The band, called Old Dominion in honor of the members’ ties to Virginia, formed in 2007 and has reached great heights since. Its members have written songs for some of country music’s biggest stars including Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and Kenny Chesney, and just this month they were named Group of the Year by the Academy of Country Music for the sixth time.

The families and friends of sailors were invited onto the ship to enjoy the show. The concert and music video are part of their promotion of their new single, “Coming Home.”

The Ford is the Navy’s newest and most advanced warship, and recently returned from a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

Navy MWR Entertainment hosted the band which played a handful of their most well-known songs before using the aircraft carrier as the backdrop to film a music video for their new song “Coming Home”.

Fun Fridays on the Square, featuring children’s games, activities and more. 10:30 a.m. Friday at City Square Plaza, 412 N. Boundary St., Williamsburg. Free. For more information, visit wrl.org.

Thank Goodness It’s Ocean View featuring The Tiki Bar Band, community barbecue and more. 6 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at Ocean View Beach Park, Norfolk. For more info, visit oceanviewbeachpark.org.

Groovin’ by the Bay, a summer concert series, featuring J & the Band. 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Mill Point Park, 100 Eaton St., Hampton. Free. For more information including the series lineup, visit visithampton.com.

Train and REO Speedwagon bring their “Summer Road Trip” tour to Virginia Beach. Opening the show will be Yacht Rock Revue. 6:25 p.m. July 31 at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater, 3550 Cellar Door Way. Tickets start at $48.65. To buy online, visit livenation.com.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again].” 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays Aug. 9 through Aug. 25 at Little Theatre of Norfolk, 801 Claremont Ave. Tickets: $18, advance; $20 at the door. For more info, visit ltnonline.org.

Events may change. Check before attending.

Movies in July featuring “Trolls: Band Together.” 8:30 p.m. Friday at Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, 16 Crawford Circle, Portsmouth. Free. For more information, including inclement weather updates, visit pavilionconcerts.com.

Creed brings their “Summer of ’99” tour to Virginia Beach. 3 Doors Down, Finger Eleven to open. 7 p.m. Saturday at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater, 3550 Cellar Door Way. Tickets are limited; visit livenation.com.

Kentucky rock band Black Stone Cherry to make a stop in Norfolk. Florida metal band Nonpoint will open the show. 7:30 p.m. Sunday at The NorVa, 317 Monticello Ave. Tickets start at $40. To buy online, visit thenorva.com.

Norfolk Tides baseball takes on the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp at home in the final match-up game. 4:05 p.m. Sunday at Harbor Park, 150 Park Ave., Norfolk. Tickets start at $11. For more information, including the Princess Night promotion, visit milb.com/norfolk.

New Kids on the Block with Paula Abdul, DJ Jazzy Jeff. 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater, 3550 Cellar Door Way, Virginia Beach. Tickets start at $41.75. To buy online, visit livenation.com.

Portsmouth native Missy Elliott is coming home with her “Out of this World” tour and bringing along a few friends, including Ciara, Busta Rhymes. 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at Hampton Coliseum, 1000 Coliseum Drive. For ticket availability, visit ticketmaster.com. For concert information, visit hamptoncoliseum.org.

Events may change. Check before attending.

Patty Jenkins, patty.jenkins@pilotonline.com

He showed off his singing and guitar-playing chops on the show that aired on ABC and CMT from 2012 to 2018, playing the brooding and troubled but talented central character Deacon Claybourne.

And his X (formerly Twitter) followers probably thought it was about time. Esten started a project on the platform called “#EverySingleFriday” in July 2016 that ran for 54 weeks, where he released a song he wrote or co-wrote every week.

But his debut record, a collection of 14 original songs called “Love Ain’t Pretty,” was somewhat of a late arrival for a 58-year-old actor, who’s been on the road promoting “Pretty” since its release in January.

The singer-songwriter, accompanying himself on guitar and piano, makes a stop July 26, at the Pioneer Theater in downtown Manteo, North Carolina.

Fun fact: It’s Esten’s second performance on the Outer Banks. While attending William & Mary (graduating in 1987), he was the lead singer in a band called N’est Pas, who played in 1986 at the legendary Atlantis Beach Club in Nags Head.

Making a full-length album was Esten’s life-long ambition.

“Music has always been part of my life,” he said. “But my acting career took off.”

Call him the king of the understatement.

He hit the stage running in 1991 starring in the West End production of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” in London.

Since then the actor has appeared in dozens of TV shows, including “Married With Children,” “The New Adventures with Old Christine,” “ER” and, of course, “Nashville.”

He recently played the role of Ward Cameron on the Netflix series “Outer Banks.”

