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MerleFest 2018: Kris Kristofferson

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Kris Kristofferson has been making things happen his entire life. Born in Texas and raised in a military family, he was a Golden Gloves boxer who studied creative writing at Pomona College in California. The Phi Beta Kappa graduate earned a Rhodes scholarship to study literature at Oxford, where he boxed, played rugby and continued to write songs. After graduating from Oxford, Kristofferson served in the army as an Airborne Ranger helicopter pilot and achieved the rank of Captain. In 1965, Kristofferson turned down an assignment to teach at West Point and, inspired by songwriters like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, moved to Nashville to pursue his music.

After struggling in Music City for several years, Kristofferson achieved remarkable success as a country songwriter at the start of the 1970s. His songs “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “For the Good Times,” all chart-topping hits, helped redefine country songwriting. By 1987, it was estimated that more than 450 artists had recorded Kristofferson’s compositions.

Heralded as an artist’s artist, the three-time GRAMMY winner has recorded 29 albums, including three with pals Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings as part of the Highwaymen. Kristofferson has spent three decades performing concerts all over the world, in most recent years in a solo acoustic setting, which puts the focus on the songs. “There’s an honesty in the sparseness. It feels like direct communication to the listener,” he says. “I still have more fun when I’m with the band, but being alone is freer, somehow. It’s like being an old blues guy, just completely stripped away.”

In addition to many other awards, Kristofferson is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, winner of the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriter Hall of Fame, and was honored with the American Veteran’s Association’s “Veteran of the Year Award” in 2002. For Kristofferson’s 70th birthday in 2006, his friends and admirers gifted him with a tribute CD, The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson. Stars including Willie Nelson, Russell Crowe, Emmylou Harris, Gretchen Wilson, Rosanne Cash, and Brian McKnight recorded 17 of Kristofferson’s compositions for the tribute. In 2007, Kristofferson was honored with the Johnny Cash Visionary Award from Country Music Television and in 2009 BMI lauded Kristofferson with the Icon Award. He received the Frances Preston Music Industry Award from the T.J. Martell Foundation in March, 2012. In 2014, Kristofferson was honored with a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award and the PEN Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award.

Bio courtesy of www.kriskristofferson.com

Make sure you’re there for Kris Kristofferson on Thursday afternoon (April 26) during Day One of MerleFest!

Thursday, 5:45pm-6:45pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Sam Bush

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

If joy were a person, he’d bring both peace and frenzy. He’d be full of music, light, and energy that soothes even as it stirs us up. Eyes closed, wire-rim glasses in place, mandolin pressed against his ribs, joy would be Sam Bush on a stage.

“I feel fortunate that when it’s time to play, no matter how I feel physically or mentally, once the downbeat starts, my mind goes to a place that’s all music,” says Bush. “The joy of the music comes to me and overtakes me sometimes––I just become part of the music.”

The Father of Newgrass and King of Telluride has long since established himself as roots royalty, revered for both his solo and sideman work, which includes time with Harris, Lyle Lovett, and Béla Fleck. But instead of kicking back and soaking up honors such as an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award and suite of Grammys and International Bluegrass Music Association trophies, Bush still strives relentlessly to create something new.

Raised on a farm just outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Bush grew up plowing tobacco fields in the Southern summer heat alongside his family. He started playing mandolin when he was 11 years old. “I believe growing up on a farm probably helped me channel my energy into learning music and being so interested in it,” Bush says. “Me and my sisters, we all loved it. I’ve often wondered if that’s because growing up on a farm, you couldn’t go ride your bike all over town and horse around like the other kids.”

For Bush, a lifetime of channeling his energy has led to stylistic innovations that have changed the course of bluegrass and roots music alike.

“When we play live on stage, if people can feel the joy we’re feeling, then we have succeeded,” Bush says. “That’s the goal to me of playing music: Did the audience feel something?”


Bio courtesy of www.sambush.com

Come experience it for yourself, don’t miss Sam Bush on Saturday night (April 28) at MerleFest!

Saturday, 7:30pm-9:00pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: The Mavericks

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

The Mavericks were founded more than 25 years ago by Malo and Deakin as a standout alternative band in a Miami rock scene dominated by hair metal and punk. Improbably, they were noticed by super-producer Tony Brown in Nashville, and when they got signed to innovative MCA Records, they upended expectations in country music. Their blend of Cuban grooves and Bakersfield-inspired twang netted them several CMA and ACM Awards plus a Grammy in 1995. They charted numerous singles and albums while earning accolades as one of the finest live bands in the business. There was some time off and re-jiggering of personnel, but they came back strong with 2013’s In Time and 2015’s Mono, albums that provided abundant material for a refreshed and unmatched stage show.

