Heavy-hitting Sevendust rocks Damon's Sox off
The heavy-rocking Sevendust doesn't like to call its followers "fans." The group prefers the term "friends" -- and one of them is Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, who has seen the Atlanta-based band at gigs everywhere from Maine to Florida and has managed to get to know them personally.
Damon expects to catch Sevendust when it headlines the Rolling Rock Town Fair at Suffolk Downs tomorrow.
"They're my boys," Damon says. "They're actually going to be playing at my wedding. The drummer's going to be staying at my house when they come into town. I'm going to take a bunch of these guys (Red Sox teammates), get a big limo, and go to the concert. We're going to go party like rock stars."
"Johnny has been very supportive. He comes to a lot of shows," Sevendust singer Lajon Witherspoon says.
"We're lucky," Witherspoon says. "Radio [airplay] comes and goes for us, but with the following we've created, we can still tour the world. It's all about the music for us, and our audience picks up on that."
Says Damon: "They were very heavy (metal) when they came out. They still are a little heavy, but they also have some pretty darn good ballads."
Sevendust was indeed heavy when its first album, the self-titled "Sevendust," came out in 1997, marking the group's explosion on the alt-metal scene. But the band has slowly evolved, and its audience has come along.
"On our first album, we were angry at the world, but we've grown up," Witherspoon says.
Sevendust has grown to the point of just releasing its first acoustic album, "Southside Double-Wide: Acoustic Live." It brings new emotion to many of its songs, including "Angel's Son," which was written as a tribute to singer Lynn Strait. It receives fresh meaning since Witherspoon's younger brother was murdered in Nashville because, says Witherspoon, "he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was shot nine times. That changed my life."
Witherspoon, an underrated singer, brings a muscular, soul-inflected side to metal but says tomorrow's show won't be an acoustic gig but a full-tilt electric one. "We're going to rip the track wide open this Saturday," he says.
Berkfest in limbo: Sadly, there will be no Berkfest this summer. The jam-oriented festival, which has run the past six summers (the last five at the Butternut Ski Basin in Great Barrington), is taking a year off. "I want to thank everyone who's supported this event, but with the mood of the country being so uncertain, and with the economy so uncertain, it seemed a good year to take it off," says promoter Andrew Stahl of Gamelan Productions.
Financially, Berkfest has had some up and down years, he says, and had bad luck last year because it was held the same weekend as the New York City blackout. "A lot of people couldn't get out of New York, and that hurt us," Stahl says, adding it's not been easy competing with what he calls "monolothic corporate giants."
Tone-Cool evolves: Wellesley-based Tone-Cool Records, which has released CDs by Susan Tedeschi, North Mississippi Allstars, and Taj Mahal, was acquired by Artemis Records in New York. Tone-Cool founder/CEO Richard Rosenblatt will remain and report to Artemis president Danny Goldberg, according to Goldberg's office. Tone-Cool staffers Dave Bartlett and Matt Cornell recently left to open a management and consulting firm, 525 Worldwide, based in Marblehead.
Bits and pieces: Prince has added a third show at the FleetCenter (Aug. 19) that goes on sale Monday . . . The fifth annual Fred Eaglesmith Weekend in Bellows Falls, Vt., features Boston acts the Resophonics and the Sarah Borges Band playing this afternoon at the Farmer's Market, then Eaglesmith playing tonight in the field behind the Everyday Inn, as well as Saturday under the tent at the Everyday Inn with the Resophonics, Drunk Stuntmen, Slaid Cleaves, and others . . . A much different weekend is forecast at the new Aggressive Music Festival, subtitled the Edge Fest, at the Glens Falls Civic Center in New York July 17-18. Bands include Slayer, Slipknot, Hatebreed, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and others. The co-host is Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta, who also hosts MTV2's Headbangers Ball. Details at aggressivemusicfestival.com . . . Tonight: The Good North's CD release party at T.T. the Bear's; Smile Empty Soul at Axis; Fluttr rocks the Western Front; Sarah Rabdau plays the Lizard Lounge's "Soul Low" series at 7 p.m. (followed by Monique Ortiz, Amun Ra and Annette Farrington later in the night); and the Swinging Steaks are at the Sea Note in Hull . . . Tomorrow: The Decemberists at the Paradise; Wheat at T.T.'s; Beatlejuice at Johnny D's; and world music-spiced Wildest Dreams host a CD release gig at Ryles . . . Sunday: Dublin's Mark Geary at the Paradise.
Bob Hohler of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