Esten also was a regular panelist (using his nickname “Chip”) in the 1990s on the improvisational comedy show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

His resume includes three Kevin Costner movies.

But now, it’s full-speed ahead on music.

“A door just opened for me,” Esten said of recording the album at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville. “I was ready for it.”

He had made a lot of friends in Music City where “Nashville” was filmed. Renowned producer-songwriter Marshall Altman was one of them.

“We had an immediate connection,” Esten said during a phone interview from his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he was playing Professor Harold Hill in a summer production of the classic play “The Music Man.”

Altman rounded up some of Nashville’s top musicians and songwriters to work on the debut album, which brings to mind the confessional singer-songwriter era in the 1970s (Jackson Browne, Neil Young, etc.) filtered through modern country.

Citing influences ranging from The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello, Esten touches the head and heart equally on “Pretty.”

While certainly the songs, which he wrote or co-wrote, have a slight twang, there are elements of rock and blues.

He describes them as “postcards from paradise.”

“I want people to feel something,” Esten explained. “But I also want them to celebrate, to dance.”

Esten possesses a warm, soulful voice that feels seasoned, delivering poetic nuggets that explore a wide range of subjects, including hope, love, death, loss, grace and redemption.

He’s in touch with his inner Springsteen.

“I try to write lyrics like people actually talk,” he said. “Conversations feel a little deeper.”

Take “Somewhere in the Sunshine,” a melodic, reflective song co-written by Jon Nite, which touches on grief: “And days when you miss me/and the lonely takes place/close your eyes/lift your head/feel the sun on your face.”

Other standout tracks include the bluesy rocker “I Ain’t,” the mid-tempo, meditative “One Good Move” and the yearning, 1980s-rock-style title song written with Jimmy Yeary and Marshall Altman, which would have melted his “Nashville” on-and-off squeeze and one true love Rayna James’ heart.

He sings: “Shows up when you don’t need it/and leaves you when you do/it’ll tear you to pieces/and make ‘em all come true.”

For his performance at the Pioneer, Esten will play tunes from the debut album as well as a few cover songs (he’s been known to merge Willie Nelson’s “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” with The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood”).

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “We (his wife and three children) love the Outer Banks.”

___

If you go

When: Friday, July 26, at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The Pioneer Theater, 109 Budleigh St., Manteo

Tickets: $40 to $50

Details: ThePioneerTheater.com

“Kinky Boots,” featuring music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, is based on the book by Harvey Fierstein about a shoe factory that gets a boost from an unlikely partner. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Friday through Aug. 11 at Little Theatre of Virginia Beach, 550 Barberton Drive. For ticket price and availability, visit ltvb.com.

The 23rd annual Latino Music Festival returns to Norfolk. 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Town Point Park, Waterside Drive. Free. For the main stage entertainment lineup, visit festevents.org.

Wave Fest featuring Sexxy Red, Mariah the Scientist, others. 5 p.m. Sunday at Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, 16 Crawford Circle, Portsmouth. Tickets start at $81. To buy online, visit ticketmaster.com. For a complete festival lineup, visit pavilionconcerts.com.

Virginia Symphony Orchestra Concert in the Park presents “Where Wishes Come True: A Night of Enchanted Melodies.” Park will open at 6 p.m. Sunday for pre-concert picnics. Concert starts at 8:30 at Town Point Park, Waterside Drive, Norfolk. Free. For more info, visit festevents.org.

Double the Candlelight concert fun July 24 at the Z. “The Best of Hans Zimmer,” 6:30 p.m., and “A Tribute to Taylor Swift,” 8:45 p.m., at Zeiders American Dream Theater, 4509 Commerce St., Virginia Beach. Tickets for each one-hour performance start at $36. To buy online, visit feverup.com.

Six-time Grammy Award winner Dionne Warwick will bring some of her 100 chart-toppers to Virginia Beach. 7:30 p.m. July 25 at Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, 201 Market St. Tickets start at $49.50. To buy online, visit sandlercenter.org.

Events may change. Check before attending.

Patty Jenkins, patty.jenkins@pilotonline.com

The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California beamed the song to its Deep Space Network, a web of giant radio antennas that allow missions to track, send commands and receive scientific data from spacecraft. Elliott’s tune is the second song transmitted in space. The first was the Beatles’ “Across the Universe.”

Brittany Brown, director of the digital and technology division for NASA communications, pitched the Portsmouth native as a collaborator for the Deep Space Network.

“Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting,” Brown said in a news release.

The song traveled about 158 million miles to Venus, and the trip took about 14 minutes at the speed of light. Elliott said she chose Venus because it “symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment,” and she feels humbled to be the first hip-hop song sent to deep space.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com

We’ll pause while that sinks in,  because, frankly, it’s such an unexpected thing to hear that it feels like it can’t possibly be true.

