Utah musician joins Beach Boys, Scotty McCreery at Stadium of Fire

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This year’s Stadium of Fire show will stand apart from other shows as The Beach Boys mark the 20th anniversary of their first appearance at Utah’s largest Fourth of July show.

Stadium of Fire will also feature American Idol winner Scotty McCreery and Utah musician Ryan Innes, a top contestant in the Stadium of Fire Talent Competition.

Stadium of Fire communications manager Emory Cook said the Freedom Festival organization hosted its second annual talent competition to choose two contestants to open the fireworks show on July 4.

“We have had over 3,000 video submissions of people who wanted to perform at the Stadium of Fire. Those were whittled down to 200,” Cook said. “Then we got down to a top-eight talent search performance, Ryan Innes was one of the final two finalists.”

Utah musician Ryan Innes studied music media studies at BYU and released his EP album in June 2010.

Innes said that he hopes the audience will forget their worries and enjoy the groove. “It’s going to be upbeat and have really cool rhythms and a groove to it,” he said. “I want people to have fun and let loose.”

In addition to the groove from Ryan Innes, and McCreery’s twangy beats, the audience will also enjoy some good vibrations from the iconic American pop-band, The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys haven’t played together as a full band since 1965, but they will “Do it Again” for their 50th anniversary tour and stop by Utah to perform some of their classic surf-rock tunes.

Innes said that he can’t believe that he will perform with the legendary group. “The Beach Boys are this iconic, etched-in-stone, American band,” Innes said. “It feels unreal right now. Everyone knows them, they know their songs, and everyone has memories with their songs.”

The Beach Boys’ music resonates through people of all generations, including former Stadium of Fire employee Colin Braman.

Braman said he remembers listening to The Beach Boys with his grandpa. “It’s kind of hard to avoid the Beach Boys,” he said. “When we went up to our cabin my grandpa had vinyl records and we would sit and listen to the Beach Boys while my mother made breakfast.”

With a history of good beats, Ryan Innes and The Beach Boys will provide “feel good” music at Stadium of Fire on July 4.

Braman said that he looks forward to the show and to see the original group of band members.

“Nowadays famous bands are broken up so you have to see ‘tribute bands’ to get a taste of what they were like, it’s going to be really cool to see the real thing, especially now that they are older,” Braman said. “I have this thing to go check out older bands because I don’t know how long they are going to live.”

Tickets are still available, call 801-422-2981 to order or at www.freedomfestival.org/sof/.

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