HARD Summer Expands to Three Days in 2022

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Are you ready to feel the heat at HARD Summer Music Festival this year? Three days of fun in the sun are on the horizon in July!

Whether you love getting down to the sounds of house and techno, headbang to massive bass tunes, or get a touch of hip-hop in during the summer months – HARD Summer is the place to be. This multi-day festival has become renowned for bringing top-tier lineups to Southern California over the past decade, and they’re adding some extra heat for the upcoming edition.

It’s a new year and a new look for HARD Summer as HARD Events unveiled an exciting update that the festival will add a third day into the mix when it makes its return to the NOS Events Center. Set to take place on July 29-31, the upcoming edition of HSMF is set to feature five outdoor stages with plenty of shade structures, cooling mist systems, and more to help fight the heat.

Related: Want to know why the most recent edition of HARD Summer was one for the books? Check out our review to dive into the finer details!

GA tickets for HARD Summer 2022 start at $199(+fees), with GA+ at $249(+fees), and VIP at $399(+fees). Those opting for VIP tickets this year will receive expedited entry to the festival, dedicated bathrooms, and a VIP Chill Zone with more to explore. Layaway plans are also available for all passes if you make a deposit of $9.95. The pre-sale for HARD Summer Music Festival 2022 is set to run from January 28-31 and will give those planning to attend the chance to lock in their passes at the lowest tier.

Head over to their website to make your purchase and get more details. Stay tuned for the lineup reveal that is soon to come!

Connect with HARD Events on Social Media:

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Eugene waiting for art installations to open riverfront park; summer championships hard deadline

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Eugene Parks and Open Space Landscape Architect Emily Proudfoot takes in the view of the Willamette River from the boardwalk as the new Downtown Riverfront Park in Eugene nears completion.

There are some holes in the ground delaying the opening of Eugene’s new Downtown Riverfront Park.

Supply chain issues and other snags have delayed the opening of the 3½-acre park, part of a larger project to reconnect downtown Eugene to the Willamette River. The park initially was expected to open in July 2021 but has seen myriad reasons for delay.

The latest is a large hole and smaller gaps in the sidewalk where art installations will go.

Installing those pieces — a steam ring and sidewalk pieces all made of bronze — is critical for visitor safety, Emily Proudfoot said during a Jan. 18 seminar sponsored by the Lane County Master Gardener Association.

Proudfoot, a landscape architect for the city and the lead on the park project, said the art should be arriving soon but didn’t hazard a concrete estimate for an opening date.

The park does have to be open for the World Athletics Championships track and field event, which starts July 15 and will include a festival hosted in the park. That will happen, Proudfoot said.

Oregon22: For subscribers Riverfront festival for World Athletics Championships ‘really coming together, and quickly’

“In the meantime, we’re finishing up a lot of tiny details that I think are going to make it really successful when it opens,” she said.

The park will stretch about a third of a mile along the Willamette River between the DeFazio Bridge to southeast of the former Eugene Water & Electric Board steam plant and East Eighth Avenue.

The project, now set to cost around $18 million, includes re-grading the riverbank, pulling the bike path away from the bank, building more overlooks and a wooden deck, and engaging artists to create interpretive pieces.

Those art pieces showcase the depth of history on the site, Proudfoot said, with installations highlighting three themes of the river:

Industry: A steam ring representing a cut-through of a turbine symbolizes the steam plant, which helped heat downtown until a little more than a decade ago. Light and mist will come out of the grate, which will go into what’s now a hole in the south overlook.

Ecology: Bronze pieces embedded through a pedestrian walkway follow the course of the Willamette River. Five pieces raised up onto a seating area will tell stories of the history of the river.

Culture: A multilevel brick fountain will tell the story of the “across the bridge” community, the city’s first Black neighborhood that was forced to relocate for the building of the Ferry Street Bridge. The fountain will include stories about what it was like to be Black in Eugene at that time.

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Another overlook has a structure topped with metal ribbons mimicking the topography of the riverbed just down the bank.

An overhead art installation mimics the topography of the nearby river at the new Downtown Riverfront Park in Eugene.

That’s in place now, Proudfoot said, and is reflective. She compared its surface to Cloud Gate, better known as “The Bean,” in Chicago.

Though the city is waiting on art installations to open the park, the rest of the space has been completely transformed since the city bought the property from EWEB and razed nearly all the buildings, Proudfoot said.

What was once a bike path at the top of the riverbank that squished people between a fence and the steep bank is now a “beautiful layering of experiences,” she said.

There’s a two-way bike path, a meandering pedestrian path and a boardwalk and viewing decks.

A screenshot from a presentation by Emily Proudfoot, a landscape architect for Eugene parks and the lead on the Downtown Riverfront Park, shows progress on the park over the years.

It’s a “really beautiful space to be in and appreciate the river,” Proudfoot said.

There’s also some connected green space that’s set to be a 1-acre plaza. The city has gotten state dollars to fill a funding gap for the plaza, which city staff previously had talked about scaling back because of cost limitations.

Construction on that should start in 2024, Proudfoot said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the correct starting date of the World Athletics Championships, which is July 15.

Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene waiting for art to fill holes and open Downtown Riverfront Park

Zac Brown Band’s ‘Out in the Middle’ Doubles Down on Their Roots

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Zac Brown Band’s “Out in the Middle” doubles down on the band’s country bona fides with foot-stomping beat, vocal harmony, true-blue country subject matter and songwriting help from one of the biggest names in the genre, Luke Combs.

The second song on the tracklisting of The Comeback, “Out in the Middle” veers back in the direction of the traditional fare that established ZBB as one of country music’s most beloved hitmakers. The group has been known to experiment, with pop and EDM influences dotting their 2019 The Owl album, but here, they return to their roots.

The results are promising. “Out in the Middle” delivers the same rousing, joyful country sound that fans know and love, but it’s not a repeat of anything the band has put out in the past. It’s also a made-for-the-stage roots anthem, so much so that the band borrowed the track’s name for their 2022 Out in the Middle Tour.

When they first released the song, frontman Zac Brown described “Out in the Middle” as “Southern rock storytelling about being country, being proud of what that is and being proud of living a simple life and working hard.”

Both the studio version and its live counterpart will be a celebration of the way of life that so many of their fans grew up with, Brown continues.

“It’s a tip of the hat to the people who live out in the middle of nowhere and they’re happy being there,” he adds. “People that live in the city often make fun of country people until they come out and experience it for themselves. Then they really get into it. There’s a reason that you stay out there.”

Zac Brown Band’s “Out in the Middle” Lyrics:

There’s an old route two-lane / Taking out past where the radio just can’t / Pass a riverbed with a rope swing / And a mailbox painted all John Deere green / The end of a bunch of gravel driveway / Out here doing our own thing…

Chorus:

Out in the middle where hard work meets hard living / Out in the middle where we’re grown ’til we’re gone, God willing / Just some good ol’ boys and some good ol’ girls / Hunting red dirt dreams in a concrete world / Getting by on just a little, out in the middle

Come Friday, we come undone / Stay half-lit like the high life neon / Barely hanging on like sheds in the pole barn / You can hear Hank clear ‘cross the next farm / City folk say we’re crazy / But they ain’t never been way…

Repeat Chorus

Out in the middle of nowhere / That’s where I want to be / In the old oak shade by the family graves / With the southern ground on me

Repeat Chorus

The Outlaws Come to Indian Ranch This Summer

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The Outlaws will return to Indian Ranch in Webster, MA as part of the Mike’s Hard Lemonade Summer Concert Series on Saturday, June 11, 2022. Tickets go on-sale this Saturday, January 29 at 10:00 AM at www.indianranch.com. The Insiders Club Presale will take place this Friday, January 28 from 10:00 AM to 11:59 PM. A limited number of Low Dough Early Bird General Admission tickets will be available through February 4th for just $20.

Formed in Tampa in 1972, The Outlaws - known for their triple-guitar rock attack and three-part country harmonies - became one of the first acts signed by Clive Davis (at the urging of Ronnie Van Zant) to his then-fledgling Arista Records. The band’s first three albums The Outlaws, Lady In Waiting and Hurry Sundown - featuring such rock radio favorites as ‘There Goes Another Love Song’, ‘Green Grass & High Tides’, ‘Knoxville Girl’ and ‘Freeborn Man’ - would become worldwide gold and platinum landmarks of the Southern Rock era. Known as ‘The Florida Guitar Army’ by their fans, The Outlaws earned a formidable reputation as an incendiary live act touring with friends The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band and The Charlie Daniels Band as well as The Doobie Brothers, The Who, Eagles and The Rolling Stones. Henry Paul left after the group’s third album to form The Henry Paul Band for Atlantic Records, and later co-founded the multi-Platinum country trio Blackhawk. Over the next 20+ years, The Outlaws would experience rampant personnel changes, tonal missteps, ill-fated reunions and bitter trademark battles that left fans - not to mention Paul and Yoho - frustrated and saddened. And with the tragic deaths of co-founding members Frank O’Keefe and Billy Jones in 1995, and especially songwriter/vocalist/lead guitarist Hughie Thomasson in 2007, it was feared that The Outlaws’ trail had come to an end.

The Outlaws are now headed back on the road, back on the radio and back into the hearts of fans nationwide. “I’m seeing this thing we’ve had for more than four decades be exposed to whole new audiences,” Monte Yoho says. “We’re having a second life as a band, and it feels better than ever. Best of all, I’m still doing it with some of the same people I’ve known for most of my life.”

Along with founding members Paul and Yoho, the band features several of Southern Rock’s most respected veterans: Keyboardist/vocalist Dave Robbins is a co-founding member of Blackhawk and has written hit songs for artists that include Restless Heart, Kenny Rogers and Eric Clapton. Longtime Outlaws’ bassist/vocalist Randy Threet has performed with Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis and Blackhawk, and is familiar to TV audiences from USA Network’s ‘Nashville Star’. Lead guitarist Steve ‘Grits’ Grisham was a member of the Soldiers Of Fortune era Outlaws, as well as a noted songwriter whose tracks include The Henry Paul Band’s Top 40 hit, ‘Keepin’ Our Love Alive’. Co-lead guitarist Dale Oliver is one of Nashville’s most versatile producers/songwriters/musicians and was formerly Blackhawk’s lead guitarist and bandleader for more than 10 years, co-writing their hit ‘Almost A Memory Now’.

