Marc Berger returns for Saratoga Summer Concert series
New York-based musician Marc Berger is bringing a taste of the American West to the Spa City this weekend as part of the Saratoga Summer Concert Series.
Berger and his band Ride will perform a free show at 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 22 in Congress Park, at the War Memorial.
Hailing from central New York, Berger tours nationally performing solo and with his band, and has extensively explored the American West, venturing into remote regions of its deserts and mountains. On one such excursion, he discovered “The Big It” by A.B. Guthrie on a revolving bookrack in a Navajo reservation trading post. This impressive collection of Western short stories ignited the idea of using his travels to create a set of songs in the cultural tradition of like-minded American artists like John Ford, Guthrie, and Frederick Remington, celebrating the West’s exotic landscape and timeless appeal.
Berger’s critically acclaimed album called Ride presents 10 cinematic recordings capturing the vastness and romance of the West, while exploring its deep roots in the American psyche.
From the haunting message and beat of “Twister” and the soul-shaking challenge of taming a wild horse in “Take it on the Chin,” to the mind-blowing, middle-of-nowhere encounter of “Time Waits For No Man” and on through seven more scenic stops, Ride aims to take listeners on a dusty tour of the Great American Frontier.
Since its release in 2011, Ride has received national airplay and terrific reviews. Some may recognize the tunes as part of the soundtrack from Starbucks, which licensed the record for worldwide in-store play.
FAME (Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange) referred to it as “the breathtaking grandeur of the high desert and plateaus suspended between the pioneer days and ten minutes ago... this is country folk music wrought by a working philosopher who’s missed nothing, kept a lot inside for a time, and captured the land.”
At Sunday’s concert, Berger’s act will perform songs from Ride, along with shake-your-booty, roots-rock selections from his an in-the-works follow up project.
Ride, Berger’s band, features Berger on guitar vocals and harmonica; Jeff Poremski on guitar, mandolin and lap steel, James Kirk on bass and Ariel Bernstein on drums.
After performing at Austin’s South by Southwest Music Festival and opening shows for Bob Dylan and other national acts, Berger is looking forward to making a stop in Saratoga Springs as a returning act in the Saratoga Summer Concert Series.
“I like playing in Saratoga Springs because it’s a culturally sophisticated community, interested in original music, and thats what im going to be playing,” said Berger, who is originally from Philadelphia and New York City, but now lives outside of Ithaca.
When he last played the Congress Park series about two or three years ago Berger recalls the crowd being curious and interested, and hopes ths upcoming concert will be the same.
Berger also plans on introducing the audience to some more rock ‘n’ roll material off of his upcoming album Folk Music, expected out late this year or early 2019. The artist said this project is “a real genre-bending look at what can be folk music.”
More information about Marc Berger and Ride is available online at marcbergermusic.com.
Further details about the free Saratoga Summer Concert Series, which continues each Sunday through August, can be found online at www. saratogaspringsvisitorcenter.com. The Saratoga Heritage Area Visitor Center at 297 Broadway will be the concert rain location.