Sep 26

Sep 26 Festival Review- Highlights from AmericanaFest 2024

You could get a pretty good taste of the breadth and depth of Americana music by hopping around the three stages of the Cannery Hall complex in Nashville on Friday night of AmericanaFest.

There, you’d find the dean of Americana, Jim Lauderdale, resplendent in a glittery purple suit. You’d find the soulful afropop-folk of Ugandan immigrant Jon Muq and the swaggering, high-octane country rock of Jason Scott and the High Heat. You’d hear the fiddle forward country-with-an-edge of Kelsey Waldon and the funk-soul-gospel of the McCrary Sisters. You’d find the thrilling vocal runs of R&B singer Major and the muscular soul of Amythyst Kiah.

Oct 23

Oct 23 Festival Review- Born & Raised 2023

Jolene Horihan

Four miles north of Pryor, Oklahoma, along Hwy 69 on the fabled Rocklahoma festival grounds, is the premier Red Dirt, Country and Americana music and camping festival known as Born & Raised. In only its third year of production, the line-up continues to dazzle with top names in the genres. Each year, the dates have moved around a little in the month of September with this year’s festivities running September 13-16. The week provided beautiful weather – dry and mostly sunny the entire time. It was even a bit cooler than I remember from my past attendance which was most welcoming.

Oct 9

Oct 9 Festival Review- Highlights from AmericanaFest 2023

John Schumacher

Lawd a-mighty – AmericanaFest is a giant buffet of good music. Every year, I duck under the sneeze guard and shovel great, heaping handfuls of it in my face.

Three of us from The Amp attended AmericanaFest 2023. Here are some of my favorite moments – we’ll post Melissa’s and Jolene’s soon.

3rd and Lindsley was a magical place to be Wednesday night. Just 90 minutes after Jessi Colter introduced Margo Price during the Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, Price sat in on Colter’s triumphant set. (Up for three major awards, Price struck out: “I lost three times, but Bonnie Raitt told me I’m cool, so that’s all right.”)

Together they sang “Fine Wine,” a track from Colter’s new album, “Standing on the Edge of Forever,” which is coming out Oct. 27. “It’s about missing someone,” Colter said, noting husband Waylon Jennings “is 20 years gone.”

Aug 11

Aug 11 Festival Review – Mile of Music: Impresses Fans and Artists Alike

John Schumacher

The Mile of Music is a gem of a festival hidden in plain sight in Appleton, Wisconsin. It’s astonishingly good, especially considering the ticket price: free.

Now in its 10th year, the Mile of Music features 200 performers over four days at 40 venues along a mile of the main drag in Appleton, a city of 75,000 about 90 minutes north of Milwaukee. Artists play multiple times, resulting in some 700 sets.

Apr 4

Apr 4 Highlights From Days 3 and 4 of the 2023 Big Ears Music Festival

John Schumacher

A music fan who’s willing to listen to almost any kind of music, and who can appreciate it for what it is – that person is said to have “big ears.” Hence the name of the Big Ears music festival, the gathering in downtown Knoxville every spring known as the most eclectic music festival in the world.

The Eagles, meanwhile, were in town on Saturday, playing Hotel California in its entirety and a set of greatest hits. No disrespect to the Eagles or their fans (I’m one too), but you don’t need big ears for Life in the Fast Lane.

Oct 20

Oct 20 Laurel Cove Music Festival 2022

Lucas Wayne Nelson

Deep in the hills of Appalachia lies a little town on the Kentucky/Tennessee border that bears the name Pineville. At first look you might wonder what’s so special about Pineville? Or what is special about Bell County in general? Well, let me be the one to tell you. Laurel Cove Music Festival, that’s what. This is one of the greatest venues in the great state of Kentucky. Nobody sets the stage more beautifully and no other venue I have yet visited has had the incredible seating arrangements that the cove offers. Just before the main stage is a beautiful little pond that stretches across the entirety of the stage separating fans from pickers and creating some great photo opportunities of musicians and announcers' reflections in the water. While there, I heard someone refer to this spot as “the Red Rocks of Appalachia” and that has been how I mostly describe it when speaking in person. Among the many great venues and festivals in the Bluegrass state, this one stands out for its incredible display of staging and the lineup. Driving to Pineville was quite a treat as well. My wife and I were lucky enough to stay with some friends at a cabin up the hill from the festival grounds and if you are able to drive over the mountain at Pine Mountain State Park, you absolutely should. There are breath-taking views that will nicely accompany the sounds that you may find at Laurel Cove Music Festival.

