Arts Council Announces 5th Annual LH JAMS Festival Saturday, August 15
LOCK HAVEN – The Clinton County Arts Council has been committed to bringing exceptional live music and art to Lock Haven every summer during the LH JAMS festival. The 5th annual version will be no exception.
Like most things in 2020, COVID has changed the way the world interacts. The way we mingle, the way we work, the way we seek outlets for entertainment and art. This is also true for the LH JAMS festival.
The CCAC Board of Directors realized early this spring that the festival would need to be quite different. Most importantly, we felt that a festival should happen, recognizing the psychological cost in a summer that most events have been canceled. Our scheduled jazz performances had to be moved to August of 2021 since the Art & All that Jazz reception at LHU was canceled and the evening performances at local restaurants and pubs would not be practical due to limited seating inside each venue.
Even though LH JAMS will be very different, we are excited to announce two extremely talented bands. Slow Hands Band (Eric Clapton Tribute) and The Hex Highway Blues Band will be playing on the Main & Grove Street stage during the afternoon and evening. In total there will be nearly 5 hours of exceptional entertainment.
Along with the musical performances, Plein Air artists Susan Nicholas Gephart and Karl Eric Leitzel will again be part of the festivities. This will be the fifth year Susan and Karl have been part of the LH JAMS festival. Through their paintings, they always seem to capture the spirit and excitement of the festival and the City.
For safety reasons, we will not have art, craft or food vendors this year, but there will be cafe seating at city restaurants during the day and evening. Enjoy food and drinks outside while listening to the gritty sounds of the Hex Highway Blues Band from 3 to 5 p.m. then the northeast’s premier Eric Clapton tribute band, Slow Hands, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Both bands are simply world class and perform the quality of music that is synonymous with the LH JAMS festival.
In a year that most events have been canceled, the CCAC is excited to offer this smaller yet exciting version of LH JAMS while doing so in a safe and responsible manner. Safety is our priority for the public and the performers. We encourage everyone to practice all CDC and State guidelines while enjoying world class music in 2020. There will be plenty of room for social distancing and fresh air.
Please come and support downtown businesses and the arts on August 15. We encourage you to wear a mask and social distance for a fun and safe afternoon and evening!!! This is going to be a fantastic event if we all work together!!!
Steve Getz
LH JAMS Director
CCAC Board Member
Slow Hands Band / Eric Clapton Tribute:
In March 2018, the Ramblin Dawgs, an original blues rock band, added two members and created Slow Hands,The Music of Eric Clapton. The goal was to create a band that captures the energy and passion of the music of Eric Clapton, the only person inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three separate times. That goal was reached and the band performs Clapton songs from Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos and his entire
Solo Career.
Based out of New Jersey, Slow Hands is recognized as the premier Clapton tribute band in the northeast. Their powerful renditions of ‘White Room & Layla’ to soft tones of ‘Wonderful Tonight and Tears in Heaven’ will keep you on an emotional roller coaster during the entire performance.
There are no gimmicks, no dress-ups, no makeup …. Slow Hands performances are all about the music. The band has performed at many of the top venue halls in the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania area. For more information can be found at www.slowhandsband.com
Plein Air Painting during LH JAMS festival
We are delighted to have both Susan and Karl back again in 2020. We consider the “plein air” demonstrations as an important aspect of combining the visual and performing arts of LH JAMS. This will be the 5th year they have been part of the festival.
Susan Nicholas Gephart:
Susan Nicholas Gephart is an award winning pastel and oil painter who has been creating colorful, impressionistic landscapes “plein air” for over forty years. She works and teaches in all mediums, and welcomes new students of all levels and mediums.
Susan’s colorful, impressionistic plein air pastels and oils are in private and permanent collections across the country, including The Penn Stater Conference Center, Lock Haven University, and The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art. Susan is an Associate Member of the Pastel Society of America, and a Signature
Member and the current president of the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society. She also co-founded the Plein Air Painters of Central PA.
