Shakey Graves has spent the better part of fifteen years building from street corners — literally: Alejandro Rose-Garcia cut his teeth as the official busker of the Railroad Revival Tour in 2011, playing solo one-man-band sets while Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe played the stages — to headlining bills that require outdoor amphitheaters. The Artpark engagement on Wednesday, July 22 arrives at a meaningful juncture: Fondness, Etc., his fifth studio album, releases May 15 on Secret Identity/Dualtone Records, and this Lewiston date falls near the close of the supporting tour. If you want to catch the songs before the setlists get road-worn, this is the window.
Rose-Garcia is an Austin-based Americana singer-songwriter who won Best Emerging Artist at the 2015 Americana Music Awards. Fondness, Etc. — recorded on vintage Tascam tape machines during a focused one-month home studio session — explores themes of aging and family. Among the instruments: a 1932 Gibson guitar that, according to Graves, survived a bunker fire in World War II. The record’s lead single, “Time Flies,” is a cover of Frankie Sunswept’s composition that Graves first heard at a New York City venue in 2007, recast as what he called “a sort of zero-budget Roy Orbison ’50s pop record.”
Dope Lemon co-headlines. Angus Stone’s project has built a devoted following since 2016 on dreamy, sun-drenched guitar-pop that has accumulated north of 700 million streams and earned headline slots at Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. His 2025 ARIA number-one Golden Wolf pushed the project into more atmospheric territory — textured enough that the pairing with Graves’ lo-fi Americana makes more sense on stage than it might appear on paper. Cameron Neal’s Texino opens.
Artpark is one of the more distinctive rooms in the region — 150 acres above the Niagara River Gorge, opened in 1974 as a collaboration between New York State Parks and the nonprofit Artpark & Company, and bookmarked by a history that spans the New York Philharmonic, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Arctic Monkeys. The outdoor amphitheater accommodates up to 10,000 patrons in a three-tiered configuration, and on a Western New York summer evening with the Gorge below and the light doing what it does at golden hour, the setting earns its reputation.
Presented by DSP Shows and Artpark, doors open for a 6 PM start. Tickets are available at Artpark.net and through Ticketmaster. The Artpark Box Office at 450 South 4th Street, Lewiston operates Tuesday through Friday 10 AM–4 PM and Saturday 10 AM–2 PM; the venue’s direct line is 716-754-4375. Facility fees are included in the listed price; additional online fees apply.