Home Town Summer Fun This Week with Steely Dan, Alison Krauss& Union Station, Irving Berlin-I Love a Piano at the Ives Concert Park

The Summer is heating up at the Ives Concert Park in Danbury CT.  In the year of the stay-cation, record crowds have been attending events at the Park, and this week will be more of the same.      

This weekend, July 22rd & July 23rd as part of the Newtown Savings Bank Fine Arts and Family Series at the Ives Concert Park in Danbury, the WestConn theater department will perform "I Love a Piano -- A Salute to Irving Berlin" at 8 p.m. both Friday and Saturday evening. Shows are on the Ives Stage and patrons do not need to bring chairs. Enjoy the show and the shade. Tickets are available at 203-837-TIXX, or at www.wcsu.edu, or www.ivesconcertpark.com.    

The show is the celebration of the music and lyrics of Irving Berlin. It follows the journey of a piano as it moves in and out of American lives from the turn of the century to the present. Along the way, the story comes to vibrant life with more than 60 ...of Irving Berlin's most beloved songs, including classics such as "Blue Skies," "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "Cheek to Cheek," "Always," "How Deep is the Ocean," "Anything You Can Do," "God Bless America,"' and, of course, "I Love a Piano." Alternately heartbreaking and hilarious, rousing and reflective, "I Love a Piano" is a fitting tribute to the man Jerome Kern famously said had "no place in American music -- he is American music."    

On Monday, July25th, the 2011 Union Savings Bank Summer Concert Series continues with rock lengends STEELY DAN.

Rock & Roll Hall of Famers STEELY DAN dazzled both the public and the critics in 2009 with their classic-albums-in-full Rent Party Tour. Responding to overwhelming popular demand, Steely Dan masterminds Walter Becker and Donald Fagen bring on more action with the Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Elevensummer tour.  The tour will showcase greatest hits and deep cuts alike. Shows will also feature performances of complete classic albums, and set-lists determined by fan voting online. Steely Dan have announced this year's program will also include special guests, and an idealistic strategy for World Peace. Acclaimed jazz artist Sam Yahel is on board as the tour's main support act. For Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven, Fagen and Becker bring back their awesome group of players, this year dubbed the Miles High Big Band: Keith Carlock (drums); Jon Herington (guitar); Freddie Washington (bass); Jim Beard (keys); Michael Leonhart, Walt Weiskopf, Roger Rosenberg and Jim Pugh (horns) — along with their saucy backup trio, the Embassy Brats: Carolyn Leonhart, Cindy Mizelle, and Catherine Russell.

The show is at 8pm, gates open at 6pm. Tickets are on sale at 1-866-55-Tickets, and at www.premierboxoffice.com, or www.ivesconcertpark.com.

The Unions Savings Bank Summer Concert Series continues on Wednesday July 27th, when Grammy Award winner Alison Krauss and Union Station, with Jerry Douglas hit the the Ives stage.  Tickets are available at 1-866-558-4253, or at www.premierboxoffice.com or at ivesconcertpark.com.

Alison Krauss' most recent triumph, the certified-platinum Raising Sand, her 2007 collaboration with Robert Plant and producer T Bone Burnett, notched up a total of six Grammy® Awards, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year, bringing her unsurpassed total to 26. That mesmerizing modern-day masterpiece sets the stage for another stunner: Paper Airplane, the artist’s first album of all-new recordings in partnership with ...her remarkably skillful and renowned band Union Station since 2004’s Lonely Runs Both Ways. The opening act will be Dawes.

Plan on more fun at the Ives this summer as August shows include Guster, Broadway star Linda Eder, the Beach Boys, J GEILS Band, ZZ Top, The Gong Show, and Flagpole Radio with Peter Yarrow. Please visit WWW.IVESCONCERTPARK.COMfor info, or on Facebook at Ives Concert Park for info.