Sting, John Mayer, Luke Combs + Portugal. The Man
to Perform at the 2019 JAS Labor Day Experience

Early Bird 3-Day Pass On-Sale Mon, Dec. 17

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Aspen, CO, December 14, 2018 – More big names are headed to the Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) Labor Day Experience again in 2019 with today’s early announcements including Sting, John Mayer, Luke Combs and Portugal. The Man all performing in their first ever Aspen/Snowmass appearances. Three-day Early Bird passes will go on-sale Monday, December 17 at 9am mst. Single day tickets will go on-sale at a later date once additional line-up announcements have been made.

Sting: My Songs will be a rollicking, dynamic show focusing on the most beloved songs written by Sting and spanning the 16-time GRAMMY Award winner’s prolific career with The Police and as a solo artist. Fans can expect to hear “Englishman in New York,” “Fields of Gold,” “Shape Of My Heart,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Message In A Bottle” and many more, with Sting accompanied by an electric, rock ensemble.

Singer/songwriter/artist John Mayer has won seven GRAMMY awards and has earned a record seven U.S. No. 1s on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and 25 entries on the Hot Rock Songs chart, the most for any solo artist. In 2018, he released the Gold-certified “New Light,” while working on his eighth solo album. For the third consecutive year, Mayer toured with Dead & Company, who played to over 500,000 people this year in their largest tour.

Having just brought home the Country Music Award for Best New Artist in 2018 and a 2019 GRAMMY nomination for Best New Artist, singer-songwriter Luke Combs has stormed onto the country music landscape as “one of the format’s burliest and brightest stars (Vulture).” His 2017 album, This One’s for You, debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart.

In 2017 Portugal. The Man released their first album in four years, Woodstock, and took home the 2018 GRAMMY Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for the single “Feel It Still.” The single was #1 at Top 40 for 2 weeks and held #1 at Alternative for 21 weeks in a row! The band, formed in Wasilla, Alaska in 2004, has released eight studio ablums, four extended plays (Eps) and 11 singles since 2006.  

 “JAS is thrilled to welcome two iconic Artists who we’ve long hoped to present and have been among the Artists JAS attendees have most requested to hear on our main-stage. Adding the emerging Country superstar Luke Combs and 2018 GRAMMY winners Portugal. The Man, to our program is a coup for our JAS Experience,” said JAS President Jim Horowitz.

Passes can be purchased at 866-JAS-TIXX (527-8499), www.jazzaspensnowmass.org or at the Belly Up Box Office in Aspen, www.bellyupaspen.com (544-9800). In addition to the 3-day general admission pass JAS will also be selling the 3-Day Deck Passes which includes complimentary grille fare, private restrooms and a private bar with complimentary beer, wine and a daily cocktail. All sales are based on availability, with an increase in prices later this winter.

Donor (VIP) 3-day passes will also be available on Monday at www.jazzaspensnowmass.org or by calling 970.920.4996. Donor passes include parking, afternoon grille fare, live cooking stations, gourmet dinner and dessert, premium open bars and are substantially tax-deductible. JAS is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization that has contributed over $7.5 million to music education programs since 1996.  

For more information on JAS Aspen Snowmass please contact the JAS Office at 920-4996 or visit www.jazzaspensnowmass.org.   

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ARTIST BIOS

Composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author, and activist Sting was born in Newcastle, England before moving to London in 1977 to form The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. The band released five studio albums, earned six Grammy Awards and two Brits, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

As one of the world’s most distinctive solo artists, Sting received an additional 10 Grammy Awards, two Brits, A Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Oscar nominations, a TONY nomination, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award, and MusiCares 2004 Person of the Year. Also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he has received the Kennedy Center Honors, The American Music Award of Merit and The Polar Music Prize.

Throughout his illustrious career, Sting has sold close to 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist.

Singer/songwriter/artist John Mayer has won seven GRAMMY awards and has earned a record seven U.S. No. 1s on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and 25 entries on the Hot Rock Songs chart, the most for any solo artist. In 2018, he released the Gold-certified “New Light,” while working on his eighth solo album, the follow-up to 2017’s critically acclaimed The Search for Everything. For the third consecutive year, Mayer toured with Dead & Company, who played to over 500,000 people this year on its third and largest tour. Additionally, he launched ‘Current Mood,’ his highly regarded Instagram Live show on Sundays, which some have dubbed, “the best way to start the week on a high note, maybe even the only way.”

After college at Appalachian State, Asheville, North Carolina native Luke Combs, a true road warrior, built his avid fan base by developing his trademark through delivering rowdy, hold-nothing back shows. He released his GOLD-certified critically-acclaimed debut album This One’s for You in 2017, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Combs had three consecutive #1 radio singles – 3x platinum “Hurricane,” 2x platinum “When It Rains It Pours” and platinum “One Number Away.”

Everything You Need To Know About Portugal. The Man’s New Album. PTM’s last album came out over four years ago—a long gap for a band who’ve dropped roughly an album a year since 2006. And in true, prolific band fashion, they’ve spent almost every minute since 2013 working on an album called Gloomin + Doomin. They created a ton of individual songs, but as a whole, none of them hung together in a way that felt right. Then John Gourley, PTM’s lead singer, made a trip home to Wasilla, Alaska, (Home of Portugal. The Man’s biggest fan, Sarah Palin) and two things happened that completely changed the album’s trajectory.

First, John got some parental tough love from his old man, who called John on the proverbial carpet or dogsled or whatever you put people on when you want to yell at them in Alaska. “What’s taking so long to finish the album?” John’s dad said. “Isn’t that what bands do? Write songs and then put them out?” Like fathers and unlicensed therapists tend to do, John’s dad cut him deep.

Second, John found his dad’s ticket stub from the original 1969 Woodstock music festival. It seems like a small thing, but talking to his dad about Woodstock ’69 knocked something loose in John’s head. He realized that, in the same tradition of bands from that era, Portugal. The Man needed to speak out about the world crumbling around them. With these two ideas converging, the band made a seemingly crazy decision: they took all of the work they had done for the three years prior and they threw it out. 

Woodstock is an album (Including the new single “Feel It Still”) that—with optimism and heart points out that you owe it to yourself – to all of us – to get out there and do something about this world crumbling around us.