Festival Review- Rock The Rind
Summer celebrations of America’s favorite sweet, sticky fruit are an annual tradition around the country. However, few match the Jackson County Watermelon Festival in Indiana because of the live music event that has grown around it. Over the past three years, Rock the Rind has brought an impressive array of artists to the courthouse square in Brownstown and this year the festival absolutely came into its own. For three days, from July 30 thru August 2, the gated admission party brought about 4,000 music lovers downtown each day to enjoy a diverse selection of genres under a beautiful Hoosier sky. The weather was perfect after a heat dome had brought much of the nation’s Heartland and South under insufferable conditions. This year’s lineup included bluegrass, 90s Country legends, a Contemporary Country hitmaker, authentic Kentucky Appalachian country, Texas country, gritty Southern Rock and a local boy coming home to celebrate a HUGE year.
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper are festival favorites wherever they play. Cleveland is simply one of today’s greatest fiddle players and is a joy to watch. The band incorporates their take on a range of popular tunes along with their bluegrass standards. They set the scene Thursday night for surprisingly good sets by Deana Carter and Tracy Byrd. Both stars of 90s Country are still in great shape physically and musically; each commanding the stage with a steady stream of hits. Byrd was a natural for the event with his famous “Watermelon Crawl” and he let the crowd know early on they were going to have to wait for that one and they happily obliged. Sometimes you forget what a huge number of radio standards the Beaumont, Texas native had until they started rolling out one after the other; from “We’re from the Country” and “Walking to Jerusalem” to “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo” it was a perfect way to start the weekend.
Rye Davis was a late addition to the lineup but the affable Kentuckian from Pig (really) helped ease the festival into weekend mode as he started Friday’s performances with his strong baritone. He also appeared later in the evening to lead the crowd in the singing of the National Anthem, an event that highlighted both nights by a flyover of antique aircraft against the backdrop of an enormous US flag draped against the side of the courthouse. This is small-town America at its best. The Local Honeys hit the stage in the heat of the afternoon and the ladies stared down the sun with their unique Appalachian sound. Woodford County’s Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs from Beattyville lead the band featuring sweet harmonies and instrumentation not found anywhere else. When was the last time you saw a genuine harmonium on stage? Add the nifty banjo of Hobbs and the dynamic guitar of Stokley and it’s quite a show. Josh Ward is riding the release of his latest album Same Ol’ Cowboy, Different Rodeo. This show was the first night of his new tour promoting it and the setlist featured most of the tunes from the new record mixed in with some of the fantastic Texas Country songs from his catalog dating back to 2011 including “Whiskey and Whitley,” “Somewhere Between Right and Wrong,” and “A Cowboy Can.” There will always be people that gripe about festival lineups with the age-old “never heard of ‘em” complaint but even fans of contemporary country radio know Justin Moore. He brought his big-time stage set including deer rack chandeliers to Rock the Rind and the pit in front of the stage was packed with young fans eager to get up close to the star.
Even with a solid two days of country music, the best day was Saturday with an impressive schedule. Arlo McKinley was supposed to start the day but was a last-minute medical emergency scratch which brought friend-of-the-festival Isaac Rudd down from his home outside Indianapolis for an impromptu acoustic set and he brought along his wife, Christine Kindred, for harmonies and support. (She also performed the Star Spangled Banner that evening.) Judging by the crowd reaction, the breakout star of the weekend was clearly Taylor Hunnicutt. The “Queen of Alabama” brought her boundless energy to the stage decked out in an emerald green dress (with matching boots) and her band proceeded to kick ass with their scorching Alabama Sound of southern rock. The pairing of her set back to back with their longtime friends and fans, Silverada, made for an exciting afternoon. Frontman Mike Harmeier is still working on the band’s personnel after long-time pedal steel player Zach Moulton left the group a few months ago. Some shows have a guest pedal steel player but this weekend it was Parker Twomey on keyboards bringing back some of the band’s original sound which featured piano and organ. This show was the last on this leg of the group’s “Unlit Matches” tour and they showed off their tight honky-tonk chops with a set featuring tracks from across their catalog including singalong favorites “Steak Night at the Prairie Rose” and “Beaches of Biloxi.” Read Southall fronts the Stillwater, Oklahoma band that bears his name and the youthful exuberance from the stage is reminiscent of the early Cross Canadian Ragweed Red Dirt rock n roll. By this time, the locals had packed the site to bestow blessings on one of their own, Stephen Wilson, Jr., the Jackson County native, has seen a meteoric rise since the release of Son of Dad in 2023 and these folks have known him and his family all his life. He hit the stage and the courthouse square exploded as Wilson brought the same show that has thrilled audiences worldwide back home to many who have never seen him in concert before.
Many local festivals feature live music which is, more often than not, some local musicians and the occasional inexpensive past-their-prime performer phoning in an obligatory hour-long set. Not so with Rock the Rind. This show is produced by the same team that handled the Roostertail Music Festival in nearby Madison, Indiana before the local racing group took over and changed the dynamic of that event. This team will also be producing the new Unbroken Circle Music Festival at the same site in Madison this September and the cross-promotion of that event with Rock the Rind brings a powerful 1-2 punch to Southern Indiana for live music fans around the country. And don’t miss the small-town charm of the Watermelon Festival itself featuring all the events you would expect, plus free watermelon slices as soon as you enter the gate. I’m already looking forward to doing the “Watermelon Crawl'“ back to southern Indiana next summer.