“We’ve traveled a lot in the last four years. And we’ve come back from a hiatus of nine years to find a brand new purpose — not just to go out and play for tickets and do the oldies,” says Eddie Perez. “Not many bands get to come back from that long to have another moment like this. So I believe it to be quite special.”

Bio courtesy of www.themavericksband.com

Don’t miss The Mavericks on night one (April 26) as they close out the Watson stage performances to open MerleFest!

Thursday, 9:00pm-10:15pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Steep Canyon Rangers have been expanding the parameters of bluegrass since coming together in 2000. Since then, the genre-defying band has developed a remarkable catalogue of original music – predominantly co-written by Sharp and bassist Charles R. Humphrey III – that links them to the past while at the same time, demonstrates their ambitious intent to bring string-based music into contemporary relevance.

With that goal in mind, Steep Canyon Rangers have in recent years begun collaborating with some of Americana’s most distinctive producers, working with top studio hands like Larry Campbell (2013’s TELL THE ONES I LOVE) and Jerry Douglas (2015’s RADIO) to take newfangled routes in crafting their ever-evolving approach. OUT IN THE OPEN sees the band teaming up with Joe Henry, an accomplished singer-songwriter as well as a 3x GRAMMY® Award-winning producer (Solomon Burke, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Carolina Chocolate Drops) with a particular affinity for American roots music.

Steep Canyon Rangers attempted to fast finish a number of additional songs but Henry wisely advised them to call it a wrap: OUT IN THE OPEN was complete. With that, the band returned to the endless highway they call home for near 150 nights a year. Indeed, Steep Canyon Rangers are easily among the hardest working bands in any genre, anywhere, pulling double duty on their own and as collaborators with Steve Martin. Since teaming with the legendary actor-comedian-writer-banjo player in 2009, SCR has produced not one but two unique bodies of work, dual catalogues in constant development – along with their own works, the band has teamed with Martin for 2011’s GRAMMY® Award-nominated RARE BIRD ALERT and 2017’s THE LONG-AWAITED ALBUM, while also backing Martin’s own partnership with Edie Brickell on both 2013’s LOVE HAS COME FOR YOU and the sold out tour that followed (captured for posterity on 2014’s STEVE MARTIN AND THE STEEP CANYON RANGERS FEATURING EDIE BRICKELL – LIVE CD/DVD).

In addition to the highly anticipated release of OUT IN THE OPEN, 2018 will also see Steep Canyon Rangers uniting with their local Asheville Symphony for a series of unprecedented live performances and the recording of yet another new album, once again pushing their increasingly distinctive music into unexpected terrain.

OUT IN THE OPEN is an undeniable milestone on Steep Canyon Rangers’ ongoing creative journey, its spirited, eclectic approach recasting the myriad sounds of string-based American music in their own unique image. As they fast approach their second decade, Steep Canyon Rangers are still moving forward, as ever searching for new horizons and musical vistas.

Bio courtesy of www.steepcanyon.com

See the Steep Canyon Rangers with special guest Steve Martin close down the weekend on Sunday (April 29) at MerleFest!

Sunday, 4:00pm-5:30pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Rhiannon Giddens

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

It was toward the end of the T Bone Burnett–curated September 2013 Another Day, Another Time concert at New York City’s Town Hall—a celebration of the early ’60s folk revival that had inspired the Joel and Ethan Coen film Inside Llewyn Davis—when singer Rhiannon Giddens indisputably stole the show. Performing Odetta’s “Water Boy” with, as the New York Times put it, “the fervor of a spiritual, the yips of a folk holler, and the sultry insinuation of the blues,” Giddens brought the star-studded audience to its feet. She was the talk of the lobby during intermission as those attendees unfamiliar with her Grammy Award–winning work as a member of African-American folk interpreters Carolina Chocolate Drops wondered who exactly Rhiannon Giddens was, with her elegant bearing, prodigious voice, and fierce spirit.

On her Nonesuch solo debut Tomorrow Is My Turn, Giddens and Burnett revisit “Water Boy,” its Odetta-arranged work-song rhythm serving as both provocation and a statement of power. Giddens delivers an equally thunderous rendition, one made all the more striking when placed between a gentle, ruminative interpretation of Dolly Parton’s “Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind” and a version of Hank Cochran’s “She’s Got You,” popularized by Patsy Cline, that Giddens imbues with “an old-timey R&B vibe,” abetted by Carolina Chocolate Drops band-mate Hubby Jenkins. The breadth of musical vision on Tomorrow Is My Turn fulfills the promise of that brief but stunning star turn at Town Hall. The album incorporates gospel, jazz, blues, and country, plus a hint of proto-rock and roll, and Giddens displays an emotional range to match her dazzling vocal prowess throughout.