She was a presenter at the 6th and 7th Annual Plein Air Conventions in San Diego, CA, and Santa Fe, New Mexico and returned as invited faculty for the 8th Annual Plein Air Convention in San Francisco, CA. In July 2018, Susan led the _rst Sennelier-sponsored Brittany Skies & Seas workshop. Pierre-Yann Guidetti
hosted the artist retreat at his family home in Kerrema, Brittany, France. For more information visit www.snicholasart.com
Karl Eric Leitzel:
Karl Eric Leitzel is a central Pennsylvania native who has been painting for over thirty years. After concentrating on the genre of realistic wildlife art during the 1990’s, he now paints a broader range of subject matter in styles ranging from realistic through impressionistic. He particularly enjoys painting the landscape, often working en plein air (in the open air). “Much of my work is landscape-oriented because I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of the creation around us. I take deep satisfaction in being able to capture even a little of that in each piece I paint.” Karl is a Resident Artist and the Managing
Partner at the Green Drake Gallery.
He has had work included in the prestigious Birds in Art show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin and in 2010 completed a large commissioned painting for Penn State that now hangs in the lobby of the beautiful Nittany Lion Inn. He is the founder and director of Landscape
Artists International, an online collective that has grown to more than 200 members. Karl is also a signature member of International Plein Air Painters as well as the more local Farmland Preservation Artists of Central Pennsylvania. For more information visit www.greendrakeart.com
Chris LaRose & Hex Highway Blues Band:
“Chris LaRose & Hex Highway Blues Band” is a driving, foot stomping, four-piece Blues band that specializes in rocking golden era Blues from musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, and Freddy King. The show swings into the 1950-60’s with Rock & Roll from Buddy Holly, Elvis, Dion, and Chuck Berry and really gets cruising with Woodstock hits by masters like Joplin, Hendrix, Cocker, CCR, and the Allman Brothers – all with a thrilling mix of red hot originals. This musical time warp takes o_ like a rocket, bringing you the best old school cool Americana around, leaving you jumping for more!
Chris LaRose hails from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Growing up in garages and restoring vintage motorcycles with his family and friends has had a unique impact on his music style. Chris’s concerts range from driving blues and upbeat 50’s rockabilly, to traditional folk, ballads, and soulful originals. He feels honored to have played several shows with Grammy Award-winning Native American artist Joanne Shenandoah both in America and in Europe.
He has recently returned from his latest tour through Germany performing a series of Pennsylvania Dutch oriented shows including traditional folk songs, new originals, and the world’s only 1950’s Rockabilly music sung completely in Pennsylvania Dutch.
Chris credits his father, John H. LaRose, Jr. (1952-2017), for passing on his love of music. “My father was a musician for over thirty years before I was even an idea. He rescued and performed many songs during the folk music boom in the 1970’s. He frequently worked with wonderful musicians such as Debby McClatchy, Bonnie Raitt, John Jackson, Elizabeth Cotton, Ola Belle Reed, and many others on song and story collecting. He used to drive hours and hours away deep into small mountain towns to meet an old lumberman, or a miner, and have them sing him old work songs so they would be preserved just a little while longer. My goal is to pick up where he left o_; learning, performing, and protecting music and stories on the verge of being lost.”
Chris is proud to promote his second album, “Chris LaRose: Ain’t Got Worry” which has been recognized internationally with songs like, “A Grave For My Gun” winner of the 2016 Global Peace Song Awards, and “Pepper Hill” winner of the 2017 Pennsylvania Heritage Songwriting Contest. An avid history preservationist, Chris has dedicated his life to helping keep history alive and well for future generations through the message of Peace Through Music. In 2019 Chris competed as a Semi-Finalist in the Solo/Duo category of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and upon his return he felt an even greater passion to play the blues. Following the footsteps of his blues idols Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, T-bone Walker, and Little Walter; Chris has now entered the world of electric blues with founding of his four piece band “Chris LaRose & the Hex Highway Blues Band”. More information can be found at www.chrislarosemusic.com
