Scott Tady: Rochester Riverfront Stage shall rock; and get a BOGO deal on Fallston shows

For the first time in a dozen years, Rochester's Riverfront Park Stage will host a daylong music festival.

The inaugural Rocking on the River Festival takes place June 15, bringing a stellar lineup of local rock, country and blues bands.

Gates open at 1 p.m., then it's:

2 p.m.: David Granati and the For Those About to Rock Academy.

3:30 p.m.: Tony Barge and the Honky Tonk Heroes.

5 p.m. MoJoDia and The Usual Suspects.

6:30 p.m.: The Granati Brothers.

8 p.m.: Billy The Kid and The Regulators.

In the half hour between sets, concertgoers can enjoy John Vento and friends performing on the second stage.

There'll be beer sales and food trucks.

Admission is free, though donations will be accepted at the gate.

Closed to the public for more than a decade, the Rochester Riverfront Stage was home to the popular Rockin' The Suburbs local music festival that included national headliners Sponge and Travis Meeks.

Reacquired as a public space and given a larger new parking area, the stage reopened last October with a spirited performance by Barge and his Honkytonk Heroes. Persistent rain postponed that show's planned headlining performance by The Jaggerz.

Fallston shows offer BOGO deal

For the rest of February, you can buy two shows for the price of one − a $10 savings −for the Grand Valley Inn's indoor and tented outdoor stages.

The Fallston restaurant's first two shows, both indoor, are March 23, Neil Diamond Tribute with Chris Denem; and April 5, Elvis Tribute with Walt Sanders.

The tribute/cover band action moves outdoors for:

April 19: Rick K. Road Trip 2024.

May 4: Tribute to The Beatles with Come Together Pittsburgh.

May 24: Motown Tribute with Dr. Zoot.

June 8: TRIXX Party Band.

June 14: Ridgemont High, '80s party band.

June 28: Toby Keith/Garth Brooks Tribute with Mike Sugg and Tom Davis.

July 3: Dancing Queen.

July 12: Eldorado Band with guest fiddle player John Parrendo.

July 19: The Project Band, classic-rock "Hippie Night".

Aug. 10: Elmoz Fire.

Aug. 24: Casanova and The Divas.

Sept. 1: TRIXX.

Sept. 13: "Motown and More" with Dr. Zoot.

Sept. 27: Rick K. Road Trip.

Rockin' for Rickard

Members of the western Pennsylvania music community will rally Feb. 25 to raise money for John Rickard, an Edgeworth native and one of the country's top-tier pedal steel players, who's battling cancer.

A "Rockin' for Rickard" benefit show takes place from 1-6 p.m. at the Quality Inn Ballroom off Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington.

Beaver Valley's the Eaton Brothers, for whom Rickard played for many years, hit the stage at 3:30 p.m., followed by The Shiners. The music launches at 1:30 p.m. with Laurie and Shirley from Gas House Annie, followed by Hayday.

Brad Farster, Jeff Hartz and Joey Buckethead will perform acoustically.

There's a $15 donation, with basket raffles and a 50/50 drawing. More details at the Facebook page of organizer Carolyn Bajack.

Winner of Guitar Player Magazine's 30th anniversary Guitar Competition in the Pedal/Lap Steel category, Rickard has performed with many of his musical heroes, including Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Steve Cropper, Toby Keith, Tracy Lawrence, Travis Tritt, the Charlie Daniels Band and Montgomery Gentry.

Rickard's been based in Nashville and Phoenix but has returned regularly to entertain in the Beaver Valley, like the nationally touring Waylon Jennings tribute he brought to Kendrew's Lounge in Aliquippa in 2022.

Bern, baby, Bern

Concert venues don't get much cozier than Club Cafe, especially when it's not a sold-out show and you don't feel claustrophobic.

I'd estimate the crowd was less than two-thirds capacity last week when nationally known folk-rock troubadour Dan Bern headlined the South Side-Pittsburgh club, and those fans got treated to an unforgettable show that felt like a living-room performance for friends.

Amid a U.S. tour, Bern brought on stage Pittsburgh harmonica ace Marc Reisman, formerly of Joe Grushecky's Houserockers, to join in for most of the set, adding extra zest to a band with drums, bass, electric guitar and occasional accordion.

At one point, Iowa native Bern brought on stage another Pittsburgh friend to deliver an oddball spoken-word bit about Bern's frequent appearances on the Tony Kornheiser sports podcast.

Bern got even more off-the-cuff when he requested that a random fan hop on stage to hold aloft paper printouts so Bern could read the freshly written lyrics he wrote for a world premiere tune, "It's Great to Be a Yinzer."

Evoking the quirkiness that you'd expect from the guy who wrote many of the songs in the John C. Reilly mockumentary "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," Bern's Yinzer anthem name-dropped every western Pennsylvania celebrity you can think of, from Joe Namath to Fred Rodgers, Andy Warhol to Martha Graham, and even a verse about Michael Keaton eating a Klondike bar while Myron Cope waves a Terrible Towel.

"It's Great to Be a Yinzer" deserves to be our region's signature song, though the spectator holding up the lyrics for Bern earned the night's biggest laugh when he quipped, "sing that one in Cleveland."

Bern sang and strummed wry originals like 1997's "Marilyn," from the days when he earned Bob Dylan comparisons, and played for small but devout audiences at places like Thursday's in Bridgewater (where he was the first person I'd seen bring a pet dog into a restaurant.)

I wished Bern's Club Cafe set had featured 1998 gems "Tiger Woods" and "Chick Singers."

Bern and Reisman alone performed "Toledo" from "New American Language," which had been targeted as Bern's bigger-label, breakout album, but had the misfortune of an original release date of Sept. 11, 2001. Yes, it got overlooked.

Though Bern has persevered, releasing numerous albums, writing songs for Amazon Prime’s award-winning kids' program “The Stinky & Dirty Show" and opening shows for The Who, whose legendary singer Roger Daltrey hailed Bern as "one of my favorite songwriters and musicians for the past 28 years.”

If you get a chance, don't miss Bern, especially in a room like Club Cafe, where he finished his Feb. 7 show by leading his band off the stage to stroll through the entire crowd, serenading fans with an encore that included an audience singalong to Buddy Holly's "Everyday." It was lovely.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Tady: Rochester Riverfront Stage shall rock; Grand Valley Inn sets concerts