The songs here, says Giddens, “are all facets of the human condition.” Taken together, they answer the question Twyla Tharp posed at the beginning of Giddens’ solo adventure. Tomorrow Is My Turn is a composite portrait of “Ruby,” of America, and of Giddens herself, whose turn is clearly right now.

Bio courtesy of www.rhiannongiddens.com

Make certain you’re on hand for Rhiannon Giddens set on Saturday (April 28) at MerleFest this year!

Saturday, 5:00pm-5:45pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Jamey Johnson

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

The Washington Post considers him to be “one of the greatest country singers of our time.”

Since Johnson doesn’t create a set list, no two shows are the same, so the once-in-a-lifetime concerts will be unforgettable. “I don’t know what I’m going to do until I am standing there doing it,” he says. “That is a freedom I have enjoyed ever since I began doing this, the ability to try something new.

For the last decade, Johnson has earned critical and commercial success for his traditional country sound. His 2008 album, That Lonesome Song, was certified platinum for 1 million in sales, and his 2010 double album, The Guitar Song, received a gold certification. He has been nominated for 11 Grammys.

In addition, he is only one of a few writers in history to win two Song of the Year Trophies–for “Give It Away” and “In Color—from both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. He has received tremendous praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal and other publications.

In 2012, he released the Grammy-nominated Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran. In 2014, he created his own label, Big Gassed Records, to release his own songs and albums as well as the music of other artists.

Tour information provided courtesy of www.jameyjohnson.com

If you’ve never witnessed a Jamey Johnson set live then do not miss Friday (April 27) night’s MerleFest finale. If you have, then you already know to be there.

Friday, 9:45pm-11:00pm (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Robert Earl Keen

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

“The road goes on forever…”

It’s not always easy to sum up a career — let alone a life’s ambition — so succinctly, but those five words from Robert Earl Keen’s calling-card anthem just about do it. You can complete the lyric with the next five words — the ones routinely shouted back at Keen by thousands of fans a night (“and the party never ends!”) — just to punctuate the point with a flourish, but it’s the part about the journey that gets right to the heart of what makes Keen tick. Some people take up a life of playing music with the goal of someday reaching a destination of fame and fortune; but from the get-go, Keen just wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible.

“I always thought that I wanted to play music, and I always knew that you had to get some recognition in order to continue to play music,” Keen says. “But I never thought of it in terms of getting to be a big star. I thought of it in terms of having a really, really good career and writing some good songs, and getting onstage and having a really good time.”

Now three-decades on from the release of his debut album — with well over a dozen other records to his name, thousands of shows under his belt and still no end in sight to the road ahead — Keen remains as committed to and inspired by his muse as ever. And as for accruing recognition, well, he’s done alright on that front, too; from his humble beginnings on the Texas folk scene, he’s blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that’s earned him living-legend (not to mention pioneer) status in the Americana music world. And though the Houston native has never worn his Texas heart on his sleeve, he’s long been regarded as one of the Lone Star State’s finest (not to mention top-drawing) true singer-songwriters.

He was still a relative unknown in 1989 when his second studio album, West Textures, was released — especially on the triple bill he shared at the time touring with legends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark — but once fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both “The Road Goes on Forever” and “Whenever Kindness Fails” on his 1993 album, Love and Danger, the secret was out on Keen’s credentials as a songwriter’s songwriter. By the end of the decade, Keen was a veritable household name in Texas, headlining a millennial New Year’s Eve celebration in Austin that drew an estimated 200,000 people. A dozen years later, he was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame along with the late, great Van Zandt and his old college buddy, Lyle Lovett.

Bio provided courtesy of www.robertearlkeen.com

You will not want to miss Robert Earl Keen on Thursday (April 26) during MerleFest this year.

Thursday, 7:15pm-8:15am (Watson Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Gunner and Smith

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Hope and redemption. Philosophy and folklore. The music of Gunner and Smith has always been a collection of fiery elements, blending searing guitars, brawny rhythms and distinct folk-family vocals to produce tightly-knit rock anthems. But on Byzantium, the group’s second full-length album, the songs simmer and seethe with a newfound brooding energy that looks at the darker sides of love, loss and humanity.

Anchored by the stolid songwriting of frontman Geoff Smith, the ever-shifting nature of the band has once again undergone another evolution, with a talented cadre of musicians joining the frontman at the helm. Featuring an ever-expanding sound that combines indie rock, alt-country and sizzling psych-Americana, Byzantium is borne from a deeper, darker place than the group’s previous material.

