When the musicians of Kalamazoo Avenue Band take center stage at Dowagiac’s “Summer in the City” Festival Thursday evening, July 29, their black suits with skinny black ties, fedora hats and wayfarer sunglasses are sure to exemplify images of one of America’s iconic bands of the 1980s — The Blues Brothers.

Appearing for their first time in Dowagiac as the Beckwith Park Summer Concert Series overlaps with Summer in the City, Thursday’s concert by Kalamazoo Avenue Band opens at 6:30 p.m. during what organizers are calling Huntington Night, which pays tribute to the three-time underwriter of this community’s 12-week concert series.

As Dowagiac’s three-day summertime bash celebrates its quarter-century mark, Kalamazoo Avenue Band will present an electric, high-energy Rock, Rhythm and Blues Revue, featuring music by Chicago, The Beatles and The Blues Brothers.

Summer in the City, which is staged in the central business district and presented by the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce, also features The Taste of Dowagiac and its Sizzlin’ Hot Sidewalk Days.

The 25th annual festival opens Thursday morning and continues through Saturday, as family events kick off daily at 10 a.m. The three-day event was underwritten by seven corporate sponsors and a $10,000 fine arts grant awarded to the Dowagiac Downtown Development Authority (DDA) from St. Denys Foundation of Dowagiac.

Corporate sponsors include the Army National Guard, Creative Vinyl Signs, Dr. Charles Burling and Dr. Jon Gillesby, Leader Publications, Dr. Alan Montgomery, Lyons Industries and Southwestern Michigan College. Vickie Phillipson, program director for the Chamber of Commerce and DDA, who oversees scheduling and fund raising for both the 12-week concert series and the July festival, said she is pleased to present the Kalamazoo Avenue Band, which is known for its high-energy tribute productions of some of the most iconic groups of this generation.

The band will perform from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Haggin-Wimberley Bandstand, where audience members will enjoy a complimentary ice cream social and drawings in conjunction with Huntington Night.

Phillipson said several personnel from the Dowagiac branch and its Grand Rapids office will be on hand for this special evening of music.

“Kalamazoo Avenue’s forte reflects the American blues and soul revivalist band, The Blues Brothers, which was founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live,” Phillipson said. The original Blues Brothers outgrew the confines of the television screen, releasing the 1978 album Briefcase Full of Blues, followed in 1980 by the Hollywood movie, The Blues Brothers. The album’s success is credited with sparking a renewed interest in the genres of blues, R&B and jazz, especially in a new and much younger audience. “Since then, there have been many takeoffs and parodies of the Blues Brothers, with Kalamazoo Avenue Band being among the best in southwestern Michigan,” Phillipson said.

Due to the size of the band, six to eight members strong, Kalamazoo Avenue Band has the instrumentation to perform music many bands are unable to. Phillipson said Thursday’s audience will also hear musical tributes to The Beatles and Chicago, and music from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, as musicians feature a full horn section. Lead guitarist Greg Crawford, who also plays bass, rhythm, harmonica and piano, picked up his first guitar when he was 10. By 13, he joined his first rock band.  When he was 15, he formed a concert band, began writing his own music, cut two 45s and began playing only concerts.

A music graduate of Western Michigan University, he operates a music publishing and production company.