The Outlaws’ live shows -vividly captured in their 2016 double album Legacy Live - are blazing 2+ hour tributes to the band’s rich history and fiery rebirth. Classic tracks and fan favorites from the first three albums - as well as The Henry Paul Band’s definitive ‘Grey Ghost’ - share the spotlight with new songs that are already being embraced by audiences. “I think our new material goes back to those first three classic albums, when the band was proud of its influences from country, blues and jazz,” says Paul. “Plus, Steve and Dale have honored and maybe even stepped up the legacy of the ‘guitar army’. Fans are coming away from shows feeling a renewed part of the Outlaws experience.”

“Our goal is to unite the fans and bring the band back into the light. In a way, this is like a second chance at my first love. It’s about finishing what we started.” For Henry, Monte, Dave, Randy, Steve and Dale, it’s also about a band of brothers who love playing their own brand of rock, and who 40+ years ago first got the chance to share it with the world.

For The Outlaws, it’s still about the music. And now more than ever, it’s about pride.

Insiders Club memberships and GA Season Passes for the 2022 Summer Concert Series are on sale now. The Indian Ranch Insiders Club gives members exclusive access to buy tickets before they go on sale to the general public. GA Season Passes include a general admission ticket to every show in the Indian Ranch Summer Concert Series. Both programs come with an array of other benefits and are available at www.indianranch.com/memberships.

Indian Ranch offers music lovers a chance to see some of the greatest country, classic rock and pop bands steps from Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. Nestled between pine trees, the amphitheater offers the ability to see the stage from anywhere in the audience. More than a concert venue, Indian Ranch opened Samuel Slater’s Restaurant and is also home to the Indian Princess paddlewheeler and Indian Ranch Campground. Already on sale are concerts with Trace Adkins on June 5th, The Mavericks on June 19th, Get The Led Out on July 8th, Scotty McCreery on July 9th, and ABBA The Concert on August 12th. More shows will be announced soon.

Tickets for The Outlaws on Saturday, June 11, 2022 go on-sale Saturday, January 29, 2022 at 10:00 AM. The Indian Ranch Insider Club Presale takes place Friday, January 28, 2022 from 10:00 AM-11:59 PM. A limited number of Early Bird GA tickets will be available for just $20, through February 4th. Gates for The Outlaws will open at 11:30 AM and showtime is 1:00 PM. Tickets are available online at www.indianranch.com, by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) or at the Indian Ranch Box Office. All events are rain or shine. No refunds. Indian Ranch is located at 200 Gore Road in Webster, MA outside of Worcester and less than an hour’s drive from Boston, Providence, Hartford and Springfield. For more information, visit www.indianranch.com.

State orders Elbert Clerk to explain about copy he made of election equipment hard drive

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Colorado’s Secretary of State is demanding more information from the Elbert County clerk about a copy he made of the county’s election server, calling the situation “a potential breach of election security.”

The case has its roots in Mesa County, where clerk Tina Peters is under a long-running criminal investigation for allegedly allowing an unauthorized person to image the hard drives of her voting machines. Some of that data ended up being shared at a forum that claimed — and failed — to provide proof of widespread election fraud.

In a court affidavit, clerk Dallas Schroeder, a Republican, said that Peters’ concerns inspired him to make a copy of Elbert County’s election server before a software update last summer; the data is now on an external hard drive “under lock and key in the Elbert election office.”

In a press release Monday, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said she has been seeking more information about Schroeder’s actions to ensure they didn’t compromise the security of the count’s equipment. So far, the clerk has not cooperated. Now her office has sent Schroeder a subpoena, ordering him to make a sworn deposition.

Schroeder’s office did not respond to CPR’s request for comment.

Incident revealed in election lawsuit

The Elbert clerk’s affidavit is included in a lawsuit that argues Colorado’s election equipment hasn’t been properly certified because the lab that evaluated its software had a lapsed federal accreditation at the time of testing. The suit asks the court to order an “independent forensic audit” of the state’s election equipment.

In addition to Schroeder, parties to the suite include the Douglas County clerk, Merlin Klotz, two Rio Blanco County commissioners, and Republican state Rep. Ron Hanks, who participated in the January 6th protest in D.C. and has repeated false claims about the 2020 presidential election.

In his affidavit, Schroeder said he is seeking state approval to hire a cybersecurity expert to make another copy of the election hard drive, to look for evidence that the software update “destroyed 2020 election records.” A rule issued last summer by Griswold bans third-party audits such as the one conducted in Arizona. Colorado does require county clerks to conduct their own audits after each election to check paper ballots against the computer tabulations.

Election conspiracy theorists have claimed that Colorado’s election software update last year — a procedure known as a “trusted build” — was used by the equipment’s manufacturer, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, to cover up evidence of election fraud. The state explained to the Grand Junction Sentinel that the files deleted were outdated elements of the operating system, not records of actual election data, which counties are required to back up.