Conjured from realms where empire lie in tatters, the story of Byzantium is one of densely layered narratives that weave and wend ominous tales of imaginative and tactile worlds. The album’s namesake, taken from a besieged ancient empire centered in Constantinople—modern day Istanbul—hints at the endless cycles of war and waste that plague humanity. But while the themes are seemingly grim, the music keeps the mood buoyant. Opening the album with a wry, snakey guitar line, Smith’s oft-dark, meticulous visions are rounded out by balladry and brightly melodic guitar-heavy rock.

The mainstay signature element of Gunner and Smith identity has always been built by the overriding concepts behind each individual album. Conjuring a literary amalgamation of decay, faith and ambition – whether it’s the uncertainty of modern life, or the constant life shifts of middle age, Smith’s latest offering is one that exists in a barren world where light ultimately shines through.

Bio provided courtesy of www.gunnerandsmith.com

Catch Gunner and Smith at one of their two sets on Friday (April 27) during MerleFest this year.

Friday, 9:45am-10:15am (Cabin Stage)
Friday, 11:00am-11:15am (Austin Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Lindsay Lou

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Touring behind the release of their most recent record, Ionia, they’ve been featured in the lineup of prestigious affairs such as The Shetland Island Folk Festival and Celtic Connections in Scotland, Stagecoach Music Festival in California boasting around 55,000 attendees, The Bluegrass Jamboree in Germany, and a number of the best acoustic music festivals in the US including: Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, Merlefest in North Carolina, Wheatland Music Festival in Michigan, GreyFox in New York, Strawberry Music Festival in California, Redwing Roots Festival in Virginia, ROMP in Kentucky, and Pagosa Springs Folk Festival in Colorado. They were named one of NPR Music’s 12 best live performance sessions of 2015 by Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, a program which has featured acts like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Amos Lee, Joan Baez, Regina Spektor, Norah Jones and PHISH.

Her singing floats over the instrumental mastery and deep groove of her band with dynamics that range from a lullaby to a battle cry. In the words of David Grier, “Lindsay…sings the way you would want to if you could. Phrasing, tone, emotion, it’s all there. Effortless seemingly. Simply mesmerizing. Riveting! Don’t miss the musical force that is Lindsay Lou.” Lindsay’s brand new full-length “Southland” (April 2018) is a collection of songs examining the range of emotions and complex themes of our changing times; delivered with soulfully fierce intensity and tender intimacy that demands your attention.

Bio provided courtesy of www.lindsayloumusic.com

Go see Lindsay Lou at her set on Friday (April 27) during MerleFest this year.

Friday, 11:00am-11:45pm (Hillside Stage)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.

MerleFest 2018: Mike Aiken Band

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As MerleFest 2018 approaches, a highlight from one of the 100+ performing acts will be featured daily…

Life on the fringe has its benefits, not the least of which is the perspective from an outsider’s view. Northwind Records is proud to announce the release of Mike Aiken’s seventh studio album, WAYWARD TROUBADOUR. Aiken’s 11song package is the anticipated follow-up to the Grammy nominated Captains & Cowboys (produced by Dan Baird, Georgia Satellites). As the first track’s title indicates, ‘Everything Changed’ with this album. Another conceptualized work that each of us can relate to, WAYWARD TROUBADOUR tells tales of trouble and charm.

It has been five years since Captains & Cowboys made its debut and Aiken says he wasn’t going to stop, not until he achieved what he was after. “I had a very clear sound in my head for this album, one I’ve always wanted to capture and I was not going to settle. At this point in my career I don’t have time for folks who don’t believe in the music 110%. These are the folks I want to write, record and perform with.”

Wayward, by definition, is difficult to control, unpredictable, non-conforming. It took three studios and almost as many years to complete this troubadour’s collection of true north. Tracking began in Austin, Texas late in 2016. Aiken then found his way to Latitude Studio South in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. Here is where the magic started, where the wayward musicians could be themselves and Mike could begin to capture what he heard in his head on the vintage equipment.

If anybody has earned the title of WAYWARD TROUBADOUR, Mike Aiken has. He ran away as a kid to play music, he became a licensed USCG Captain, he has sailed over 30,000 bluewater miles on his own sailboat and logged countless miles on the road performing in North American and Europe.

Bio provided courtesy of www.mikeaikenmusic.com

Catch the Mike Aiken Band at one of their two Friday (April 27) sets during MerleFest this year.

Friday, 12:15pm-12:45pm (Cabin Stage)
Friday, 1:30pm-2:00pm (Austin Stage at Alumni Hall)

View the full MerleFest schedule and stage lineup here.