By Joshua Wallace

Whitey Morgan

Alex Williams

This past Saturday night, I had the privilege of seeing Whitey Morgan and The 78s live with Alex Williams opening up the show.  This show was at the Hargray Capitol Theater in Macon, GA which used to be known as the Cox Capitol Theater. It’s a nice venue that looks like a classic theater setup.  It has a very nice balcony area which presents some great views if you do not like to be on the floor. For this night, these are two bands who are at different points in their careers, yet their sound are the perfect complements to each other.  Alex Williams has a trimmed down honky tonk band with a lead guitar player, bass and drums while Whitey has two lead guitars, an acoustic guitar, a pedal steel guitar, bass and drums. The crowd for the show wasn’t fully packed, but it was a good size crowd and a good crowd for the bands.

Alex Williams Rocking Out

Steve Daily on Lead Guitar

Alex Williams was up first and this was my first chance to see him live since Tumbleweed 2018.  I liked this set much better over that one. I have to commend Alex’s lead guitar player Steve Daily.  He did a stellar job on this set and was a big part of the band’s sound across the entire set. Alex opened the night with a track off his debut album called “Hellbent Hallelujah”.  He then followed that up with a newer song called “Drunken Days & Cloudy Nights”. He seems to still be deciding which new songs go on the record as he played a few during his set and said that they may or may not be on his next record.  He also did a cover tune of Terry Allen’s “Amarillo Highway” which featured a guest appearance by Whitey Morgan’s pedal steel player Brett Robinson. He also featured tracks from his new album heavily with renditions of “Freak Flag”, “Pay No Mind”, “Little Too Stoned”, “Old Tattoo” and “More Than Survival”.  Of these tracks, my favorites are “Freak Flag” and “Pay No Mind”. Throughout the set, on tracks like “Pay No Mind”, he made references to the Georgia in the lyrics which was a nice touch. Overall, this was a great set and I can’t wait to see Alex Williams headlining one day.

Alex Williams Singing “Old Tattoo”

Whitey Morgan

Whitey Morgan and Joey Spina on Lead Guitar

Whitey Morgan and The 78s quickly followed Alex Williams on stage.  This band was on fire tonight and for my money one of the best live bands out there.  Whitey kicked off the night with “Bad News” off his self titled 2010 release. The band covered every album on this set and whether it was old or new, every track blended in and sounded like it belonged.  This set did feature quite a few tracks from his new album Hard Times & White Lines. Those were “Around Here”, “Honky Tonk Hell”, “Just Got Paid” and “Tired Of The Rain”. Of these, “Around Here” and “Honky Tonk Hell” were my favorites.  “Honky Tonk Hell” is a killer live track and it is easily a highlight of the night. Another highlight of this set were the cover songs. Whitey does some killer renditions of “Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue”, “Just Got Paid”, “I’m On Fire” and “Fire On The Mountain” to name a few.  It may seem like a cover heavy set, but his renditions of these songs will become your favorite versions. Whitey closed out the show with an encore which featured “Me And The Whiskey”, “Sinner”, and his version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around To Die. This is one of those songs that a lot of bands play, but again, Whitey’s version is the best of them.

Tony Martinez On Acoustic Guitar

Tony Martinez, Whitey Morgan, Joey Spina and Alex Lyon rock out during the encore

Whitey Morgan and The 78s are the best I have ever heard them live at this point in their career.  They are a band that is on fire and if they come close to your town, I highly recommend seeing their live show.  Alex Williams serves as the perfect opening act for Whitey as he is at an early stage in his career, but their sounds compliment each other perfectly.  You can check out http://www.whiteymorgan.com and http://www.alexwilliamsofficial.com for dates on where both of these bands will be next.

The only regret I have in the cover photo is that it hides the star of the show…the cowbell man Mr. Tony Kent, the most wild source of energy on stage tonight. He alone can earn this band my ticket money without anybody else.

I haven’t returned to the Glasgow Plaza Theater since I covered Whitey Morgan there on New Years Eve. Not because I didn’t want to, but I run a pretty fast schedule here, and I cannot be everywhere at once. I have never covered Whiskey Myers live before, I mean one must remember I cover thousands of bands and two hundred festivals on some form of promotions.

The Plaza Theater itself is a VERY NICE venue to see a show, it has SO MUCH parking and is easily accessible from the main roads. The only thing that isn’t controlled is the standing up front, I don’t really mind it at all, but some people get pretty rude with it. I’m not going to elaborate on the opening act today, because he was RUDE to children and fans. That’s all I have to say about him, although some of his songs were not bad at all.

Whiskey Myers is usually loaded in with the Texas Music Scene and the Southern Rock crowd as well, and I don’t normally let that dictate what I cover or ignore. I just choose to focus on what I do like and spend time supporting that I do like.

They began their earlier tenure in Palestine Texas, playing shows around the area thusly generating a following within the Red Dirt/Texas community along with bands like Flatland Cavalry and Jason Boland And The Stragglers. That is a very interesting subject to me, I become infatuated with the bands involved in that.

We haven’t heard any new music from then since the 2016 album called “Mud” , which boasted many of the songs on their set list tonight including the title track itself “Mud”. Also included from that album was the show opener here called “Deep Down In The South”, which is a rocking tune about life down here. This song here on the album showcases that old cowbell you will see on the stage showcased in wild fashion.

“Early Morning Shakes” was next from their 2014 debut album, as the band got more serious and dropped their name Lucky Southern for the now popular Whiskey Myers. Also from that album was the third song of their set called “Headstone”.

They displayed their true southern roots for us tonight, as they played “On The River” and another called “Frogman”. Their distinct swamp type rock could easily assist them in being placed with bands like Blackberry Smoke or The Steel Woods, while maintaining a prominent Red Dirt presence the likes of  the above mentioned Jason Boland And The Stragglers.

You truly get the understanding of being “Cut From A Different Mold” as they blow through all of their heavy rocking songs until they lull the crowd down with the ever popular ‘Ballad Of A Southern Man”,which glorifies the firearms and flag waving genre often laughed at by mainstream people.

That song speaks to me as well, and gives me goosebumps for sure. it’s usually a staple portion of their show I understand, and I’m glad I got to hear it live here tonight. This band is absolutely amazing to see live, they sound good and they have a eclectic stage presence especially Mr. Tony the cowbell man. He marches around like a crazed madman until the audience hollers for more.

They closed their set with “Calm Before The Storm” and a very long, very rocking version of the Rolling Stones song “Jumping Jack Flash”. All together given all of the factors this was indeed one of the better indoor shows I attended in 2018, and I absolutely implore you to catch Whiskey Myers on tour this year…I’ll see you at Tumbleweed boys!

By Joshua Wallace

I recently started seeing the name TJ Hernandez pop up in a few Facebook groups as someone to look out for. I also saw that he had a debut EP out with seven tracks to dig into. You know every time I hear about someone getting buzz like this, I have to check it out.  I’m glad I did because I’m here to tell you that TJ Hernandez is worth your time and money to give a listen to. TJ is out of a small town in southern Illinois called Godfrey, but he traveled to Goldsboro, NC to record this album.  He enlisted fellow troubadour Jonathan Parker to produce the record and it came out a winner. Let’s take a dive deeper into some of these songs.

The album kicks off with a track called “Corporate Man”.  It’s both an ode to the working man and a word of advice to the corporate man.  This track gives us our first taste of the awesome pedal steel work by Clyde Mattocks.  He is all over this album and it truly adds an irreplaceable element to the overall sound.  Another favorite track is the “100 Years Too Late” which highlights the pedal steel on a song about longing for the simple life and a time long gone by.  This is one of two tracks on the album co-written by fellow country singer Bryan James. We will get to the other one a bit later.

I love the soundscape created by the guitar work done by Phil Wise on the track “The Reflection”.  It’s a track about a man reflecting on his past while staring a glass of whiskey in the face and in my opinion is one of the highlights of the album and is worth checking out.  Finally, “One More” is the other track co-written by Bryan James. “One More” is a track about those nights where you just need to let go and take some of the bite out of the daily routine.  It’s an interesting take on the spurned lover and night out with the guys trope in country music.

This album is worth checking out if you’re a traditional country or honky tonk fan.  There is plenty of pedal steel sprinkled throughout this album and the production by Jonathan Parker is top notch.  I’m looking forward to hearing more from TJ Hernandez but for now, Who I Am is a great introduction to this new country singer and it is currently available to stream on most streaming platforms.  You can also get a copy from TJ himself at shows or you can find him on Facebook at TJ Hernandez Music for all the details on how to purchase a copy for yourself.

Favorite Tracks : Corporate Man, 100 Years Too Late, The Reflection, One More

TJ Hernandez – Who I Am (2018)

1. Corporate Man
2. 100 Years Too Late
3. Who I Am
4. Tumbleweed
5. Ain’t Gonna Change
6. The Reflection
7. One More

By Joshua Wallace

The Bottle Rockets have been around for 26 years and you could say they’re the fathers of roots rock and the heartland rock sound.  I particularly enjoyed their track “1000 Dollar Car” and this album has a similar feel to it. Bit Logic is the follow up to 2015’s South Broadway Athletic Club so let’s dig into it.

