While 2013 may be felt as an annus horribilis among James Taylor fans, since he’ll be on a songwriting sabbatical, the roster of popular artists scheduled to perform during Tanglewood’s 76th season in the Berkshires is an attractive one. Melissa Etheridge will open the festivities with a concert in the Koussevitsky Music Shed on June 21. The next day, a new symphonic project, The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration, featuring Warren Haynes with the Boston Pops under the direction of Keith Lockhart, will be presented in the Shed.

Folk, rock, pop, and radio shows Tanglewood 2013 season

• Melissa Etheridge Live – June 21 7PM
• Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration – June 22 8:30PM
• Joan Baez & Indigo Girls – June 23 2:30PM
• Terence Blanchard Group – June 28 8PM
• A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood with Garrison Keillor – June 29 5:45PM
• Jackson Browne with Special Guest Sara Watkins – July 4 7PM
• Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five, and Guster “Last Summer On Earth Tour 2013” – July 23 7PM
• An Evening with Steve Miller Band – July 29 7PM
• Esperanza Spalding – August 4 8PM
• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals with Josh Ritter – August 19 7PM
• Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! – August 29 8PM
• Donal Fox, Scarlatti Jazz Project – Aug. 31, 2013 – 1pm – Ozawa Hall
• Harry Connick, Jr. – Aug. 31, 2013 – 7pm – Shed

Jackson Browne 2013 Tanglewood Fourth of July concert

The redoubtable Garrison Keillor returns with a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, for the 14th consecutive year, on June 29. James Taylor’s fellow Troubadour Club alumnus Jackson Browne headlines Tanglewood’s Fourth of July celebration, with special guest Sara Watkins.

Vince Gill returns to Tanglewood, with Boston Pops

Understanding Tanglewood’s Popular Artist moniker to stray far beyond whatever parameters may pertain to “pop music,” the schedule unfolds with a couple of musicians from the discrete genres of country and jazz. Vince Gill, who played Tanglewood with his wife Amy Grant and James Taylor in 2011, is featured guest on a July 7 Boston Pops program. Triple-threat Esperanza Spalding, the virtuoso bassist, vocalist, and composer leads her Radio Music Society Tour to Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall on Sunday, August 4, 2013.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2013 Tanglewood schedule begins July 5 with an all-Tchaikovsky program led by popular guest conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and featuring the popular violinist Joshua Bell.

Image credits:

• Jackson Browne unplugged and in concert; Author=http://www.flickr.com/people/36703550@N00
• Esperanza Spalding performing at the Newport Jazz Festival 2008; “Cowboy” Ben Alman http://www.benalman.com
• Melissa Etheridge, Hollywood Walk of Fame; Attribution: Angela George
• Warren Haynes performing with Govt Mule; Chris Hakkens http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_hakkens/3595676891/in/set-72157619171503309