The next show announcement for the 2016 Lowell Summer Music Series is a big one! Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs, as case/lang/veirs will be making their first collective appearance at the Series on Saturday, July 23rd!

“Several years ago on a whim, k.d. lang sent an email to Neko Case and Laura Veirs that said, “I think we should make a record together.” The three musicians were very different and barely more than acquaintances–but they liked and admired each other, and it instantly felt right. “She lit the flare,” says Case. “She shot it into the air and we said, ‘Let’s do this.’ Laura and I both responded immediately. There was no question.”

case/lang/veirs

“The result is case/lang/veirs, a true collaboration between three phenomenal, self-driven artists: avant-rock icon Case, legendary musical nomad lang, and indie folk star Veirs. The women wrote all 14 songs and shared lead vocals equally, sometimes even within the same track. Full of stunning harmonies and spellbinding rhythms, case/lang/veirs travels through aches and eras, torch songs and tributes to the undersung.

“They worked over two and a half years in Portland, Oregon, where lang and Veirs both live, sometimes in lang’s loft with a view of Mount St. Helens, others in Veirs’ dining room or backyard studio. The album was written from the ground up without any real plan beyond a desire to make music together and a faith that it would reveal itself. “I just wanted to do something different, something fun,” says lang, who started the initial writing with Veirs. “We grappled with how to proceed in the beginning, because we thought scheduling with Neko, who lives in Vermont and is always on the road, would make it hard to get enough good songs written. We thought, should we do a cover record? But we all felt the strongest thing to do would be to try to write, so we persevered. Laura is such a prolific writer, so she really drove the songwriting, and it came together.” They produced the album with Tucker Martine, at his Portland studio in November 2015.”

Tickets for the case/lang/veirs show are priced at $58 in advance (fee-free!), $65 on the day of the show (if available) and children 12 and under are always free courtesy of Eastern Bank. There are also premium seats – beach chairs are provided by the Series – set in two rows directly in front of the stage for $158. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday, March17th at 9 a.m. through Lowell Summer Music Series.

For those of you who are unaware of the  Series, or if you are aware of it but have never attended a show there, it is an outdoor (weather permitting) concert series held on National Park Service grounds in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Series is not-for-profit, which helps keep the ticket prices reasonable.

Surrounding Boarding House Park are old mill buildings, part of the Lowell National Historical Park, which you can tour if you arrive early enough. They provide an unusual setting for an evening of great music and ambiance.

The Series generally runs from late June to early September.

This Series is dear to my heart. I have been a season pass holder since 2007 and it is one of the highlights of the year (and of summer in particular) for me. Many lasting friendships have been made there. I expect this will be another excellent year!

I will post additional announcements for the Series as they are made.

Shows announced to date are:

June 10 (Friday) – Patty Griffin

June 11 (Saturday) – Guster

July 16 (Saturday) – Colin Hay

July 23 (Saturday) – case/lang/veirs

August 13 (Saturday) – Dr. Dog

September 1 (Thursday) – ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic

September 3 (Saturday) – The B-52s