Jo Dee Messina coming to Basin Summer Sounds
Courtesy photo<br> Jo Dee Messina is headlining on July 17 at Basin Summer Sounds in Ephrata.
EPHRATA — An award-winning country singer and a Southern rock band are headlining at this year’s Basin Summer Sounds in Ephrata.
Jo Dee Messina, known for hits such as “I’m Alright,” “That’s the Way” and “Bring on the Rain” is headlining the July 17 show and New Orleans rock band, Cowboy Mouth, will headline the opening night on July 16.
After the festival drew about 9,000 people last year for Smash Mouth, Janice Moore, the festival’s committee’s chair, said the members thought they needed more balance in the two-day festival.
“This is all about promoting tourism and commerce,” she said. “We want people here for the whole weekend … We need people here for the whole weekend, not just come in for Saturday night and be gone.”
Moore said the number of bands isn’t changing from last year, but they are hoping the addition of a headline band on Friday night will increase attendance.
“(Cowboy Mouth) are fun and phenomenal,” she said. “They’ve been on Regis and Kelly. They’ve been on the Late Show. They’ve just been on every show … They are an up-and-comer.”
In choosing Messina, the committee decided to branch into country music as well. Nine of Messina’s songs have reached number one on the Billboard charts and she’s been nominated for two Grammy Awards and won a Country Music Award.
“We started brainstorming and asking how do we follow this … and have it be just as great,” she said. “We just decided as a committee maybe we needed to head to a different genre of music. We’ve only had one true country artist.”
Moore said the committee expected the festival to grow, but didn’t expect it to happen this quickly.
“We have always prided ourselves on looking forward, so we’re ready to grow,” she said. “I think things got bumped up last year. The community support was great … We’re ready to do it again.”
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