The first single from the record is the title track called “Bit Logic”.  This is a rockin’ track that finds the band trying to cope with today’s ever changing world and the new technology that comes with it.  Another favorite is “Highway 70 Blues” which is a fun track about getting stuck on the interstate. It’s a rut we’ve all been in from time to time and now we have a tune to blast to everyone on the interstate parking lot when we’re feeling those highway 70 blues.  Another favorite is “Bad Time To Be An Outlaw”. This cut laments on the current state of things for outlaws in country music but praises those that keep on doing what they’re doing even in the rough times.

Another favorite track from the album is “Way Down South”.  This is a road song but it’s a slower track about missing the ones you love on the road.  I really dig the guitar solo on this one. Finally, “Doomsday Letter” features another slower groove on a track that bemoans all the doomsday prophets from ancient times to today.

Bit Logic continues a long tradition of great sounding records for Bottle Rockets.  If you’re a fan of this band, the album won’t disappoint and it will make a nice addition to your record collection. Bit Logic is out everywhere on Bloodshot Records on October 12th, 2018.

Favorite Tracks : Bit Logic, Highway 70 Blues, Bad Time To Be An Outlaw, Way Down South, Doomsday Letter

Bottle Rockets – Bit Logic (2018)

1. Bit Logic
2. Highway 70 Blues
3. Lo-Fi
4. Bad Time To Be An Outlaw
5. Saxophone
6. Human Perfection
7. Knotty Pine
8. Way Down South
9. Doomsday Letter
10. Stovall’s Grave
11. Silver Ring

Well now today was somewhat of a milestone for me, in that I had successfully camped for the first time in 10 years. I’m an avid hunter and outdoors man, but the camping I cannot physically handle anymore. Well, this year I was adamantly instructed by many I would have NO choice, and honestly if you read my previous article for day 1, you find that YES there is no way you can come and go at night. Not on those windy hairpin roads unless you KNOW where you’re going!

Also with some of the later bands it was fun to lay on my air mattress and listen, while I sweated profusely in that hot muggy tent. YEP even in the night air it was still hot, hot hot. Now, I’ll be truthful it was truly easier with the sides of the holler having tall trees to block the sun earlier than it set. From noon to 4pm was absolutely BRUTAL, but I want to say this: Mr. Byron personally brought me water several times..not asked somebody from the staff to do it…HE DID IT. Not just for me but for MANY. If that isn’t a giving and concerned soul I’ll eat my left sock.

The bands were all fed and taken well care of, and so was the media invited here. ANYTHING I needed or wanted I could have, and that’s the bottom line! Anything I needed to perform my job here I had at my disposal, and I think by the end of this article you will concur, I did that job well. I got a lot more information to share here for this event. I made myself a damn fine campfire breakfast here complete with hot sauce for my eggs at a vendor called Redneck Hipster Hot Sauce. Mr. Craig McDavid helped me select the style of sauce for me and my palate. The garlic Habanero was what I selected, and I only needed a smidgen of it!

After eating I decided to start my day with another run off the merchandise tables. As usual there were plenty of volunteers all working together in happy fashion, Mr. Byron’s daughter Miss LeeAmber and his wife Miss Kelli once again slayed the job back there. They made buying “stuff and junk” and “junk and stuff” FUN, because it’s important that we do buy things like that to keep gas tanks and bellys full. I want my friends to be able to support their families on their chosen profession of touring musician.

I ran into some wonderful people from the Somerset area that asked me to include them called Buck Creek Adventures where you can rent some canoes and kayaks.They run a really neat looking LLC up there, and offered me a visit for the day sometime for including them. Please go check them out and rent a canoe for the day! I talk to EVERYBODY and immerse myself into the entire deal when I work a festival.

I got some barbecue pieces on a stick from the Roll N Smoke truck, I guess one could call them medallions. just big ass chunks of marinated meat on a stick. I’m not even sure what they were marinated in, but you can carry it around and move around. See that’s a festival food key thing, what can I market to eat that’s profitable and convenient to carry around?

So the first band that performed on Saturday I missed a lot of, I did cover them this past spring in Huntington WV for W.B. Walker’s 5 year anniversary show. You can read all about that event right HERE. This band was called The Winetree.

Mr. Ryan Harvey and Mr. Isaiah Muller are multi talented both in their own right as writers and musicians. They found their name from a friend’s old winter sweater, and took a lot of influence in Kentucky where they are from. Just as the song they played here today I caught was called “Kentucky”.

This duo has peaceful harmonies and down home well written country folk ballads, and puts a smile on my face every time I know I’m getting to see them on anybody’s set. I’m thinking of hosting a few Appalachian stages in future festivals, and they are on my MUST CALL list to book.

So this early portion of my article is going to focus on these two people Miss Teresa and Mr. David Prince, who have a wonderful band called Luna And The Mountain Jets and they hail from East Kentucky.I first encountered them a few years back also during the W.B. Walker anniversary shows.

If you’ll recall I did cover them during the Master Musicians Festival in the Somerset area,to which they performed a damn fine show. Well, they did not fail to disappoint here either, with energetic rock and roll with a great influence from the likes of Fleetwood Mack all the way back to the rock and roll evolves into rockabilly era.

I say that because the last song in their set was Blondie cover called “The Tide Is High” from the 1980 Autoamerican album. Like I said I AM an ultimate music NUT, and I enjoy knowing my stuff like albums and dates. But their show began with the song “Thanksgiving Day” from the 2016 album called Telling Stories.

The Luna album boasted the song called ‘That Thing You Said”, and the 2008 Blaine Girl album included the song “Pepsi Girl” which I actually relate to switching it over to a guy. The last time I went back to where I grew up it was like Mr. Joe Huber said my old playground was a battlefield.

They played their epic breakup song called “Walking Away” I believe everybody can pretty much relate to frustrations and hard times on relationship issues. I always, always, always have a terrific time watching this band perform and being around these two folks. Now in just a little bit I’ll be talking about a hilarious man that never seems to be around when Mr. David is, and a crabby lady that is always peeking around corners scowling at you. Ol’ Honey found out she had a fan club here on the creek today!

Here was another time I got a good look at how passionate Mr. Byron was toward the performers here, as he introduced Miss Senora May Lainhart. At this juncture Mr. Byron was weary and worn out, his voice was trembling trying to give out, yet he stood valiant and determined to finish this event by introducing EVERY ACT here.

Mr. Byron explained that he got to watch this young lady grow up from a child, and one could easily ascertain the real and honest family love here. Miss senora and Mr. Tyler Childers both came from this area too, and grew up here, and to this day they still live in these hills and hollers of East Kentucky. Mr. Byron is like a father to so so many of these young people in his community, and is a mentor to them. It almost made me jealous that I never had a role model like him to help raise me like this, to make sure these young adults never forget the Holy Spirit (which to me is most important) and to always be honest, love and respect one another. As I previously stated, this festival is unlike any other…it IS HOME.

Miss Senora May was included on that very first W.B.Walker Anniversary show recorded on his couch in his living room back when we first met. She opened her portion of the show with a song called “Don’t Need A Lot”, which showcased her down home vocal style.

She has indeed created her own style, and explains  how simple she is in this song, she doesn’t need a fancy extravagant lifestyle. Just her home community and her family, and her awesome husband. Also, once again Mr. Josh Nolan played for her as well as nine other acts here..more on that man later on.

She played the title track song called “Lainhart” which includes references of Daddy bitching and shoveling hog shit, which in this area is just a way of life she is sharing with you. It is indeed a term of endearment and a measure of love. Also included in her set was the song called “Only Want You”, which is the last song on her new album. You can get onto her website and buy the album there.

She also played a song for her younger brother who is in the marines called “Semper Fi” . Before I begin talking about the rest of the wonderful acts here today, I wanted to touch on a few more of the wonderful people that helped make this event a success. The wonderful folks over at Country Boy Brewing for all the gift beers and shirts, I still got Cougar Bait in my fridge. One of the founders was camped next to me, and we had some good conversations together, and I got to share some ribeye steaks with them.

I wandered over to the next booth which was a really neat jewelry booth called Talagirl’s Curiosity’s she had some really different wares and things. I’m used to seeing hand made jewelry, but not to the extent of this ladies work. This was a pretty cool addition to the vendors here, can easily see why they chose her to be included.

EVERY food vendor and EVERY merchandise vendor is personally selected by the Roberts family, see they don’t just HOST music festivals they PATRONIZE OTHER music festivals like we all do. They KNOW the same things I do, and they LISTEN to people like me that go from New York to Florida doing this stuff. I been on the phone many times with Mr. Byron giving my input on everything from layout to traffic flow.

We spoke about the food vendor issue, and I found out WHY they got placed back where they did…power. NOT political power, physical voltage power. I never really noticed the generators running the truck, I missed that observation. He explained that to me, you know what, I think he has this whole scheme licked. Just by being the amazing human being that he is, that alone makes Kickin’ On The Creek one of the best. I’ll be honest Miss Tiffany over at Master Musician’s Festival runs an equally special operation that will warm your heart with joy.

