After last year’s successful debut at the Lodges at Deer Valley, the Park City Song Summit is ready for its next chapter with Canyons Village as its home venue, and founder Ben Anderson is ready to turn that page.
“We’re so excited with our partnership with Vail, Canyons Village Management Association and our lodging partner the Pendry Hotel,” he said. “We will activate the village all weekend long, and we’re super stoked and beyond thrilled to bring the Song Summit back to our community.”
The 2023 Park City Song Summit is scheduled for Sept. 7-9, and three-day Summit Passes and add-ons, single-day passes, and individual show tickets will be available for presale on May 4. The sales will extend to the general public on May 11. For more information, please visit parkcitysongsummit.com.
This year’s event will include a list of songwriters, storytellers, lab facilitators and interviewers including Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead, as well as hip-hop pioneers Chuck D, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Grandmaster Flash, according to Anderson.
“Bobby is coming with the Wolf Brothers and Wolfpack, and it will be the 40th anniversary since the Grateful Dead played ParkWest, which is now the Canyons, in 1983,” he said. “I’ve spent a good part of my life in my band Aiko playing the songs of Bobby Weir and the Grateful Dead or listening to them on the old tapes back in the day or seeing them hundreds of times live. So this is a very exciting thing and a big energy vortex,” Anderson said.
As one of the Song Summit’s labs, which is akin to a panel discussion, D., McDaniels and Grandmaster Flash will celebrate and discuss 50 years of hip hop, Anderson said.
“In addition to Chuck D., Grandmaster Flash and Darrell McDaniels of RUN DMC, we will have more to be announced soon,” he said. “I’m super stoked to see and hear these workshops, labs and classes and performances surrounding hip hop.”
Another lab will feature the Black Opry Revue, which is home to Black artists working in country, folk, Americana and roots music, Anderson said.
“Enrique Chi and Rissi Palmer will speak with Holly G, who started Black Opry Revue, and discuss the intertwining roots of the Black and Brown artist community,” he said. “They will also discuss some of the struggles that have occurred between the two communities, and how they might come closer together through conversations and connectivity to get a better understanding of one another and love one another.”
In addition, Anderson said he is honored to showcase the lab called Women Behaving Badly, about women in the blues, which will feature award-winning author, poet and professor Caroline Randall Williams and award-winning author, sociologist and professor Tressie McMillan Cottom.
“They will be with Ciona Rouse and Adia Victoria and Celisse and participate in a theatrical performance that will include spoken word, dance elements and the blues while honoring such legends as Sister Rosetta Tharp, and others,” he said.
Another new offering this year will be Songwriting With Soldiers in the Songwriters Nashville Unplugged Stage, Anderson said.
“This session is made of veterans who use songwriting as therapy for PTSD,” he said. “That’s going to be a great lab.”
Other songwriting workshops scheduled for the Unplugged Stage will be led by Ruby Amanfu, Sam Ashworth, Steve Poltz and Josh Jenkins, Anderson said.
“Of course we’ll honor some Hall of Fame singer-songwriters — Jeffrey Steele, Even Stevens and more to be announced,” he said. “And we’ll feature storytelling and songwriting rounds that will go on all day. So people can just pop into the tent and enjoy our national songwriters.”
One of the live-music highlights of the summit will be a Stevie Wonder tribute, Anderson said.
“The tribute will include Celisse and Solomon Dorsey, her bass player and music director, with Danielle Ponder, Joy Oladokun and Cimafunk,” he said. “Danielle and Cimafunk will do their own separate shows, but they’ll join in on the Stevie Wonder tribute as will Josh Blaylock of Devon Gilfillian’s band, and Devon will also join in on the fun.”
Other performances will include Brad Walker and the Hornstars from New Orleans, as well as students from Havana, Cuba, and New Orleans who are beneficiaries of the Trombone Shorty Foundation, Anderson said.
“The foundation is established to provide instruments and scholarships for music lessons to underserved communities so they can learn about music history and perform,” he said.
In January, Anderson participated in a program called Havana Funk Experience.
“I was honored to be part of the contingency that included Galactic, Trombone Shorty’s band and students from the foundation,” he said. “We went to schools in Havana, and through this cross-cultural exchange helped people understand the history of a lot of music people enjoy in the United States. They learned that much of it came through the slave trade in Haiti and made its way through Cuba and up the coast in the United States.”
Speaking of music history, Anderson is also happy to announce that Ramblin’ Jack Elliott will be one of the 2023 Park City Song Summit participants.
“At 91 years old, Ramblin’ Jack is a walking history book and storyteller and an American treasure,” he said. “He was not only dear friends with Woody Guthrie and a mentor to Arlo Guthrie. He was also a mentor to a young Bobby Dylan.”
Grammy Award-winning guitarist, songwriter and producer Eric Krasno of Soulive and Lettuce will also perform during the summit, Anderson said.
“He’ll do a set with his new project, King Canyon, and then a performance as Eric Krasno and Friends,” he said. “You’ll see New Orleans legend Anders Osborne with him. That will be a great late-night performance that will happen in one of the venues on Main Street.”
While the Song Summit will feature national and international artists, it will also feature artists from Park City and Summit County, through a partnership with Mountain Town Music, a local nonprofit, directed by Brian Richards, that supports musicians and venues in the community, according to Anderson.
“We’ll have local singer-songwriters perform at Canyons Village throughout the day,” he said. “We’re thrilled to work with Brian Richards again in this.”
While the power of music is the basis of the Park City Song Summit, the event is also about supporting artists who are in recovery, Anderson said.
“We will also do morning wellness with yoga, meditation and hikes at the base of Canyons,” he said. “We’ll do recovery meetups for those who are in recovery, curious about recovery or those who are supporting someone in recovery.”
The Park City Song Summit will again partner with 1 Million Strong and the Phoenix Addiction Recovery Center, a free, sober community that utilizes group activities to help people who are dealing with addiction find strength and a community of support, Anderson said.
“They are are a reminder that we have to do things differently so the ecosystem of live-music touring artists and the audiences are healthier, happier and living better lives,” he said. “We will have some great labs from 1 Million Strong stories that will touch your heart and later make you dance.”
The Park City Song Summit, which debuted last year at the Lodges at Deer Valley, is also based on inclusion, where people are not only welcome at the table, but also can contribute to the dishes, Anderson said.
“We all need to be reminded that people need to be included, regardless of the color of their skin, their sexual preferences, their gender or whether they have mental-health challenges,” he said. “These things should not be barriers that come between understanding who they are and better understanding their paths and journeys.”
To help facilitate this understanding, Park City Song Summit has established its own nonprofit, The More than Music Foundation, Anderson said.
“Its mission runs alongside the summit’s DNA, and we want to have a greater impact beyond our county and state borders,” he said. “The Park City Song Summit is about wellness, mindfulness, inclusivity and community. The more people at the table, the better the feast. And we hope the Song Summit, as with other organizations in the community, are trying to be a shining light making a difference into people’s lives. We went to leave the world a better place throughout the healing power of music. If that can be our legacy, what more can we want?”