Mary Poppins,” “Memphis,” “The Addams Family” and others.
       
June 28: The Lemonheads and MaterialReissue (formerly Material Issue, with new singer-guitarist Phil Angotti).

June 29: Natalie MacMaster with Liz Carroll, John Doyle and John Williams.
       
June 30: Natalie Cole
       
July 1: Loretta Lynn and Court Yard Hounds (Martie Mcguire and Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks)
       
July 2: The Jayhawks with Everest

July 3: Greyson Chance and Shane Harper
       
More information is available at www.tasteofchicago.us or call 312-742-4387.
       
 greg@gregkot.com
       
       

    By cover of snowstorm Tuesday, Mayor Richard Daley’s administration officially flipped-flopped on his notion to privatize and revitalize the city’s lakefront festivals, including Taste of Chicago.
      
       In rejecting a bid by a joint venture calling itself Celebrate Chicago at a time when most of the city’s media was covering the snowstorm of the century, Daley put the city’s 2011 summer festival schedule back where it ended last year: deeply in debt and in dire need of rejuvenation. What’s more, most major summer festivals have already booked their headlining talent, meaning Chicago will have even slimmer pickings this year when it comes to booking bands for its marquee outdoor events, including Taste of Chicago, Blues Fest and Jazz Fest.
      
       Last year, Daley said the city was facing a financial crisis and endorsed the possibility of charging admission for city festivals by hiring private operators.  “You have to,” he said at the time, as quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times. “The cost factor was enormous for Taste of Chicago. No one made any money. … If it costs you more and more money every year for city services, how are you affording this?”
 

It’s hard to imagine the city turning down the reported sole bidder to run Taste of Chicago and its other outdoor summer festivals.
 
Given the qualifications of that bidder – Celebrate Chicago, a partnership that includes experienced concert promoters Jam Productions and AEG Live, plus the Illinois Restaurant Association – accepting the bid offers not just a way for the city to trim its budget but to actually improve the musical quality of its downtrodden summer festivals.
 
The down side, of course, is that a few of these events would no longer be “free” (though patrons already are paying for food tickets at Taste). But the admission fees that are being proposed ($20 at Taste up to $65 for major concert draws, $10 for Blues and Jazz Fest, free for Viva Chicago, Celtic, Gospel and Country Fest) aren’t exorbitant. Pricing safeguards need to be installed to ensure these festivals remain accessible and affordable to the vast majority of Chicagoans, a reasonable middle ground between "free" and "out of my league."
 
What’s clear is that "free" wasn't working anymore, and hasn’t been for quite some time. With the exception of Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and a handful of others, the top concert draws at Taste and the other, more music-intensive city summer events in recent years have been below par, a parade of has-beens, journeymen and cover bands.
 
In booking Taste, the Mayor’s Office of Special Events made an effort in recent years to draw on the rich local community, and turned over some smaller stages to local labels. Jam and its partners can surely expand that initiative. The involvement of Jam – as opposed to some deep-pocketed outside promoter with no real ties to Chicago – could be a potential boon for both the festivals and the local music community. Tie-ins with Chicago-based labels and clubs (who traditionally suffer during the summer months while most touring acts play outdoors) could and should be encouraged.
 
At the other end of the spectrum, Jam and AEG (which also has ties to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival) should have enough clout, credibility and connections to draw top-tier talent to Grant Park throughout the summer.
 
Bottom line from a musical standpoint: Privatizing Taste was inevitable, and the bidding options could’ve been far worse. If there was a surprise, it is that Texas-based C3 Presents, which books Lollapalooza in Grant Park, decided to sit out. It would have been interesting to see how the city would’ve handled a competing bid from a company that has ingratiated itself with the Daley administration in recent years. But C3 apparently had its hands full launching the latest incarnation of Lollapalooza, which is to debut in Chile in April.
 
Meanwhile, time’s a-wasting. Most summer festivals are booked by this point, which means that should Celebrate Chicago be awarded the contract, it will need to work fast. It’s the first of what are sure to be many challenges facing the city’s prospective partner-in-waiting.

greg@gregkot.com

The Taste of Chicago music lineup this summer at Petrillo Music Shell will be announced Thursday. Here it is:

June 25: Rob Base, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Salt-n-Pepa, Bell Biv Devoe 

June 26 Gavin Rossdale

June 27: Emily Osment

June 28: Broadway in Chicago

June 29: Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys

June 30: Mat Kearney, Brett Dennen

July 1: Trey Songz, Teairri Mari

July 2: Rob Thomas

July 3: Steve Miller Band

July 4: Rock triple bill TBA

The Taste of Chicago music menu deserves its own rating system:

*** PUT DOWN THAT CHICKEN KABOB AND PAY ATTENTION AT ALL COSTS

** WILL NOT GIVE YOU STOMACH CRAMPS WHILE YOU MUNCH

* GET A HOAGIE, HEAD FOR THE WASHROOM, GO ANYWHERE BUT HERE

Friday June 26:

*** Charlie Wilson and Cameo, 5:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Music Shell. If it’s ‘80s electro-funk you want, you’ve come to the right stage, with the Gap Band’s Charlie Wilson headlining while Cameo is sure to rev up the still-thrilling “Word Up” as the opener.

** Indie Rock and Power Pop, 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. on the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. No big names, but I’m a fan of Holding Mercury’s hooks-heavy 2008 release, “Downfall of an Empire.” Their set starts at 4:15 p.m.

Saturday June 27

*** Andre Williams Trio, noon at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. A day devoted to the riches in the Bloodshot Records artist roster kicks off with the loose, lascivious, completely unpredictable Williams, followed by sets from the Deadstring Brothers, Dollar Store, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir and the Waco Brothers.