I want to talk about the intense amount of community love and help the Robert’s family gets from so many great people and places. The Fire Department, the EMT’s that donate their weekend to help injuries that may occur. There wasn’t many rotten apples, but security was on the ball here.

They were courteous but also meant business, basically all festivals have ONE MAIN RULE. Don’t be a dick. It’s not hard to follow, right? I mean drink all you want but act like an adult, have a little smoke and a TON of food. But, doggone it respect your neighbor, share your shine and enjoy each other’s company. life is too short and too precious to break the only rule we have.

If anybody wants the definition of a work horse Mr. Josh Nolan I recently asked him just how many sets he played this weekend and this was his response:   I think I ended up playing 8 sets, most of which happened Friday Chelsea Nolan, Senora, Jeremy Short Those were planned and rehearsed These were not. Lol Ethan Hunt, Sean Whiting ,William Matheny A few songs with Grayson Jenkins

He has a nice album from 2014 called “Fair City Lights” and I had to buy a copy because the first song called “Do It Right” truly grabbed me as a person. I identified it well, and it spoke to my feelings.  I thought it was a well written song for sure! He played a song called ‘East Kentucky Skyline”, and another song I have watched Miss Chelsea Nolan play called “Silver Line”

I did some wandering around again getting crowd shots and watched the fellow artists watching Mr. Josh play, that always does my heart good to see that stuff. There was no trying to outdo anybody here, each act brought a little something different to the table. As he played a song called “Green Bridges”, I gathered my notes and got ready for more.

Mr. Geno Seale released a damn fine album called Times As Dark As These, and he recently played at Miss Chelsea Nolan’s album release party. I had to work and couldn’t attend sadly. Now Mr. Geno was involved in quite a bit of the shenanigans with Miss Honey today, that ornery Ol’ lady done smiled today!

He made a pretty good statement today “This is not a scene, what we are doing here is a community” and to be honest I pretty much agree with him. I’m pretty grateful to be included in their community, and to be so widely accepted by every other community.

He has Mr. John R. Miller, and Mr. William Matheny both helping him play his set today. He played songs off his album the likes of  “The Gospel” originally cut by Goose Creek Symphony, and more. Before he brought out Miss Teresa Prince from Luna And The Mountain Jets to play one with him called ‘Go On In Peace”.

He played a great song called “Found Pennies” which was one I never got to hear before today, It’s not on the record at all. I had to research to find the name, I just had my notes. I just enjoy his rough and raw take it or leave it vocals and style.

The song called ‘Hymns And Praises” is all about the music community being kind of like a religion on some aspects. Mr. Geno said it’s MORE than JUST music here,  and I could see that decree is valid right here tonight.

Mr. John R. Miller stayed on the stage to bring out his next band, who mentored me a few years back The Prison Book Club from Shepherdstown West Virginia.  They don’t know it but they inspired me along with Mr. Dale Watson, Split Lip Rayfield, Ray Wylie Hubbard and MORE!

Their first song was called “Roll It Up” and they went into the song called ‘Eat Your Brains” , before they played some songs off of the self titled album with the deer on it. Mr. William Matheny helped them today along with Mr. Tucker Riggleman on bass and Mr. M Tivis Clark on drums.

‘Six Pack” was followed by the song called ‘White Plain”. The song called ‘Nothing To Loose” is pretty much a good breakup song about loosing everything, now there’s nothing to loose…get it? They played “Coming Down” which Mr. John wrote, I know Mr. Tyler Childers plays it too, but it was originally a Prison Book Club song.

Now it’s time for a really funny story about that clown Laid Back Country Picker. You know as SOON as HE comes around you never see Mr. David, he goes in that damn bathroom for an hour. And of course mean Ol’ Miss Honey was in tow tonight, but THEY GOT HER TO SMILE!

“Partyline” was first, he has thugs after him because he accidentally got on their party line! After playing a new song he played a song called “Maggofin County Cadillac” which takes you on a tour of  his area out there.  Well, he told us a story about traveling with Mr. Tyler Childers out in Weston West Virginia during the annual Carp Festival, and it funny as shit.  That song was called “David Bowie”, and it was a bout the nervous hospital and more!

He went on to play a song called “Truck Stop Sam” but here was the funny story, while they were playing some goobers decided to try to make Miss Honey smile…and they did just that! SEE we all voted her for president. Now AS ALWAYS under rule number one, you leave your politics at the festival gate! But THIS TIME we get a pass, they want Miss Honey for president.

I don’t think she realized she had a fan club, since she’s always so mean looking I think they decided she needs some loving too. So three folks dressed as her and went through the crowd, and got up on stage to stand behind her for a song until she laughed.

But to be honest, we LOVE HER VERY MUCH, you know what? The world needs MORE comedy in music, and laughter is chicken soup for the soul, too many politics and name calling out there. WHY CAN’T we just laugh at ourselves and enjoy one another?  Laid Back is changing that, and I applaud that! AND HEY if it’s good enough for Mr. JJ Waters, and Mr. Tyler Childers, it’s good right?

Let’s revert back once again to a man that released a DAMN FINE ALBUM this year, and it’s a INSTANT TOP 50 inclusion for sure, and that is none other than John R. Miller And The Engine Lights and YES they played a KILLER SET here this weekend.

He opened with “Holy Dirt” which is the opener on the new album, and my favorite song on the album by far. His second song was called “Red Eyes”. I just love his unique sound, it is so different from the Prison Book Club music, he also plays bass for my friend Mr. Pat Reedy.

‘Back And Forth” is a slow and easy song from his first album called Service Engine that is my favorite song from that album. It speaks to me as an individual. He also included the song “Lights of The City” , song has some truly beautiful fiddle on it and the entire album has some really soft steel guitar tones on it, that bring out his vocals in a vivid way.

They also played the song called “Been Here Too Long” ,which pretty much rounded up most of the new album for us. I truly enjoyed listening to the album live here. He did revert back to Service Engine album for the song called “Motor’s Fried”, which was a good choice here. All of his songs flow really well together in a sense, and he has well written lyrics.

‘How It Feels In The Light” and the song called “Whale Party” closed out the show for him here. I am a big fan of ALL of this man’s work, all of his bands and his kick ass songs he does! The Engine Lights today were Mr. harry Clark (from the Wooks) on mandolin, Miss Chloe Edmonstone on fiddle (who did a SWELL JOB here), Mr. John Clay on drums, and Mr. Chris Justice (from Wayne Graham) on bass.

I did not get any pictures of the BAND not the person called Wayne Graham. Instead I’m going to post this from their website to explain their name :

Mr. Joseph Huber is one of my all time favorite musicians I know from the (what they call) Roots Music movement or the Muddy Roots crowd. I just called it GOOD STUFF! He has been around for many many years starting out with the .357 String Band, before moving on to his own path.

And on that path he has put out four damn fine solo albums and along with Mr. Jason Loveall on fiddle, he has played just about every festival you could possibly name. He opened with “16-10” from his latest album along with another song that speaks to me especially because Mr. Joseph is from the same place as I was raised, Milwaukee Wisconsin. That song is called “Old playground Is A Battlefield”.

Another song he said he wrote while on the .357 String Band called “Drop In the Bucket” while busking on the streets. A drop in the bucket is all I need to hammer down on the banjo strings.  He played another great song called ‘Old Mountain Tune”.

This community enjoyed his music tonight including the song called “Old Mountain Tune” , and a song called “Diminished Things” from his new album The Suffering Stage. From the album called the Hanging Road he played the song called “Coming Down From You”.

Also from this album he played the song called “Same River Twice”, and they played “Souls Without Maps” and closed with the title track from his album “Tongues Of Fire”. Before some of the later bands tonight I went out for a walk around to see more!

The Tillers were next, a wonderful band from the Ohio area. I equally covered their set from Muddy Roots only a few weeks earlier, and many other times. These four guys truly play wonderful down home folk and bluegrass music.  Their new self titled album will probably be another good possibility for my TOP 50 of 2018.

Mr. Michael Oberst- banjo, vocal, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, Mr. Sean Geil- guitar, vocal, dobro, banjo, mandolin, Mr. Aaron Geil- upright bass, vocals and Mr. Joe Macheret- fiddle, mandolin, guitar, vocals make up this truly Legendary band.

Their first song was from that said new album called “Revolution Row”, also they played the song called “Riverboat Dish washing Song”. One of the greatest and most well written songs I have heard in the years of doing this local music website. The song called “Willy Dear” is absolutely amazing, with a cleverly written ghost story.

“Dear Mother” was another great song from the new album that was included in this set, that showcased their new album truly well. I’m eagerly ecstatic about this band being included into so many other music communities like Mr. Joseph Huber.

Another awesome song they play is called “Tecumseh On The Battlefield” . Also included in their set were the songs “Treehouse”, “Mona”, and ” The Road Neverending”. I have always like the harmonies this band has together, and the way that they light up the stage with their charisma. You can JUST TELL they LOVE to play together and understand one another truly well.

They closed their set with two songs from my favorite album they have called Hand On The Plow, and those songs were called “500 Miles From My Home” and the last song was called “Old Westside”. They always leave us feeling jovial and they have fun up there on stage.