Oct 19

Oct 19 Black Mountain Jamboree: A Festival Review

Lucas Wayne Nelson

Off the beaten path in Monticello, Kentucky is where this story begins at a little place called Hidden Ridge. What transpired were two incredible nights filled with music, love, and all around good vibes. I was lucky enough to be camped out just a short stretch away from the stage alongside my good friends. A few of them were Austin Shuck, from WhatTheShuck Podcast, the wonderful band members from one of my favorite bands, Brother Smith and of course, nearly every band’s drummer Zach Martin. Martin definitely deserves an honorable mention for how many songs he knows and absolutely murders. It was a beautiful weekend on the hill, camped in a wonderful, shady spot listening to some of the greatest acts the region has to offer.

Oct 18

Oct 18 Born & Raised 2022

Melissa Payne

It’s no secret that one of the best festivals to feature Americana and country music happens every September in the great state of Oklahoma. If you thought last year’s inaugural Born & Raised was good, then year two has set the bar even higher. This year’s lineup featured an even wider range of amazing artists, with the perfect blend of well-established artists and those that are still considered up and coming. A main wish of mine last year was more females to be added to the bill, so one of the best parts of the lineup announcement was seeing so many talented females included for the second year. Equal representation on the bill is always the goal, but compared to other festivals in the region that feature artists in the same genres, Born and Raised definitely did a better job with adding more female representation on this year’s lineup.

Jun 10

Jun 10 The Dancing Rabbit Music Association Puts McAlester on the Live Music Map

Mandy Mitchell

Sitting on the patio of Spaceship Earth, a vibey little coffee shop in downtown McAlester, Oklahoma late on a windy evening in early May, I reflected on the night’s events in a state of pleasant perplexion. Happy, indistinct chatter folded itself into wonderfully warbly melodies wafting from the singer-songwriter sized stage from the back of the establishment. A large crowd had gathered, some in business attire, some as funkily clad musicians, and some came as casually clothed rural citizens straight from a hard day’s work. All conversed freely and happily with each other, mingling in and out of groups and exchanging hugs and pleasantries in between turning to give the band a rousing round of encouragement. Earlier in the evening, and just a block or so up the street from where I currently sat, I had caught the live sets of the talented Canadian folk artist with a cult-like following, Joe Pug, who had opened for possibly the most talented lyricist Oklahoma has ever produced, John Moreland.

Oct 4

Oct 4 Born & Raised:A Festival Review

Melissa Payne

It’s hard to mention festivals and live music these days and not mention the fact that people have been hungry for both, due to a lingering pandemic that has made live music and large crowds an iffy situation. It’s also worth mentioning with festivals and promoters trying to make up for lost revenue, that holding a festival in 2021 can either be a dismal failure or a resounding success. Thankfully, the folks behind Born & Raised fall in the latter category. There were no water shortages, muddy campgrounds or freak weather to contend with on a balmy, late September weekend in Pryor, Oklahoma. Held at the same grounds as Rocklahoma, which occurred not even 2 weeks earlier, Born & Raised ran like a well-oiled machine. Schedules were kept, there were food vendors galore, and any last-minute artist cancellations were replaced before the festival even took place. The only negatives I witnessed were sound issues on more than one set at the Neon Moon stage and the overwhelming heat. The music was a mix of well-known and up and coming artists, and festival-goers spoke of the campgrounds and how they spent more time than usual there, foregoing music to hang out longer with new and old friends.

Oct 1

Oct 1 Diamond Stone: Festival Review

Derek Scudder

If Red Dirt music was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma, its soul resides in Tahlequah, and there is a spot in Cherokee County along the Illinois River that is sacred ground to the Red Dirt music family. Diamondhead Resort hosted the Medicine Stone festival from its beginning as the brainchild of Jason Boland and the Turnpike Troubadours who would select the majority of the artists on the lineup and headline on Friday & Saturday. The festival grew each year and quickly became the “go-to” Red Dirt party. Then came the summer of 2019 with Turnpike’s “indefinite hiatus” and an ugly lawsuit against the manager of the festival (who also happened to manage both Boland & the Troubadours), and the future of Medicine Stone was in serious doubt. Robert Earl Keen filled the headliner spot in Turnpike’s place and the 2019 show went on.

Aug 17

Aug 17 Train to Birmingham: Peacemaker Festival

Derek Scudder

With high temperatures hovering just below the century mark on the last weekend of July, the banks of the Arkansas River in Fort Smith was certainly not the most comfortable place to spend a weekend outdoors with live music, but a diverse lineup and solid production made it worthwhile.

Peacemaker turned seven this year and the festival has overcome some huge obstacles the past two summers. In 2019 the Arkansas flooded the festival site just weeks before the event but the river receded and the show went on even though they had to find a replacement headliner for the Turnpike Troubadours who had just gone on permanent hiatus. Of course last year’s pandemic shut down most festivals but Peacemaker held on even with some last-minute lineup changes and literal last-second changes from the state health department to stand as one of the few two-day outdoor festivals in the country. This year it was the heat that tried to ruin the party but this is one tough festival.