Free Blues Music under the Stars
Boston Harbor Hotel Summer in the City series: Racky Thomas tonight
The Racky Thomas Band will perform a free concert tonight as part of the Boston Harbor Hotel’s Blues Barge Thursdays. Photo courtesy of Heather Balchunas
Now in its 17th year, the Boston Harbor Hotel’s Summer in the City Series offers free summer entertainment through September 10: soul music (Tuesdays), bands that evoke the Rat Pack (Wednesdays), blues (Thursdays), and screenings of Hollywood classics and blockbusters (Fridays). Tonight, noted bluesman and Berklee College of Music alum Racky Thomas and his band perform as part of Blues Barge Thursdays. Guest can also enjoy cocktails and dinner by the hotel’s award-winning chef Daniel Bruce (prices vary).
Thomas credits a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert in 1987 for inspiring him to pursue a career as a blues musician. He formed the eponymous Racky Thomas Band in 1995, which won the Boston Battle of the Blues Bands two years later. The band has since released four albums, including 2009’s Hard Travelin’, performed at festivals, and opened for major acts such as Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Sue Tedeschi, and Ronnie Earl.
Among other Blue Barge Thursdays acts appearing this summer are Boston-based Bruce Marshall (July 2 and August 13), Nashvillian Greg Burroughs (July 16 and September 10), internationally known singer and guitarist Jeff Pitchell (July 23 and September 3), and Toni Lynn Washington (August 7). Miss Racky and his band tonight and you can catch them when they return on July 31.
The Boston Harbor Hotel, 70 Rowes Wharf, Boston, holds weekly Summer in the City Series events (find a full list here) through September 10. Admission is free. Take an MBTA Red Line train to South Station and walk to the hotel.
Michelle Marino can be reached at michelle.g.marino@gmail.com.
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