They do not stop and tell stories, because their songs do that FOR THEM. I got to share some camp food with a couple of the guys from the band, and I always try my best to drop money their way to keep them rolling on. And I believe they always will roll on.

As the sun began to set I took a couple good pulls of this wonderful moonshine I was given, and got ready for the next artists here. Some GREAT FRIENDS are coming to entertain us here. The excitement and energy was absolutely  astounding here in the holler.

Mr. Byron was just as proud of the closing acts as he was of the earlier acts, he treated nobody different or less important here. I cannot say enough great things about how he runs this program here, and the new bands I have discovered here proves his top notch attention to music quality. I swear, this door here is like the gates of heaven as you go onto the stage into the lights.

Once again, there it is…Mr. Byron’s love for this community. I watched him go around hugging EVERYONE in the crowd, making ALL the guests feel wanted and welcome. Now mind you MANY directors do this TO A RENTED VENUE….THIS MAN WELCOMED US TO HIS OWN HOME. This was his front yard, you are sitting in!

Arlo McKinely And The Lonesome Sound are another Ohio based band that has been BOOMING in growth lately, so big he is selling out venues nationwide now. he has grown to bigger echelons in the last two years here. Mr. Arlo opened up with “Walking Shoes”, “Don’t Need To Know”, and another great song called “Right Where You Want Me”. Three great songs we all know and were singing along to, and dancing all over. My feet were even moving around but for me it was more of the corn liquor, I was buzzing pretty good. It’s alright I wasn’t going anywhere.

There aren’t many REAL CROONERS out there like Mr. Arlo like he does on the song called “iv’e Got Her” A TRULY smooth and beautiful song, followed by the song “We Were Alright”.  Then the Lonesome Sound took a small break and Mr. Arlo played a few himself.

He played a great song he usually plays called “Bag Of Pills” , and a medley of songs one was called “Man’s Done Gone” and I wasn’t sure about the other song here. He also played “A Song Is Born”, before most of the band came back for the rest of the set.

“Time In Bars” was next from his latest album, and like I was saying about his vocals being so smooth the song “Wild Horses” always hits me right in the feels every time. And the songs I relate to even better with like “Gone For Good” were presented in a true folk and Country way. His vocal delivery is VERY unique and different, in many ways.

“Suicidal Saturday Night” was another song he played on this set before he closed the set with “Dancing Days” and the last song he played was called “Die Midwestern”.  His growth is resulting in harder to attend shows due to the extreme amount of volume of want for ticket sales. It’s truly a great thing to witness for many of these bands I have been writing about for years.

Town Mountain was a BLAZING HOT Bluegrass band that has been around for awhile now. This Asheville North Carolina band that consists of  Mr. Phil Barker – Mandolin, Vocals, Mr. Robert Greer – Vocals, Guitar, Mr. Jesse Langlais – Banjo, Vocals, Mr. Bobby Britt – Fiddle and Mr. Zach Smith – Bass make up one of the hottest Bluegrass bands on the circuit now!

As they played songs like “Up The Ladder” and the GREAT cover of “I’m On Fire” they just steamrolled from one song into another tonight, and got everybody drunk and revved up for Mr. Tyler Childers!  From the new album coming out on October 26th, they played “One Drop In The Bottle”. They also played the song called “Ruination Line”.

Mr. Tyler came out and joined the band for the song “Down Low” that will be on their new album coming out this month, and that garnered a huge response from this audience. I mean, as I stood on that stage ALL I SAW WAS PEOPLE all over. it was absolutely intense how quickly this place went crazy!

I’ll be trying to catch up with them on a later date here on an in town show they have lined up, because I had a camera charger problem here while they played. It was late, I was tired and hot…man was I burned up to a crisp. My whole body was sore form sun walking and my skin was raw from sun lotion, but MAN WAS IT WELL WORTH IT!

The intro for Mr. Tyler Childers was probably one of the longest of the entire festival, mainly because Mr. Tyler was one of the only acts to have played every one since day 1. My. Byron told me many stories of the first one with a hundred people and hot dogs were the only food you could buy.

Parts of the first stage were placed into the present stage much like the Opry did, and he told me of how small the whole plans were…Mr. Tyler still played. Unless you have been living under a rock, you are well familiar with the booming success of Mr. Tyler Childers.

He began his set with a somber and poignant version of “Time Of The Preacher” from the Red Headed Stranger Willie Nelson album, and he always does that song justice! He went right into “Banded Clovis” before even acknowledging the crowd, he didn’t have to! this was one of the longest and greatest sets I ever witnessed him play!

Once again he had the entire crowd singing along to “Follow Me To Virgie”, one of his more popular songs that he does and has plenty of crowd participation on it. This young man has spearheaded this music community into one of the largest markets I have ever witnessed.

He played a great “Lady May” that he wrote for his awesome wife Miss Senora, he played a LOVELY version of that song on the Opry. I flat out enjoy this man’s songs and have since I fist heard him on that couch in Dingess WV so many years ago.

He just barreled into songs like “White House Road” and others like the mighty “Deadman’s Curve”.  He also played the song called “Born Again” off of his Purgatory album. I promised him I wasn’t going to write anything about his past comments this summer, and I shall not. I have PLENTY of grounds to cover on him without being cliche.

He played one of my favorite songs he does called “Nose To The Grindstone”, which tells a scary and dark story of the way of life in that area up there. Many of his stories paint vivid pictures of poverty and hunger for the evils of the world. Along with the song “Swear To God”, and “Feathered Indians”.

Now he played a NEW song called “Gemini” I’m not really sure about any new album plans, and I haven’t asked him about anything like that. But, we enjoyed the song. He then played “Charleston Girl” next along with a few more, before closing with “Honky Tonk Flame”, and leaving the place all tore up!

After Mr. Tyler was finished I was completely and utterly exhausted, and on the ride home that Sunday I drank over a gallon of water on the ride home, and had to stop for insulin. I was totally worn out in every possible way. But when I woke up Sunday morning I was in for a surprise, as I planned to stay until about 4pm and jaunt home to work that Sunday night.

I work third shift, and so I had to work at 10pm Sunday, that’s my Monday. So I awoke to the Local Honeys playing a small Gospel set as they announced there was a  heavy rain coming, which makes the creek rise and that everyone has to leave as soon as possible. Now that was NOT being unfriendly…actually it was quite handy!

So I began packing my truck and saying my goodbyes for the weekend, I strolled around and took some last minute pictures of the entire event. All together I took over 1000 pictures and had 30 pages of notes, can’t you tell?

I just have way too many people to THANK for making my Kickin On The Creek experience the most amazing and enriching time I have had in a long long time. I KNOW I missed a TON of great bands but FEAR NOT I have jotted down ALL OF THEM and I WILL remedy this quandary as soon as I can!

Thanks for bearing with me for this long on both of these editions of this article, and I want to thank all the bands and managers that allow me to relentlessly pester them with my questions. I try my damn best to include as many people and facts as I can, and expose my readers to the FULL ASPECTS of the event so they will buy tickets in 2019.

See you on the road somewhere my friends!

By Joshua Wallace

I was first exposed to Chelsea Nolan and her music through W.B. Walker’s Old Soul Radio Show podcast.  Later on, I would see her live as one of the early acts on WB’s 5th Anniversary show. I enjoyed what I heard, but like many artists Chelsea had no recorded output that I could find to dig into after that.  Fast forward to about last week and I saw a Capture Kentucky post on Facebook about a debut release coming soon from Chelsea Nolan. I knew then I had to give it a listen and report back here on it for everyone.  I’m here to tell ya, it’s worth your time and money to check out this record, and here is why.

The album kicks off with a track called “Build A Fire”.  This track sets the mood for the rest of the record. It starts off with just Chelsea’s guitar but quickly builds into a full band country sound.  It’s a great character piece that lets you know off the bat that Chelsea Nolan is an amazing songwriter. The album goes into “Rock Bottom” which is another great example of good songwriting.  It’s a song that roasts it’s subject harshly with lines like “you’d steal the pennies off a dead man’s eyes” and it’s a good lyrical jaunt.

The track “Sugar Hollar” is the ballad of the record and the band is stripped down for this track to really highlight the ebbs and flows of Chelsea’s voice.  It’s one of the highlights of the record. The album closes out with the mellow “If You Think It’s About You, It Probably Is”. I really dig the pedal steel work on this track.

Chelsea Nolan is another part of the growing Kentucky country music scene that is spearheaded by the likes of Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers.  I look forward to hearing more from her and possibly seeing her live again in the future. This album is available today and if you would like a physical copy, you can go to https://www.chelseanolanmusic.com/shop and order one there.  

Favorite Tracks : Build A Fire, Rock Bottom, Sugar Hollar, If You Think It’s About You, It Probably Is

Chelsea  Nolan – chelsea. (2018)

1. Build A Fire
2. Rock Bottom
3. Green Bridges
4. Silver Line
5. Sugar Hollar
6. If You Think It’s About You, It Probably Is

It’s approaching the close of 2018, and you know what that means, the preparation of my BEST OF 2018 article which always comes out on Christmas Day at Midnight. That piece takes about twenty hours to make and get my facts correct and organized, and all the bands and PR people contacted.

