Charles Bradley performs at Timber! Outdoor Music Festival on Saturday. Photo by Owen R. Smith.

Charles Bradley hugged me. Wading into a sea of  ecstatic revelers Saturday night at Timber! Outdoor Music Festival as the final strains of “Why Is It So Hard” played, Bradley cast his arms open wide, pulled me into an enormous bear hug and whispered his sincerest thanks for coming to watch him play. I stood there, as more people pushed to get their moment with Bradley, stunned. I have experienced very few things in my 20 or so years of attending concerts that have given me real pause, but that indelible moment of gratitude from an artist who had just spent over an hour killing himself on stage is something I will carry with me long after I’ve stopped writing about music. It was exactly the sort of moment that organizer Kevin Sur had hoped for when he booked Bradley, whom he called the most gracious performer he’d ever seen.

The Timber! Outdoor Music Festival got off to a soggy start Thursday, but by the time Seattle artist Benjamin Verdoes started playing at around 8:30 p.m., it was dry and Tolt-MacDonald Park had started filling up. Now in its second year, Timber! aims to attract a different sort of crowd than most festivals by encouraging attendees…

After the success of Timber! Outdoor Music Festival last year, organizer Kevin Sur felt one emotion: a deep, abiding gratitude to everyone who had helped bring it off without a hitch.

It was a feeling that stuck with him as he chose soul revivalist Charles Bradley to top a 2014 lineup that includes J. Mascis, Damien Jurado and the Seattle Rock Orchestra. The festival runs July 24-26 and kicks off Thursday afternoon with a performance by the Shumba Marimba Ensemble.

“We felt like we had an overwhelming amount of support from the music community in making our first year a success, and that got me thinking about Charles Bradley,” Sur said.

Timber! Outdoor Music Festival, which takes place July 24-26 at King County’s Tolt Macdonald Park, has added an impressive schedule of outdoor recreational activities to its outstanding musical lineup. Along with musical sets by Charles Bradley, J Mascis, Damien Jurado and Rocky Votolato attendees can also participate in kayaking and…

“I still got it!” Five minutes into his triumphant 2012 release “Faithful Man,” Lee Fields declares what many soul-music aficionados have long known. Not only has he still “got it,” the singer, whose career began in 1969, is getting better with age. On Tuesday, Fields & The Expressions return to Neumos for their second appearance this year. Back in the ’70s, Fields toured with Kool…