Nightfall celebrates 20 years of music

The Nightfall season kicks off May 23 and continues each Friday (except during Riverbend) through Sept. 26. The free concerts take place at Miller Plaza, at the corner of Market Street and M.L. King Boulevard.

The music begin at 7 p.m. with an opening act, and the headliners hit the stage at 8 p.m.

MAY 23

* Featured performance: Mike Farris Band

Mike Farris is the former frontman for the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies. His latest group features a 10-piece band that includes horns and female singers and delivers a spiritual, soulful groove.

* Opening act: Dismembered Tennesseans

MAY 30

* Featured performance: Karla Bonoff

Singer/songwriter Karla Bonoff played the first Nightfall concert at Miller Plaza in 1988. Over the last 20 years, Bonoff has developed as a performer and songwriter, having penned several songs for Linda Ronstadt, among others.

* Opening act: Tim Veazey

JUNE 20

* Featured performance: Back Door Slam

Back Door Slam, a young power trio from the Isle of Man, plays a mix of contemporary and traditional blues-rock powered by great vocals and guitar. They’ve spent the last year touring the country with stops at “Austin City Limits,” South By Southwest and Lollapalooza. Their summer bookings include the Bonnaroo festival.

* Opening act: Dylan Kussman Band

JUNE 27

* Featured performance: Groundation

Groundation is an internationally known roots reggae band from Sonoma, Calif. The band hopes to take reggae to new heights by blending elements of both jazz and dub into their pioneering sound.

* Opening act: Ogya

JULY 4

* Featured performance: Asylum Street Spankers

This Austin, Texas, band has its roots in early 20th-century American musical forms, but their musicianship, theatricality and militant acousticism is pure 21st century.

* Opening act: Natural Habitz

JULY 11

* Featured performance: Bonerama

This brass-funk-rock outfit from New Orleans presents a “trombone summit” with a four-horn frontline and a rock ’*’ roll foundation.

* Opening act: Up with the Joneses

JULY 18

* Featured performance: Ruthie Foster

Texas artist Ruthie Foster will remind some of Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack or Nina Simone.

* Opening act: Leticia Wolf

JULY 25

* Featured performance: Claire Lynch Band

Lynch’s music has made her a top draw on the bluegrass scene. Her voice is described by Dolly Parton as “one of the sweetest, purest and best lead voices in the music business today.”

* Opening act: Bluegrass Pharaohs

AUG. 1

* Featured performance: Soulive

This trio consists of brothers Alan and Neal Evans on drums and Hammond B-3 organ respectively, with Eric Krasno on guitar playing a danceable organ-driven groove that fuses the soul-jazz of the past with a modern hip-hop feel.

* Opening act: River View Assault

AUG. 8

* Featured performance: Michelle Shocked and the Lee Boys

Best known for her 1988 hits “Anchorage” and “If Love Was a Train,” this singer/songwriter’s music is influenced by her Texas roots, political activism and self-assured style.

* Opening act: Jennifer Daniels

AUG. 15

* Featured performance: The Whigs

Promoting their just-released second album, “Mission Control,” this raucous three-piece garage band from Athens, Ga., recently made appearances on “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”

* Opening act: Bohannons

AUG. 22

* Featured performance: Robben Ford

Robben Ford came to national attention as part of the L.A. Express on Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark” and “Miles of Aisles” albums, and he performed on George Harrison’s only U.S. tour.

* Opening act: The Verge

AUG. 29

* Featured performance: Hal Ketchum

Ketchum has charted 18 singles on Billboard’s hot country songs. His biggest hits to date are “Small Town Saturday Night,” “Past the Point of Rescue” and “Hearts Are Gonna Roll,” all of which reached No. 2 on the charts.

* Opening act: Angel Snow

SEPT. 5

* Featured performance: Blue Mountain

Formed in Oxford, Miss., the trio of Cary Hudson, Frank Coutch and Laurie Stirratt is rightly considered one of the pioneering groups of the alt-country movement of the mid-1990s.

* Opening act: Uncle Lightnin’

SEPT. 12

* Featured performance: Basia Bulat

This singer/songwriter and her band combine a variety of strings, acoustic guitar and a frantic drum-kit gallop to create their sound, which is heavily influenced by the boisterous music of the ’60s.

* Opening act: Land Camera

SEPT. 19

* Featured performance: The Belleville Outfit

This Austin, Texas-based six-piece band (guitars, fiddle, drums, piano, upright bass) formed just last year at Merlefest. Their tight, seamless, acoustic sound blends gypsy swing, bluegrass, big-band jazz and Americana roots music.

* Opening act: Lou Wamp & Swing Shift

SEPT. 26

* Featured performance: Big Al Anderson & the Balls

Al Anderson was named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century by Guitar Player magazine as well as Nashville Songwriter of the Year, but his 23 years on the road with NRBQ gave him legendary status with music fans from coast to coast.

* Opening act: Lumbar Five