I also have to start pitching for jobs in 2019, to stay relevant. See folks, many of you faithfully read me and I thank you, however many of the public is steered toward the next flashy offering. It’s normal proven science that the public reads MANY websites and forgets old ones. So in order to remain relevant you MUST STAY a step ahead of the game, I heard a few people are “upset” with me because I think it’s a competition…well..it’s NOT I read other people’s blogs myself and I have a truly mutual love for people like Capture Kentucky. But at the same time I MUST stay relevant to continue paying my bills, and the people that are “upset” with me aren’t paying them. On a side note if you would like better pictures than mine you NEED to see my buddy Mr. Jonathan Newsome over at Capture Kentucky.

Festivals….I covered quite a few in 2018, and I choose one or two new ones every year. This year I chose TWO, and they both focused on the Appalachian music community in East Kentucky. It’s one of the few that is rising at a rapid pace, both with performers and patrons. This is becoming a viable, tangible form of music to a much larger audience, with a down home luster that resonates very loudly through the hills and hollers of East Tennessee  and East Kentucky, and portions of Ohio. Many of the performers that are included in this scene are also from Canada, and West Virginia as well. To those that have been there through the years like my friend Mr. JJ Waters, this music community has always been part of their heart and soul, and I feel very humbled to have been invited into it.

I started noticing and enjoying the bands involved here around 2013 when my friend W.B. Walker recorded his very first anniversary show on his couch in his living room. And that introduced me to three prominent forces in that area, Miss Senora May Lainhart, Mr. Tyler Childers and Mr. Justin Payne. Ever since then, I have been hooked on the sound and the format of the music itself, and little did I fathom that it would evolve into the epicenter that it recently has.

This series of articles needs to come with an internal warning about length as it’s going to be quite possibly two of the lengthiest articles I have ever done for two days at any festival. I think I observed more this weekend than the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus when he was Saul. The good Lord was absolutely in presence here this weekend on this property and in the hearts of the people that came, because I’ll be honest..this was beyond anything I have ever witnessed at a music function of any magnitude, and trust me I have been around music functions for ten years, never before have I not known how to start. I had to STOP and dwell on this very aspect for a week now.

I missed the first day because I have no time left at work, I had a lot of family issues this summer and had to burn it all to tend to my adopted mother. Music is indeed fun, but family comes first. So I was already running a day behind everyone else, my next dilemma leaving the work place was the loss of an hour’s time in the time zone. So, before I even arrived on the interstate I was in the hole on time. But I made pretty good time getting to Somerset where the hotel is I use for Master Musician’s Festival which is a friend of the Roberts family here, and the format I used for them was one of the reasons I was hired to do this.

I’m going to tell you as much as I can about every aspect of this festival from an angle quite different than my usual format, because quite simply this festival itself was different from any other I have ever experienced. From the moment I pulled into the front gate area, I witnessed a totally different vibe and direction of operation.

A music festival is a science, and a business and if it doesn’t function and flow properly it doesn’t make money. But this particular festival wasn’t focused on being tangible. I say that because back on the ticket pre sale he could have easily sold all thousand tickets AND MORE, I mean they could have easily crammed another thousand people on the property and made money…but they didn’t. Mr. Byron and his family instead invited REAL FOLKS here and chose to pay attention to THEM. This event isn’t concerned on commercial feel, and the musicians and bands all watched one another in glee. They had FUN with one another, and interacted with each other on a non professional level here. This was just a big family party, and if you study the HISTORY of the event, THAT IS what started it. A birthday party for Mr. Byron and Miss Kelli’s son Mr. Kenton  Roberts, three years ago began the format and idea for this event. I want to tell you more about the history, but I’m going to tell you as I learned about it myself.

When I got into Irvine Kentucky I could tell JUST WHY they told me to PLEASE CAMP, the roads were hard to maneuver and the instructions I had were EXACTLY like they described. HAIRPIN TURN indeed, wow. In fact as I came in I passed an unfortunate young lady that overturned her jeep down the ravine, but like I said GOD WAS THERE, and THANK GOD she was unharmed, and got to see the show! This was a ride that was so scenic and amazing only pictures could explain it easier.

I had no problem getting through the gate, and actually they asked me off the bat if I was the guy that needed power for a CPAP machine? I thought wow that’s great communication there. They took care of me and checked my I.D. and gave me instructions, however I parked up front until I checked in with the powers that be. I had no idea if I was supposed to drive through the creek, I mean there were people sitting in lawn chairs in the creek. I wasn’t sure where the stage was or anything else, so I parked in an easy spot and went for a walk to meet people and find out what they wanted me to do, but of course I started taking pictures and working a little bit.

The moment I approached the stage area I was greeted by Mr. J Ray Grossman the legendary roadie for the Goose Creek Symphony, whom I met at The Goose On The Lake before the Colonel Jon Hensley died. I got to talk to him for a bit before meeting Mr. Byron and Mr. Kenton who greeted me with open arms..like I was family. We have a great admiration for one another on many levels, and they directed me to a camping spot, where I could get settled in. Now mind you I was doing all this on NO sleep for that Friday! This was about noon I’m about to tell you about the first band I covered for this job here soon, yeah I realize I already wrote the Old Testament.

When I got settled in more I got to meet Mr. Byron and his son Mr. Kenton, the birthday boy! They hugged me tighter than my own adopted parents would. We began talking about the history of the actual festival itself, how the sound booth was part of the original stage and that the stage now currently has a portion of it embedded into the frame.

His own home was built with his own two hands and his children were raised on the property, parts of the living room are parts of building that date back to the Civil War, which if you are like me YOU KNOW that’s a interesting historical event. I study the regiments of the Confederacy and the Union all the time, and I found it amazing how intricate the detail to the house was for him to build this. Mr. Byron himself was raised in the area, and stayed where his heart remains.

This man literally threw the largest front yard barbecue party the world has ever witnessed, and don’t get me wrong IT HAS NO SPONSORS unlike everyone else… this wasn’t “brought to you by so and so”, this was brought to you by the Roberts family…all of them and their community.

One of the first bands I got to see myself was a fellow I met a few years ago in Huntington West Virginia on the W.B. Walker Anniversary show, and he is from Saskatchewan Canada. He is none other than Mr. Blake Berglund, and his band the Vultures.He had the lovely Miss Belle Plaine playing with him, more on her later, but the gentleman in the overalls on the guitar was Mr. Bryce Lewis and he plays for both Berglund and Miss Belle Plaine.

Mr. Blake is the real deal folks, with a true western twang and a cattle ranch feel to his songs, that make your heart crave cookie’s chuck off the fire pit. He is a champion bull rider and skilled songwriter, and he played many great songs for us like “Rain Delay”, which I believe was new.

Now from his 2017 album called Realms, he played us “Pretty Good Guy” and another great song called “Moose Mountain” where he reflects on his youth of making mistakes, and a thirteen year old Palomino Mare with the need for a contact high.  It paints a truly splendid picture in the listener’s mind of  gorgeous nature.

His last song was called “Crooked Old Earth”, it was a truly fine closing song to this set. Now before you think wow these were short sets, please remember there was only one stage. And they had to keep it moving along, and EVERY BAND was personally introduced by Mr. Byron himself. He would come out on stage and say a short piece for every act.

Mr. Grayson Jenkins and the Resolutions were next, and he is from Greenville Kentucky MY NECK OF THE WOODS but currently is based out of Lexington Kentucky. he and his band kicked off the set with “If I Was A Cowboy” and another called ” Junior Walker” from his second album. You may recall I covered him on the Master musicians Festival as well.

“Somewhere In Kentucky” was from the album “Cityscapes And Countrysides” which also includes a really good version of the song “Atlantic City” that Mr. Bruce Springsteen released in 1982. That is the aforementioned second album.

They played a truly wonderful version of Don William’s classic song called “Love Me Tonight”, off the album You’re My Best Friend in 1975.  His drummer Mr. Zach Martin was amazing, as was the rest of the band on this set here,let me tell you more about them. Mr. Ryan Allen on guitar, Mr. Tyler Young on bass, and  joining him on vocals was Miss Abby Hamilton. As I ventured off into the vendor area they played a song called “Mockingbird” which was pretty much self explanatory.

Before I go into venturing off into some of the vendors that were here, I want to extend a huge online hug to the folks over at Pickup Country 104.9 FM who I need to publicly THANK for letting me put my stuff by them, and for keeping an eye on it for me. Miss Angela and her crew were some truly friendly folks, and I loved laughing and meeting them. Please go check out what they do music because it is a HUGE labor of love.

I want to talk about some of the food and merchandise vendors, as well as what Miss Kelli Roberts and her daughter spearheaded on the Kickin’ In The Creek shirts, posters and “stuff” department. Those ladies ran a stellar operation selling stuff for artists, and helped make shopping a FUN time.

The entire left side of the front yard was filled with many nifty looking things to spend money on, and yummy food to equally liquidate your pocket. I mean WHY NOT spend a ton on food and stuff…I DO. Let’s be honest guys the money goes into the band’s gas tank to make the next show, and hey WHY CAN’T Mr. Justin Wells feed his twins with his merch money? Isn’t that what this is all about?

