St. Paul unveils band lineups for Green Line party, blues fest, Music in Mears

After several years of light-rail-related construction and other transitional development, downtown St. Paul is going to rock a little heavier this summer.

The lineup for the inaugural Lowertown Blues Festival with Shemekia Copeland and the Lamont Cranston Band was announced today for July 26 along with a Doomtree-headlined party to celebrate the opening of the Green Line on June 14 at Union Depot. That's in addition to the newly unveiled schedule for the Music in Mears series, which looks to be as strong as ever despite some challenges in funding this year.

Here's the lowdown on each of these Lowertown events.

LOWERTOWN BLUES FESTIVAL

With: Shemekia Copeland, Hamilton Loomis, Lamont Cranston Band and Sena Ehrhardt / When: 3-10 p.m., July 19 / Where: Mears Park / Details: Free and all ages, the event has been on the wish list of Mayor Chris Coleman and his arts liaison Joe Spencer as a blues counterpart to the flourishing Twin Cities Jazz Festival (June 26-28) / Website: LowertownBluesFestival.com.

THE CURRENT STAGE AT UNION DEPOT (Green Line Launch Party)

With: 11 a.m. Southwire, 12:30 p.m. Koo Koo Kanga Roo, 2 p.m. Southside Desire, 3:30 p.m., the 4onthefloor, 5 p.m. Doomtree / When: June 14 / Where: Union Depot lawn across from the new LRT station / Details: St. Paul-based 89.3 the Current teamed with the Metropolitan Council to book the music for the party, which will be Doomtree's first full performance since its Blowout concerts last December following P.O.S.' kidney transplant.

The popular weekly happy-hour parties lost their STAR Grant funding this year (an every-other-year thing), but new sponsor Sun Country Airlines stepped in to help pay the bands. Here's the lineup for each of the free Thursday shows, which start at 6 p.m. and wrap by 9 p.m. and are accompanied by Lowertown area food and beer vendors. More details at MusicinMears.com.