Singers and spouses Sarah Kate and J. Roddy Walston will perform at Red, White & Lights, Henrico County’s Fourth of July festival at Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park (Inset image courtesy Sarah Kate Walston)
J. Roddy and Sarah Kate Walston are quite a team; he a hard-touring rocker with a pronounced blues inflection and she a trained opera soprano. She says in her wry way, “We like to call ourselves ‘beer’ and ‘Champagne.’ I’ll let you guess which one is which.”
You can see, and hear, for yourself during Red, White & Lights, Henrico County’s Fourth of July festival at Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park, from 4 to 10 p.m. on July 4.
J. Roddy, a blow-the-roof-off performer, previously with The Business and most recently Palm Palm, is also known for his enthusiastic holiday season shows. He’ll be joined by Palm Palm’s Andrew Carper on bass, guitarist Charlie Glenn and Kevin Willoughby on drums. J. Roddy is out front on the keys. And they’ll also be getting a substantial assist from the Richmond Symphony. Four of J. Roddy’s originals received arrangement by Richmond musician and composer Trey Pollard.
J. Roddy says he and Matt Wilshire, Richmond Symphony’s director of artistic planning and operations, started discussing a collaboration around the start of the year.
“This seems like a good entryway,” J. Roddy says of the July Fourth event. “We thought about the whole thing, and bringing in Sarah.”
She’s no stranger to touring, either, nor performing with the symphony on several occasions, but the two of them together, not as much, “so it turned into this little one-two punch,” J. Roddy muses.
“The Christmas show is Roddy’s venture, and I kind of hopped along to — dare I say — bring a little class,” Sarah Kate quips.
In December 2016, they performed in competing events, he at The National with The Business, and she at the Dominion Energy Center for the symphony’s “Let It Snow” show.
“I performed in that concert and then went across the street to The National to sing Mariah Carey with the band,” Sarah Kate says.
For J. Roddy, this’ll be an evening of firsts: one of the first regular shows with this particular band and with the symphony, and sharing the spotlight with Sarah Kate.
After COVID-19, a baby and vocal issues, Sarah Kate says she’s making a gradual return to the stage. For this show, she’ll present a couple of Independence Day standards.
“The orchestra will take care of the America songs,” she says, “and J. Roddy will do what we do best.”
“Be charming,” J. Roddy cracks.
As for memorable July Fourths, Sarah Kate recalls her childhood church celebrations. “We did a big patriotic show, and I did a MC Hammer dance in big MC Hammer pants.”
J. Roddy recalls that some years ago, while he was between tours, he caught some waves surfing in Santa Barbara, California, and watched an impressive fireworks display over the bay. He remembers how, during his childhood, when the family watched fireworks, he and his brother declared which colorful explosion belonged to each of them.
When J. Roddy and Sarah Kate moved into a bungalow together near Carytown, they decided the house was too dark in the front. Thus, on a July Fourth they took out the windows and chopped down the front wall.
“And then we didn’t have the time ...” Sarah Kate begins — “or a plan,” J. Roddy injects — “to put up another wall,” she recounts.
Instead, they installed a plastic sheet to serve as a barrier between themselves, the street and the city’s own commemoration of the day.
But at Meadow Farm, the finale won’t feature loud, percussive pyrotechnics, rather a laser light show.
J. Roddy, “in a less patriotic situation,” will present a full-on rock show at Richmond’s Get Tight Lounge in late September.
For upcoming performances from the pair, visit their respective websites, noted above.
Thursday’s Red, White & Lights at Crump Park kicks off its live music lineup at 5 p.m. with the Henrico Police Acoustic Blue Band, followed by J. Roddy at 6:30 p.m., and at 7:50 p.m. there will be performances by Sarah Kate of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and by Desiree Roots of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Food, activities and the laser light show finale round out the experience.
Red, White & Lights is July 4 at Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park. Gates open at 4 p.m., and admission is free.