One of the food trucks I got some WICKED pulled pork nachos from was Mr. Justin Taylor who operates the Roll ‘N’ Smoke rolling smoke truck. I tell you WHAT I got some tasty HOME MADE nacho chips and his sauce was really REALLY good, generous portions of the meat on my nachos.

I also met Mr. Steve Walters, who runs Estill Agate Works and although he has no webpage you can contact him in Irvine Kentucky at steve0244@hotmail.com. Miss Rebecca Thomas operates the True soul Clothing Company out of Huntington West Virginia, and we had a pleasant chat this morning.

Next to her were the folks at Stewart’s music that also said they had no webpage but I thought it was kind of smart to have a music store here in case someone needed strings or a capo, and I had a pleasant time getting to know them as well. drank some shine with them too!

I spent a lot of time watching bands with one of my own band buddies Mr. Pat Reedy, who has a band called the Longtime Goners. He has a REALLY GOOD new album out NOW and you can find out more about it on our review HERE. I also reviewed his set at MUDDY ROOTS see, Mr. John R Miller plays bass for him. See how this is just one big circle of family? Also, I’m going to be talking about his 2019 Ameripolitan Nomination.

Now one of the things I didn’t care for was the one central spot for toilets in the back area. That was a little pressing however I can see the reason, they didn’t want septic trucks driving all over the property. That was an obvious answer to a dilemma MANY patrons were talking about, so to squelch the displeasure that is probably why they did that.

This next young lady is one I have and will be talking a lot about here toward the year’s end, Miss Belle Plaine because her new album is SOLID. You can read my partner’s review of it SOON. You can order the album if you click up there on her band site, so please do that for her.

She opened her set with “Golden Ring” which is the first single off the album out now on Spotify and all else, and had Mr. Blake Berglund playing leads for her. Her work on Mr. Colter Wall’s debut album was equally good, and I have been a fan of hers for some time now.

The song “Good Heart” is featured on her 2016 album The Unrequited Love, and was played at many of the shows I got to see her perform at.  Her other album  called Notes From A Waitress, that album brought forth the next song called “Port Angeles”.  That song is a peaceful and soft ballad with lovely piano on the record, and if features her soulful voice vividly.

The next two songs were offering from the new album called “Is It Cheating” and “Laila Sadie Johnson Wasn’t Beaten By No Train”. I CAN tell you this new album features a fine voice, and in my opinion she has truly evolved her style into a whole new echelon.

After another few good pulls of some of the many flavored moonshines available behind the stage here, on the porch I decided to rest a moment and gather my notes. To bring you the next band up today, and visit with some more friends coming and going.

I got to finally meet Mr. Jonathan Newsome for the first time today and we had a photo showdown…he won..I bow to him. I always have admired good photographers and if you know him or Miss Alexis Faye, they are two truly gifted photographers in their respected communities. I belong to no scene or family, but I am humbled to have been invited into theirs.

All the while these festivities are transpiring, My Byron went personally from group to group hugging people and thanking them for coming to his home. To his domain and to his yard to celebrate something he holds dear to his heart…music. EVERY ACT he personally chose and personally enjoyed.

This festival was carefully planned with intricate attention to detail and every aspect was attended to in a down home family type demeanor. If you weren’t convinced of the sincerity of Mr. Byron Roberts, you weren’t REALLY there. Never before have I EVER encountered a director so in love with people and spirit, and I don’t believe I ever will again.

Mr. Jeremy Short And Company I mean this cat slung one mean assed guitar around. Mr. Jeremy Short is based out of Kentucky and knows no genre really, but he knows how to pull that soul out of that axe. And with Mr. Josh Nolan on guitar (who played for about nine acts this weekend) and Mr. John Clay on drums, he broke out a damn fine set today.

“Bartender” was first from the album Lost In a Spin, which sent the crowd into a huge blistering frenzy. It was already hot as crap here with no relief from the heat until around 4 when the sun began to be hid by the trees on the side of the holler.

“Shake It Off” was one of my favorites because it was well written and genre bending in every aspect. I mean there was NO WAY to classify this music other than it was GREAT!  I didn’t catch the entire set sad to say because I was wandering so much at that time to eat.

I found some wood fired pizza that was pretty good, but the selection was only two types of topping. I think for easier storage they couldn’t offer sausage toppings or ham. The pepperoni was really not bad at all, and to be honest the prices here were all really truly reasonable.

You sort of want the food trucks to be more near the stage area to market the smell to the crowds, and I found that to be somewhat against the norm. But really in the main camping area is where everyone ate, I didn’t see the audience eating while watching music. That’s hard to call if they don’t usually do that…or it was the result of lost sales?

I had many new faces to tell about my website here this weekend, and I met many new friends, and I had some old ones that recognized me. This was a whole new world that I am engulfed in this weekend, and I’m loving every minute of this. Once again, I’m very lucky to be included in this, and this community is very friendly.

This mountain region of America is often overlooked and underappreciated, and I think politically the coal mining industry was hated by the government. I won’t indulge my politics in public…I never do, but I think that it’s not appreciated.  And I think these folks are often rudely stereotyped by others, they were some of the finest upstanding folks I ever met.

many things are going on this weekend for charities and volunteer fire departments, in fact I donated 50 at the door to someone, I think it was volunteer fire dept. This guitar was left to be signed by every act, and it was being raffled off during the show. They also were doing some things for veterans and other groups of folks here.

Mr. William Matheny was next onstage here, and he called his band the Strange Constellations, also another thing about him. The merch booth person kept correcting the public it is prnounced MATHEENIE not MATHANEY. Which I’m sure is a common mistake here, like Mr. Jack Grelle gets mispronounced.

He also had Mr. John R. Miller, and Mr. Josh Nolan playing for him today onstage, I enjoyed his beautiful version of the Bobby Bare classic “That’s How I Got To Memphis”, also I cannot begin to name how many others have recorded that song.

He played an exciting set tonight with a song called ‘Tonight And Every Night From Now On”, which isn’t on either of his albums, but I found it to be one of his better songs…just that it spoke to me. He is a true multi talented young man in many aspects of the craft.

He also included the wonderful song called “Christian Name” which was another well written song with a great melody to it. His voice complements the lyrics and makes them vivid, and when you combine that with his unique delivery you get Mr. William Matheny.

Vintage Pistol I first heard of from hanging around the folks at the Fayetteville Roots Festival in the Arkansas area. Because that’s where they hail from, indeed. And they brought the most energetic stage presence we saw all day so far, until the Wooks came up. But they have also played for my friends in Kansas City at the Westport Saloon.

Mr. Garrett August on the keyboards went absolutely CRAZY for us and his glasses flew off, we had to help him find them! This five piece band of guys went totally nuts for us. I was so busy watching this band perform I forgot to write the songs down, to be honest.

Mr. Taylor Smith- guitar, vocals, Mr. Walt Blythe- lead guitar and Mr. Jake Schaffer – drums make up this band, they had one more member I couldn’t find the name, and my email went unanswered.

The next three acts were Mr. Byron’s pride and joy acts of the day, not that ANYONE was lesser loved or wanted, but by then Mr. Byron’s voice was already giving way to going out. He was already worn out and running like a cat on a hot tin roof…his exact words.

He was still going from group to group personally welcoming all of the people he saw, and hugging EVERYBODY. Playing with kids, and I tell you what he personally went and got me a water at one time. EVERY volunteer worked tirelessly to make this a different kind of event. The fire department, Medics, security, golf cart drivers, gate keepers, ALL OF THEM went the extra mile to make this happen.

The backstage area was equally amazing, there weren’t many new friendships being made because they already knew one another. There was an intense level of mutual respect for each other here in Appalachia, and I admired every waking moment of this despite the intense heat.

Mr. Byron emceed the event with precise care, and loving words for each artist. He knew them all, and some of them he bounced on his knee as children. Some of them he knew all their lives, and was a second father to them. I relate quite well to that, if a gal is under 25 I think….man I got a daughter your age.

The big man from Lexington Mr. Justin Wells made his appearance tonight, and it’s always a treat to watch him perform. I personally love his music very much and I equally enjoy seeing him and getting to talk about things. He is currently playing some new songs in his set lists, I noticed a few new ones.

His first song was ‘The Dogs” and my favorite song called ‘Still No Rain” followed it. He will tell you he is very blessed to be able to feed his family with his music, but I tell you WE ARE the lucky ones to have him around. he does MANY positive things for humanity as well as the music community. RIGHT NOW they are all raising money for  addiction in their community. He always has kind words to lift us all up.

I noticed the Dire Strait’s cover of ‘So Far Away” from my favorite album Brothers In Arms, and he played ‘Three Quarters Gone”. I plan to catch up with him for an interview soon before he goes into the studio for his next album, and PLEASE go buy some stuff from him, to enable him to do this next record.

He just had fun up there tonight, as the sun set and night began to relieve us all of the wretched heat, I got quite settled in to my surroundings, and my camp. I haven’t slept in a tent in ages, but hotel rooms here are not existent. In fact in my 2019 article for this event I won’t even include lodging, just camp.

