MORGANTOWN – Ever fall on Troubled Times? Questioning whether you’re even Tuff Enuff to Hold On Loosely?
If so, I Dare You to Move, but not to Santa Monica.
No. Get out of Your Place and MMMBop it on down to the Ruby Amphitheater, because If You Could Only See this summer’s Ruby Summer Concert Series lineup, you’d wanna get right Down to the River.
Featured artists Hanson, Everclear, Leftover Salmon, Tonic, Switchfoot, The War and Treaty, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ashley Cooke and 38 Special will be joined by respected, touring tribute acts including Almost Queen (Queen); Philadelphia Freedom (Elton John); Dark Side of the Moonshine (Pink Floyd) and Who’s Bad (Michael Jackson) to create a 12-week musical menagerie on the Mon.
All free in downtown Morgantown, rain or shine, most Friday nights this summer between June 5 and Aug. 28
“We’re always talking about ‘something for everyone,’ That’s kind of the motto, but there really is something for everyone because the scheduling and the diversity of the acts is intentional,” Morgantown Director of Arts and Cultural Development Vincent Kitch said.
Intentional, but not easy.
Kitch and crew spend a year or more stitching together the lineup of headliners and opening acts. The timing has to be right. The money has to be right. Sometimes, it takes years before the stars align.
“We’ve been talking about Everclear and Tonic for a couple years. Normally, I would not have them one week to the next. I would have had one in June, but the routing was such that these were the only dates,” Kitch said. “And as you start to fill them in and you get down to two or three dates, it gets even harder. Because now you’re like, ‘We need this kind of music for this date. Who’s out there?”
Kitch said he initially thought this year’s bill would be a little bit country. As things turned out, it’s a little bit rock’n roll, with Ashley Cooke, on Aug. 21, the only true country show on the lineup.
There are also a couple genre-defying offerings. Leftover Salmon (June 12) is a bluegrass jam band in rock’n roll sunglasses and cowboy boots, all dunked in cajun seasoning. The War and Treaty (July 24) is a husband/wife duo laying the sounds of southern soul over a foundation built on country, gospel, rock and blues.
The schedule includes blues-rock stalwarts The Fabulous Thunderbirds (July 31), 80s powerhouse 38 Special (Aug. 28) and a band of blond brothers from the ’90s – Hanson (Aug. 14)
With Wednesday’s official lineup announcement, Kitch said it would be nice to relax for a while, but the process of locking down next summer’s talent is already underway.
“The market for artists is tough, then the scheduling. It’s been nerve-wracking. The last couple years, it’s so tumultuous, because artists want more money. The concert industry has been hurting. Ticket sales, except for Taylor Swift, she’s a complete anomaly, but the rest of the industry, artists are canceling tours because they’re not selling tickets and venues, and so the artists want more money. We literally have artists who have said they want to work less, but they want to be paid more than they were paid last year.”
In other words, while the concerts are free to attend and enjoy, they’re far from free to produce.
Kitch said this year’s series includes an investment of $450,000 to $500,000 just in artist payments and expenses. That doesn’t include production costs or the investment of time and resources made across the city’s various departments.
“I get the question almost every week, ‘How did you get so-and-so to play for free,” Kitch said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, I wrote them a big check.’ You got them for free.”
He continued.
“We’re very blessed to have an angel investor in the Hazel Ruby McQuain Trust, and we never stop giving them credit. But then we get support from a lot of businesses, and we write a lot of grants,” Kitch said, explaining concertgoers will be able to directly support the series through direct donations for the first time this summer if they would like to do so.
Now entering its fifth summer, the Ruby Concert Series has become a perennial Best of Morgantown, and, last summer, ranked third nationally in the USA Today 10 Best after the 2025 series brought more than 50,000 people downtown for free Friday night tunes — more on that to come.
“We just appreciate the support we have from the city, and, of course, all of our sponsors. Nobody could do this without this kind of support. I understand that we are very lucky here in Morgantown to have this and to be able to do this, because nowhere else do you see this kind of lineup for free concerts. It just doesn’t happen,” Kitch said, adding, “It’s all for the community. It truly is an investment for the community.”
