A professional booking agent with his own company, Nightlife Music Co., Landers said he chooses talent each year for the concert program. Project Arts of Plymouth Inc. is an all-volunteer organization, he said.
Project Arts depends entirely on donations and grants to meet its $100,000 annual budget. Nightlife Music Co raises $20,000 a year for the concert series, and local service groups participate.
The concept of a free summer series originally arose out of an effort to boost a faltering local tourism industry in the 1990s, Landers said. The hope was that a regular midweek event would persuade visitors to extend their stay in Plymouth beyond one or two nights.
“We decided to wake up the town,” he said, “and put Plymouth on the map as a week-long destination.”
Attendance slowly increased as people brought lawn chairs or blankets and sat on the grass in a public park on Water Street, with the historic harbor in the background. The musicians performed on a portable stage called a “showmobile”. A few years later, a new scene brought the music closer to the dock where the Mayflower II docks.
The series later received a boost, Landers said, when a local business development group raised money for an upgraded “performance platform” at 13 Water St., which allowed the series to attract a greater caliber of talent and attract thousands of viewers. .
This year’s program runs until August 31. Big planned raffles – including a band led by the original bassist of the J. Geils Band, a night of reggae music led by one of the genre’s creators, and an Aerosmith tribute band made up of regional musicians – are still to come. come.
On July 20, cover band Cheap Voova, one of many scheduled acts made up of regional musicians from Plymouth and the South Shore, take the stage. “They play a wide mix of popular and R&B,” Landers said. “A little dance music.”
July 27 features singer Boston Catalino and Tryptonite, the singer’s backup band. On August 3, the headliner was Draw the Line, described by Landers as “the Arrowsmith-approved tribute band”.
August 10 features Third Left, a band from Plymouth with a jazz, reggae and funk sound, and the Fey Band, another band from Plymouth with a classic rock sound. The Brothers Project, slated for Aug. 17, is a South Shore band that “tone for tone” sounds like the Allman Brothers, Landers said.
Headlining August 24 is Danny Klein’s Full House. “Danny is the original bassist for the J. Geils Band,” Landers said. “He still plays that band’s music.”
The Project Arts finale on August 31 will feature the “Duppy Conquerors,” a Bob Marley tribute band.
Plymouth’s waterfront stage at music nights now also includes food trucks, including one owned by celebrity chef Stephen Coe, the resident chef of Plymouth’s ‘Cork and Table’ restaurant.
The shows have a rainy night location, moving to Memorial Hall, located at 84 Main St. This save will not be available on July 20 and 27, however. The Project Arts website notes that “we requested no rain for these 2 nights.”
Landers said he was happy the musical series was still free. “I wanted a place for all those people in the community, the underserved, the families with kids who can’t afford professional gigs,” he said. “I wanted to give them that experience without it coming out of their pockets.”
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox2@gmail.com.