The last two songs I recognized were called “Going Down Grinnin” and “Another Night Lonely”. Honestly I use his music many times for uplifting me before medical procedures and other things that mentally bring you down in life, because he is a very positive influence.

This is Mr. JJ Waters who helps operate Honky Tonk Heros on Facebook, and for new bands in this area, and events you MUST GO check them out. Currently they are preparing things for their annual Christmas toy drive, for the West Virginia community.  They become involved in many if not all of the local area shows and venues, and take nothing in return for their actions. I think they deserve a lot more credit than they are given for the time and effort they put into making things happen for local music.

Magnolia Boulevard is a five piece band out of Lexington Kentucky, that I missed the last time I had an opportunity to see them. But this time I did not fail seeing them here this weekend. This band consists of Miss Maggie Noelle on vocals, Mr. Ryan Allen on keyboards, Mr. Todd Copeland on drums, Mr. John Roberts on bass and finally Mr. Greg Erwin on guitars.

Their 2018 self titled EP boasted many of the songs they played in their set tonight including songs like “Sister” and many long instrumentals within the songs. This band is extremely energetic and multi sounding within genres. You really couldn’t classify them as anything accept damn good music.

Their set began with a song called “Without You” and after many instrumentals they went into one called “Call On Me.” Miss Maggie is quite the energetic spirit up there, moving about frantically as she delivers the lyrics out.

“Smooth Sailin” was another great song on display here tonight, and as the crowd began to fill up with anticipation for the next band that I self admittedly originally didn’t like..we were treated to some truly fine musical talents here. Another good song they played was called ‘Strong Willed Woman” , and they closed their set off with the song called “Ride”.

So I’ll start this portion of the article on an honest note here, I did NOT initially care for the music of The Wooks but after about 30 spins of their debut album and seeing them LIVE, I realized how deathly wrong I was. In fact I am downright ashamed of myself for even insinuating that they stunk..

OK well they have a new album coming out in 2018 called Glory Bound, and you can pre-order it by clicking on the name over there. I’m also going put on a cover of the album here for you. The first song from their set was a Steve Earle song called “Tom Ames Prayer”, you can find it on the 1994 album called “Gringo Honeymoon” by Mr. Robert Earl Keen.

Next up was the song called “Out Of Mind” from their debut album called Little Circles, they played almost that whole album as well as a bunch of great covers like Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”, and the Road Goes On Forever. The band consists of Mr.  CJ Cain | Lead Guitar, Mr. Harry Clark | Mandolin, Mr. Arthur Hancock | Guitar, Mr. Roddy Puckett | Bass and finally Mr. George Guthrie | Banjo.

One of the highlights for me during this set was the instrumental called the “Wookie Foot Shuffle” which had us all going insane this late at night. I sat there in my chair amazed at their solidarity together and the fact that they just KNOW what the others are doing at all times. There are some lyrics to the Wookie Foot Shuffle, but it’s pretty much focused on instrumentals.

“County Girl” was another great song followed by ‘Crooked Piece Of Time”. Another great song they played was called “White Lines And Neon Signs”, which was the very first song they do I was exposed to. I just cannot apologize to this band enough for not liking them at first.

Now then they played the song called “Feeling Good Again” and in between that song and the self titled song called “Glory Bound” there was a special appearance by Laid Back Country Picker, and he gave Mr. Arthur some trademark mutton chops!  Mr. Byron put him in a full nelson rasslin hold and O’l Laid Back shaved him because his beard was not up to code.

I want to thank Mr. Byron for making me come up on the stage during this to catch it all as it transpired. I’m pretty sure it was only partially planned because the set list says that Laid Back was coming on, but not this. Everybody enjoyed the comedy of Laid Back and on my part two, I’m going to tell you about a little funny with Miss Honey.

The band resumed playing songs the likes of “Night bird” and also “Spanish Pipedream” among others, like the classic ‘Rollin In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”.  With all this going on, there was some really cool fire dancing going on side stage and other things going on. It truly was a lot to take in at once, upon many different occasions.

So in just a few days I’ll tell you all about Saturday on the Creek from the Robert’s. AND ALSO a little portion of some of what I missed, and other things that need to be told on here.

By Joshua Wallace

JP Harris is back with another album of hard hitting honky tonk songs.  This album is the first full length since his 2014 release Home Is Where The Hurt Is.  I really dug that album and have been looking forward to hearing his next proper album.

The record kicks off with a barn burner in “JP’s Florida Blues #1”.  It’s a great honky tonk track about the sticky situations you can find yourself in on the road that kicks the album off on a high note.  Another favorite is “When I Quit Drinking“. It’s a slower heartbreak ballad about what happens when you put the bottle down as opposed to the typical drinking heartbreak song.

The title track is another ballad that takes more of a sentimental and reflecting tone.  It features some really nice dobro playing in the instrumental and it adds something different to the album.  Another favorite is the track “Hard Road” which follows the slower title track with a faster honky tonk song and I particularly dig the guitar work on this one.  Finally, the album ends with “Jimmy’s Dead And Gone” which starts out as a rambling acoustic tune but quickly turns into a full band jaunt that ends the album on a fun train song.

JP Harris does not disappoint with this outing.  If you have been a fan of his previous work, especially the Home Is Where The Hurt Is album, you will dig this one.  I’m looking forward to everything JP Harris puts out and hopefully I get to see him live sometime down the road. This album is out everywhere today and you can check out where JP Harris will be on the road at his website at https://www.ilovehonkytonk.com/.  

Favorite Tracks : JP’s Florida Blues #1, When I Quit Drinking, Sometimes Dogs Bark At Nothing, Hard Road, Jimmy’s Dead And Gone

JP Harris – Sometimes Dogs Bark At Nothing (2018)

1. JP’s Florida Blues #1
2. Lady In The Spotlight
3. When I Quit Drinking
4. Long Ways Back
5. Sometimes Dogs Bark At Nothing
6. Hard Road
7. I Only Drink Alone
8. Runaway
9. Miss Jeanne-Marie
10. Jimmy’s Dead And Gone

By Joshua Wallace

Here at Gary Hayes Country we like to keep up to date on things that are coming up. This is a list of all of the records coming out the rest of the year that we know of that either myself or Gary Hayes are looking forward to.  I feel like most everything for the rest of the year is announced, but if we find out anything in the future, this article will be updated.

September 28th :
Tony Joe White – Bad Mouthin’
Katie Cole – Things That Break, Part 1
Nobody’s Girl – Waterline EP
Michigan Rattlers – Evergreen
The Earls of Leicester – Live at The CMA Theater in The Country Music Hall of Fame
The Louvin Brothers – Love & Wealth: The Lost Recordings
Loretta Lynn – Wouldn’t It Be Great
Amy Ray – Holler
Masey McLain – To The Dreamers
Joey Wray – Joey Wray

October 5th :
J.P. Harris – Sometimes Dogs Bark At Nothing
Heather Morgan – Borrowed Heart
Will Hoge – My American Dream
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band – Poor Until Payday
Eric Church – Desperate Man

October 12th :
Colter Wall – Songs Of The Plains
Chelsea Nolan – chelsea.
Adam Hood – Somewhere In Between
Larry And His Flask – This Remedy
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Live From The Ryman
The Bottle Rockets – Bit Logic

October 19th :
Belle Plaine – Malice, Mercy, Grief, and Wrath
Jamie Lin Wilson – Jumping Over Rocks
The Brother Brothers – Some People I Know

October 26th :
Whitey Morgan and the 78’s – Hard Times And White Lines
Dillon Carmichael – Hell On An Angel
Josh Turner – I Saw A Savior
Town Mountain – New Freedom Blues
Blackberry Smoke – Southern Ground Sessions EP
Nick Dittmeier and the Sawduster – All Damn Day
Carson McHone – Carousel

November 2nd :
Pistol Annies – Interstate Gospel
Randy Houser – Magnolia
Rosanne Cash – She Remembers Everything
The Mavericks – Hey! Merry Christmas!
JD McPherson – Socks

November 9th :
Josh Card – With A Heavy Heart
The Gibson Brothers – Mockingbird
Rhett Miller – The Messenger

November 16th :
Old 97’s – Love The Holidays
Sean K. Preston & The Loaded Pistols – Forgive

November 30th :
Reverend Horton Heat – Whole New Life
Wheeler Walker Jr. – WWIII

Unknown Date / Maybe Soon :
Ward Davis

Welcome to part 2 of my Muddy Roots coverage, I hope you have been enjoying this labor of love I have been doing for many years for my old friend Mr. Jason. I’ll be honest here people, I do this for MANY festivals, but Mr. Jason is special to me because I could call him for help anytime and I KNOW he would come help me. I know he would come take me to a doctor appointment or pick my stranded vehicle up if I called him. He just had a baby girl everybody so PLEASE go hop on over to send him some love.

I DO have to criticize him now though on one aspect he changed and I found difficult to deal with, that was the format of the entire festival program. This year it was not all together and was harder to use on the fly, at least for me. I spoke to several others who also concurred with me on that issue.

