Heading into its weekend, the Common Ground festival nears overload. Tonight, it simultaneously has music on four stages.
"Just look at Friday," Peter Sullivan, one of the festival organizers, said before Common Ground opened. "We have David Lee Roth. We have Jonny Lang, the blues phenomenon. We have gospel and swing. That's real diversity."
Lang (who is quiet and from North Dakota) and Roth (who is neither) have little in common, except that they're both blond and fit and in Riverfront Park tonight. Added to that are two indoor shows - with separate admission - at 7 p.m. in the Lansing Center.
One has swing dancing with the Rhythm Society Orchestra. The other is gospel, headlined by Fred Hammond.
"We'd been working on Fred Hammond for some time, I'd say about a year," said Joshua Gillespie, who is co-producing the show.
Earlier, he brought the "Hopeville" tour to the Breslin Center, with Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams and Donnie McClurkin.
"We had three of the top stars in gospel," Gillespie said. "Fred's like the only one missing. ... That makes no sense, given that he's right down the street from us."
Hammond is from Detroit and has a contemporary approach, Claudia Perry wrote in "American Roots Music" (Harry N. Abrams, 2001). A highlight was "Pages of Life," his two-CD set in 1998. "(It) blended funky grooves with an unmistakably Christian message and rich choral arrangements."
He happened to be available during the time of Common Ground, so a deal was struck: The promoters would get a price break on Lansing Center rental, if people with an overall "Common Card" (now sold out) could get in free.
Gillespie assembled a show that also includes Dorinda Clark Cole, the Singletons and Keith "Wonderboy" Johnson.
The setting holds about 5,000 people, Gillespie said. That might not seem like much, when there are 7,500 Common Card carriers. Still, there are plenty of other distractions, on a night with blond stars singing and a big band swinging.
Contact Mike Hughes at 377-1156 or mhughes@lsj.com.