“I’ve had people argue with me: ‘No, no, no, you’re wrong,’” said Mona Scott-Young, Elliott’s manager since 1996, just before that first album arrived. “And I’m like, ‘No, I think I would know. I was there.’

“It’s pretty unimaginable,” Scott-Young continued. “Because she’s had so many milestone accomplishments, right? Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, every imaginable songwriter’s award. And you think of touring as just a natural extension of an artist that has had such an illustrious career.

“But yeah, historically she just has never felt that the time was right. Until now.”

Elliott has periodically popped up at festivals and as a guest artist. But the only multi-city tour she’s ever done was two decades ago, in 2004, when she opened for Alicia Keys and Beyoncé on the Verizon Ladies First Tour.

Accompanying Elliott on the “Out of This World: Missy Elliott Experience” tour are longtime friends and collaborators Busta Rhymes, Timbaland and Ciara. The tour kicked off July 4 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and includes stops Aug. 2 at the Hampton Coliseum and Aug. 8 in Washington. 

In an interview edited for clarity and length, Scott-Young talked about Elliott’s decision to finally headline her own tour now, her reasons for not doing so earlier, and how she has many albums’ worth of new music recorded yet has not released a new studio album since 2005.

___

So how did this happen? How did you learn she was ready to tour?

Well, we get offers constantly, which she goes, “Mmm, no, mmm, no.” And a big part of it is because she has such an incredible imagination in terms of what she wants to see happen. I often say it’s like a spectacle. She doesn’t just step onto a stage. It’s got to be all the bells and whistles because she comes from thinking that people pay good money, and they should get entertained.

For years, she had thought about Vegas. It would be an opportunity for her to plant herself in a space and build out whatever her mind can conceptualize. We would do something where she was static. And so we had taken a quick trip and taken a look at some of the shows that were out there.

And then one day she just called and said, “We should go on tour.” I was like, “Oh, wait, we weren’t just going to be in Vegas? What happened to that?” But our partnership has always been, “You conceptualize it and I will figure out how to make it happen.” And that’s where this crazy journey we’ve been on began.

___

In the past, how has she decided when she wanted to play a festival or a stand-alone show?

It’s been very random. It could be because of a song that she saw kind of regaining popularity. We had the “Cool Off” (dance) challenge and people really responded well to that. Or she’ll see dance crazes and she’s like, “Oh, I’d love to have my dancers out there on stage.” And I’m like, ‘”Wait, we’re gonna do this show mainly because you wanted to give your dancers an opportunity?” [She laughs.]

Like we did the FYF festival (in Los Angeles in 2017) and that was kind of an opportunity for her to have 25-plus dancers on stage with her. She was like, “That feels like it could be a lot of fun.”

___

So for this headlining tour, what had to take place to put it together?

Oh, good Lord, that is a loaded question. We probably have no less than 30 individual group text chains going on every single element. Because again, it’s not just getting on stage with a mic and some dancers, it’s the content that has to be conceptualized. The fans experience this show. It is not going to be something you watch. This is not a passive show, this is a fully immersed experience.

You’re going to go through a range of emotions. And the content, the wardrobe, the choreography, the music, the transitions, everything plays into that to paint this picture that lives in her head.

And the scariest thing to me is this picture is ever-evolving, it’s ever-changing. I’ll get middle of the night texts (from Elliott): “I have an idea.” That’s the scariest words that Missy Elliott can say to me. Because I never know where this idea is going to take me and what it’s going to entail in terms of execution.

___

One of the things fans will be excited about is that Missy is bringing Busta Rhymes and Ciara and Timbaland.

It’s family. That’s what we say all the time, it’s a family affair. When she decided to do this there were so many artists that you could think of that would be great to go with Missy, right? But it was important for her that she delivered on the fans’ expectations. People have wanted to see her and Busta do anything together because they are such kindred spirits.

Ciara has been Missy’s protege and they’ve done some incredible music together. And Timbaland is everyone’s longtime collaborator. He’s going to be taking us in and out of the sets, doing his own set. It’s going to be a seamless experience.

___

After she played the Friends & Lovers festival in Las Vegas last year she did the one show at Yaamava’. Was that a test for a tour or just a tag-on to the festival?

It’s funny, it was just the tag-on to the festival. To be perfectly honest, everything that she put on at the festival was not cheap. So it was like, “OK, Missy, let’s see, we’re going to need another show to help underwrite all of this stuff.” So it was really in support of the festival show.

