PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Back in February, the New England Americana Festival was held at Church over the course of 3 nights… and sold out each and every show! Now the organizers are back with a Summer Series of the NEAF, featuring monthly shows with some of the best roots acts in the city – this time at a bit bigger of a venue. The first one of the series will be held this Thursday, June 24th, at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Boston. Headlining Thursday night’s show will be local mandolin magician Jimmy Ryan and his band Hayride, featuring members of SonVolt and Blood Oranges. They’ll be joined by an excellent lineup of Boston’s best Americana bands, see full lineup with links below.

Jimmy Ryan - Photo by Megan Summers

Narragansett’s got the drink specials taken care of for this one – a much needed sponsorship considering the Hard Rock’s can otherwise be a bit hard on your pocket. Also, a portion of the proceeds will benefit Pinups for Pitbulls, a non-profit dedicated to rescuing dogs in need and fighting Breed Specific Legislation. PGB can always get behind a show that lets you rock out for a good cause! Other sponsors include the New England Folk Music Archives, Citywide Blackout, and the Naukabout Music Festival, which will take place in August down on the Cape.

So the super-generous organizers of this festival have given us a few pairs of tickets to give away for this extravaganza! To win, just shoot an e-mail over to bryan@playgroundboston.com with the subject “AMERICANA” and you’ll be automatically entered! The winners will be selected randomly on Wednesday afternoon, so don’t wait – enter now! (As always, we’ll never spam you, the only thing we’ll use your address for is to e-mail you if you win!)

WAIT! Want quadruple the chance to win? The NEAF organizers hooked up our friends over at Boston Band Crush, Band Over Boston, and Citywide Blackout with tickets to give away as well! Head on over to either of those fine websites and enter their contests too!

The New England Americana Festival Summer Series
Thursday June 24th @ The Hard Rock Cafe

Jimmy Ryan & Hayride!

Marc Douglas Berardo

Sam Reid & The Riot Act

Eric Robertson & The Boston Boys

The Whiskey Boys

Jeff Conley

Hard Rock Cafe

New England Americana Festival Homepage

This weekend brings the 4th annual New England Americana Festival to Boston (formerly known as the Alt-Country Extravaganza). The festival this year has been receiving tons of press in newspapers and music sites for the past two months, and is looking to be one of the best roots-rock events this area has seen in years! This is an entirely non-profit event, with all proceeds to benefit Coalition for Courage, an organization that helps children in Africa.

In addition to 8 bands per night on the big stage at Church, event organizer Noel Coakley (Autumn Hollow Band) will also be setting up a second stage over by the bar, to ensure that even between sets there will still be music filling the room. The lineups for each night speak for themselves – check them out below, with the headliners for each night in bold. Each night is extremely solid! Tickets are around $10 per night, but you can get a combo pass to all three shows for only $20 – a great discount for a long weekend of all the twang you can handle!

Here’s the lineup and set times for each night:

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