* Counting Crows, 5:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Music Shell. Remember the ‘mid-‘90s? Because that’s were you’ll be stuck when Adam Duritz and company rewind their 15 minutes of fame with “Mr. Jones.”

Sunday June 28

** The Lovehammers, 5 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. The South Side veterans always deliver a bar-band buzz. Their enthusiasm and energy should easily eclipse headliners the Wallflowers.

* Cover bands, noon-8:30 p.m. at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. With all the fine bands in Chicago writing and performing original material, why a whole day and stage has been devoted to the kind of music you can hear at any wedding or cruise ship is embarrassing.

Monday June 29 

*** World music, noon-8:30 p.m. at Illinois State Lottery Taste Stage. A style-hopping panoply of bands steeped in Caribbean, Latin and African sounds. I particularly enjoy the jazz-flavored Afro-funk of the Chicago Afrobeat Project (5:15 p.m.).

** Broadway in Chicago, 6 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. A shot of “Jersey Boys” will highlight this revue, along with songs from “Mary Poppins,” “Young Frankenstein” and more. Too bad it won’t also include the excellent “Million Dollar Quartet” cast that rocked the Goodman.

Tuesday June 30

*** Aron Burton and Two for the Blues with “Honeyboy” Edwards, 5:15 p.m. at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. Burton is a solid journeyman who can deliver on guitar and unhurried vocals, and Edwards is one of the last living links to the Robert Johnson era.

* Barenaked Ladies, 5:30 p.m. at Petrillo Band Shell. Not as funny as they think they are, and about a decade past their prime.

Wednesday July 1

*** Ne-Yo with Keri Hilson, 5:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. Among the latest legion of R&B heart-throbs, Ne-Yo (Shaffer Smith) is a master of the heartbreak ballad. But I wonder how gloom classics such as "Why Does She Stay" and "Fade into the Background" will go over amid the usual Taste frivolity, or whether he’ll even have the courage to sing them. Here’s hoping he does.

* More tribute bands, noon to 8:30 p.m. at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. The only possible redeeming feature of seeing bands cover U2, the Rolling Stones and the Eagles is that you don’t have to pay U2-level prices. 

Thursday, July 2

*** Thrill Jockey Records Day, from noon-to-8:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. An entire day of one of the quirkiest, coolest label rosters in all independent music. Special props to the incendiary trio led by saxophone legend Fred Anderson (3:30 p.m.), the rollicking celebration of 8 Bold Souls (7 p.m.) and a rare Eleventh Dream Day sighting --- maybe Rick Rizzo will lay some new songs on us (5:15 p.m.).

* Super Diamond with Afrodisiacs, 5:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. Yet another cover act, this time a San Francisco group that requires six guys to emulate one larger-than-life performer, Neil Diamond.

Friday July 3:

*** Fireworks with the 85th Army Band, 7:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. The All-American light show. What more do you need on July 4th eve?

** Liz Toussaint, 1:45 p.m. at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. Toussaint bills herself as the love child of Kenny Rogers and Anita Baker, which isn’t a pretty picture. But she’s got a decent voice in a neo-soul sister kind of a way.

Saturday July 4

*** Booker T and the Drive by Truckers, with Buddy Guy and Guster, 3 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. Though I’m not a big fan of his latest album, Booker T Jones is a legendary soul man, and his collaboration with the Southern roots rockers has the potential to rekindle some of the previous night’s fireworks.

** Songs for Presidents, noon-3 p.m. at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. Dozens of indie artists pay tribute in song to the 44 Chief Executives.

Sunday July 5

*** Gospel and jazz, noon to 5:30 p.m. at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage. The hosannas will rain from on high with Arthur Sutton and the Gift of Praise (1:30 p.m.) and the Shekinah Glory Ministry (3 p.m.), capped off by saxophone great Von Freeman (4:30 p.m.).

** Mitchel Musso and Jordan Pruitt, 2:30 p.m. at the Petrillo Band Shell. Second-tier Disney stars should keep the kids occupied while the adults wind down the holiday with some beach-blanket toasts.

greg@gregkot.com

    Ne-Yo, Buddy Guy, Counting Crows and the Wallflowere are among the headliners scheduled for the Taste of Chicago main stage this summer, the city confirmed Monday.

    Here is the list of performers at the Petrillo Band Shell that will provide the musical accompaniment for the city’s annual food festival (the July 2 headliner was not yet confirmed and will be named later):

    Charlie Wilson (Gap Band singer) and Cameo, June 26; Counting Crows, June 27; Wallflowers and Lovehammers, June 28; Broadway in Chicago concert (“Mary Poppins,” “Jersey Boys,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Spring Awakening,” “In the Heights”), June 29; Barenaked Ladies, June 30; Ne-Yo, July 1; fireworks show with the 85th Army Band, July 3; Buddy Guy plus two opening acts, July 4; Michael Musso and Jordan Pruitt (kids day), July 5 matinee.

    For music fans looking to dig deeper, the real action at Taste will be at a stage set up at the south end of the festival, at Balbo and Columbus. The stage will present music overseen by respected local labels, including Bloodshot  (June 27), Earwig  (June 30) and Thrill Jockey (July 2), including Eleventh Dream Day, Fred Anderson, Doug McCombs and David Daniel, Bobby Conn. One of the city's leading music clubs, the Hideout, will present “A Patriotic Salute to our 44 Presidents” July 4, with a variety of artists presenting a song for each president.

    Also to be presented on the second stage will be lineups built on particular themes  (indie rock and power pop, world music, tribute bands, gospel and jazz); blues patriarch David "Honeyboy" Edwards (June 30)  and jazz saxophonist Von Freeman (July 5) will be among the performers.

greg@gregkot.com