___

She was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year — the first solo female hip-hop artist to go in. Did that play a role in the tour this year?

It kind of pulled her out. I say a lot she’s like a hermit. She goes into that Bat Cave, she’s making music, you know. You very rarely see her out and about, just a few select appearances. But with that Rock Hall of Fame there was a lot of press and she was out there a lot. And people just kept expressing appreciation and love, and she responds to wanting to kind of deliver on her gift.

So when people kept saying to her again and again, “Oh my God, it would be so great to see you, I’ve been dying to see you,” it made her feel like, “Oh, you know, I probably should do something to give back to the fans.” All the conversations were around Vegas. I think the tour just came about spontaneously because she realized this would give her the opportunity to get out there and meet them where they are.

___

She told Variety recently that she had six albums’ worth of music recorded. What’s your sense of that as her manager?

The difference with Missy is she does nothing until she feels it’s absolutely the right time. One of her favorite phrases is “My spirit says,” because she really is not only intuitive, but very spiritual. And she’s always looking for those signs and looking to feel 100% reconciled with whatever decision she makes.

And if there is anything that just doesn’t have her feeling that the time is absolutely right she just won’t do it. It’s never motivated by the financial, which, for a manager, it’s kind of like, “Are you kidding me? Are we really saying no to this?” [She laughs.] And she’s like, “It just doesn’t feel right.”

She’s probably got more than six albums’ worth of material. I am sure that one day she will wake up and text me at 3 a.m. and say, “I have an idea,” and it’ll be let’s do the album. She just isn’t moved by anything other than her internal clock.

Two nights of Wobble Coliseum III, presented by Ganja White Night. 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Hampton Coliseum, 1000 Coliseum Drive. Tickets start at $59.50 for a single day, $99 for both days. To buy online, visit ticketmaster.com. For important show information including lineup, visit hamptoncoliseum.org.

Second Friday: Party on Market Street, presented by the Onancock Business and Civic Association. Featuring music by Boy Wells and the Cape Crusaders, others. 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at 33 Market St., Onancock. For more information, visit onancock.org.

Norfolk’s sixth annual Taco Festival returns, featuring more than 75 varieties of tacos. 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Waterside District, 333 Waterside Drive. Tickets start at $9.99. For more information, visit visitnorfolk.com/event/norfolk-taco-festival.

Groovin’ by the Bay summer concert series, featuring Motown and soul dance tunes with the TFC Band. 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Mill Point Park, 100 Eaton St., Hampton. Free. For more information, including the series lineup, visit visithampton.com.

Beach Blanket Movie Festival: Jurassic Experience will feature five dino-themed movies. 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. July 16-20 on the beach at 29th Street, Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Free. For the lineup, visit beacheventsvb.com.

Rap trio Bell Biv DeVoe will bring their late-1980s sound to Norfolk. R&B group One Twelve will open the show. 7:30 p.m. July 18 at Chartway Arena, 4320 Hampton Blvd., Norfolk. Tickets start at $34. To buy online, visit chartwayarena.com.

Events may change. Check before attending.

Patty Jenkins, patty.jenkins@pilotonline.com

The Immersive Experience has returned, but this time with Beyond Monet and Beyond Van Gogh. Dates/times through Sept. 5 at Virginia Beach Convention Center, 1000 19th St. Tickets start at $34.99. Combo tickets are also available. For more information, visit beyondmonet.com/city/virginia-beach/.

Fun Fridays on the Square, featuring children’s games and activities. 10:30 a.m. Friday at City Square Plaza, next to the public library, 412 N. Boundary St., Williamsburg. The event is free. For more information, visit wrl.org/events/.

Ocean View Beach Party, featuring music by Tidewater Drive. 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Ocean View Beach Park, 100 W. Ocean View Ave., Norfolk. The event is free. For more information, visit oceanviewbeachpark.org.

Big Bands on the Bay, featuring The Top Hats Orchestra. 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Ocean View Beach Park, 100 W. Ocean View Ave., Norfolk. Free. For more info, visit oceanviewbeachpark.org.

Tappahannock, Virginia, native and rapper Chris Brown will bring his “11:11” tour to Hampton. Opening the show will be Muni Long and Maeta. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 9, at Hampton Coliseum, 1000 Coliseum Drive. Tickets start at $99.50. For ticket availability, visit ticketmaster.com. For show info, visit hamptoncoliseum.org.

The Symphony by the Sea summer series kicks off with “Symphonic Summer Games,” featuring Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conductor Morihiko Nakahara. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 11, at 31st Street Park, Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Free; VIP membership options available. For more info, visit neptunefestival.com.

Events may change. Check before attending.

Patty Jenkins, patty.jenkins@pilotonline.com