One thing he changed I DID appreciate was they closed the tower on the wood stage to media ONLY, and during the Goddamn Gallows THAT saved my ass from being crushed by thousands of frenzied fans. I’m going to skip around on the afternoon acts here, because I was so enthused by the new discoveries I couldn’t remember which ones were what time.

Miss Sasha Kaleidoscopia Vallely, Miss Nikki Speake and Mr.Pietro DiGennaro make up this next band that hails from Atlanta Georgia, and they are called The Midnight Larks. They play some mighty fine rock and roll music here, they describe themselves as Surf noir, dark country, garage psych rock.

“Gunfighter” was one of their 2017 singles they released, and then they pretty much went down into their entire album here today. They had some pretty good harmonies, and I think they complimented the rest of the lineup on the early stages very well. “Loner” was a pretty good song here, which was what they were playing when I jotted this portion of the article down.

“Darli’n” was another song they played with VERY good harmonies and sound, I strongly suggest you go pick up their album and check them out on I tunes, or wherever you buy music from. “Shady”, “Shameless Child” and “Drawing Out the Flame” were also played here tonight in their set.

‘Summer Of The Preacher” was my favorite song out of their set, and as I began to mosey onward into the rain for other bands I heard them play songs like “Moontown” and ‘Endless Valley”. This trio really has a unique sound together, and I really couldn’t fit it into any genre myself, it’s just damn good music!

This whole idea for my website is pretty much for that reason, to talk about music I enjoy. I myself have music I don’t care for that I usually simply omit from my articles. it’s NOT MEANT to offend anyone that IS a fan, IN FACT I would rather just respectfully admit I don’t care for it to the fans instead of bashing it to my own fans.

I headed over to the wood stage for one of my personal favorite Muddy Roots alumni bands called The Goddamn Gallows who released a GREAT album in 2018 called The Trial. Now, this album contained a remake of the Mr. Jayke Orvis single called ‘Dreadful Sinner”. You can find the original version on his second solo album called ‘it’s All Been Said’.

The wood stage area began to fill up QUICKLY, and I mean FILL UP. I was VERY grateful they gave the media the tower this year, and as I learned about zoom lenses this weekend, I had FUN up there! The crowd began to get extremely rowdy before the show even began!

“Gutterbilly Blues” from the 2007 album of the same name is one of the first songs they played, Also, “City Of Hell-A” I’m pretty sure was included, from Ghost Of The Rails album. The next song was called ‘Sidewalk Slammer” from my favorite album called 7 Devils, but perhaps the next song called “Pass Me The Bottle” was one of their more well known songs.

The show got absolutely insane, and I’m glad of two things for the media’s sake. 1. IT WAS EARLY BEFORE EVERYONE WAS DRUNK and 2. THE MEDIA TOWER WAS CLEAR. BUT I WILL say that watching the Goddamn Gallows unleash their fury upon crowds is amazing and FUN.

The band consists of Mr. Courtney on upright bass or Fishgutzzz, Mr. Mikey Classic on lead vocals and guitar, Mr. Uriah Baker or the Baby Genius on drums and lead vocals on “In League With Satan” (not on this set that I remember) and Mr. Jayke Orvis on banjo, mandolin and vocals.

Off 7 Devils they played ‘Ragz And Bones” and also off the Swappin Spit album they brought out Mr. Gary Lindsay from Black Eyed Vermillion to play “Born To Lie” with them. THEN THE BEST ONE CAME called ‘Ya’ll Motherfuckers Need Jesus”. That pretty much brings out all of our fury to go nuts on that one.

“7 Devils” was next followed by the song called “load Yer Guns’ off the 2014 the Maker album. Now, they went to their new album called The Trial with a song called “Down With the Ship”. Toward the end of their set, they called out the entire group of the New blood Tubs, which is a great bunch of guys and gals that have a firearm  club associated with the Muddy crowd.

They have always been truly nice to me, and even though I do not get to see them as often as I’d like to, they always remember me and appreciate my work.  Sadly, they lost their brother Mr. Mikey this spring to health issues during his sleep. We spoke often about medical issues, the two of us online and in person. I have many things in common with the NBT including my love for firearms, and firearm safety.

Now, I’m not exactly sure how many of them exist, and I haven’t truly met all of them but the Gallows are members of their group, and they wanted to bring them out to have a brief party for their fallen members by spreading their ashes onto the crown during the set, and having an onstage mosh pit!

It truly WAS INDEED a fun and touching tribute for their loved ones, and as they played “City Of Fools’ from the new album we all remembered Mr. Mikey in the fashion HE WOULD HAVE WANTED….beers flying, shoes flying, people flying and FUCK THE WORLD!

“Raise The Moon” was next, WE ALL KNOW THAT HE’S COMING SOON,  and after that Mr. Jayke played “Dreadful Sinner” as I previously stated.  One of the pinnacles of their show, was the new song called “Shitwish” which I like, because I used to say that to my daughter ALL THE TIME. Wish in one hand and shit in the other, which one fills up first.

This was the memorial they had, and the spreading of the ashes into the audience that afternoon and I’m very thankful that I was allowed to document this portion of the event here at the Junebug Ranch. I think I used a pretty good opportunity to play with my new camera as the action commenced this afternoon.

The Gallows ended their set with “The Maker” and another from the same album called “Howli’n Winds”. It will probably be a few months before I run into this band again on here, so folks enjoy this while you can. Mosey on over to their website and purchase some stuff from the band..and tell them I sent you!

All the while they were playing I had my new friend up here in the tower mr. T Rex making fun of me. He was a real pesky nuisance (not really), he was defiantly here to PARTY!

I wandered around a while to gather my notes and rest awhile, this heat was absolutely draining me. In fact all year the heat has been draining my energy, I cannot wait until the fall weather comes finally. All of these summer jobs have been absolutely draining this year.

I got to meander past another one of the stages, where I got to catch Miss Rachel Kate play some of her set including songs like “Dancing Shoes” and the other one I recognized was “Hell Is Your Home”. I stopped to get a bite to eat and visit with my Rusty Knuckles friends before the next big major show of the night for me, O’l Munley and his crew!

My next act I covered was called Slim Cessna’s Auto Club which always puts on a terrific show, that draws a HUGE crowd.  This is a very unique band from Denver Colorado that has two lead singers named Mr. Slim Cessna and Mr. Munley Munley, and they take turns hurling insults and lyrics at each other.

One of the BEST bands in the local touring circuit they absolutely captivate the heathens and covert lost souls to follow “Commandment Number 7” and that is THERE IS A HOLE! Their second song was called “Mouth’s Gone Dry”.

As both Mr. Slim and Mr. Munley  brought forth their tales of doom and darkness smothered with Heaven’s light and redemption, we jammed in the heat to songs like “Americadio” and enjoyed Mr. Slim’s romp through the audience along with Mr. Munly strangling himself with his cord.

Their song called “Magalina Hagalina Boom Boom” from the SCAC 102 album preceded that ordeal as they began to bring us heathens the gospel, fitting this show should happen in a revival tent. As their next song was “Jesus In My Body, My Body Has Let Me Down”.

‘Thy Will Be Done”  or ‘Commandment 4″ was next with no shortage of razor sharp guitar strikes and steel guitar laced, keyboard filled madness. SCAC wrapped up their set with “This Is How We Do Things In The Country”, which is by far one of my favorite songs they play.

There certainly isn’t enough stage for those two guys to dance around and go crazy upon one another up there. I enjoy their energetic show, every time they appear at Muddy Roots. Their last songs I noticed were “Port Authority Band” and they finished with ‘That Fierce Cow Is Common Sense In a Country Dress”. Once again courtesy of our friends over at Hobolight Photography for some of these following pictures.

I went to bed early Saturday and I missed a few of the later sets that day, but Sunday I was up EARLY to have a nice breakfast at Scooter’s bar, and do a little shopping at noon when most of the vendors opened. OF COURSE I HAD to hit the Third Man Records rolling record store. I bought the new Margo Price album and some stickers.

This was definitely a record year for attendance at this festival in my opinion. I haven’t spoke with Mr. Jason on official turnout and numbers, but he did say there were around 1200 NEW ticket purchases. I know I’d like to THANK some of the guys from work that came for the first time.

So on Sunday on the wood stage comes a band I wanted to spend quite a bit of time on called Grassfed, and they hail from the Kansas City area. They are wildly popular in my Kansas City scene friends community and frequent the Westport Saloon. Mr. Jake Keegan sent me their new album not long ago, and I waited until now to tell you about it. If YOU LIKE what you see, go download it!

This band absolutely blew my mind folks, they have LIGHTNING FAST chops and play like a tightly wound well oiled machine. In fact this new album might just be TOP 50 material, I’m NOT KIDDING you people, this band is VASTLY overlooked.

Their new album is a bit autobiographical and brings us closer to the band itself, with songs like “Stacking Up Dimes” and “Gone, And I Ain’t Coming Back”. This grassroots Bluegrass band can definitely hold their own in the solo department, with some mighty fine licks on the dobro and guitar.

The band consists of my friend Mr. Jake Keegan on dobro, his brother Mr. Josh Keegan on guitar and Mr. Cameron Keeling on the upright bass. They also played off the new album called Moovin Down The Road the song called “Gas Tank”.

New Album Tracklist:

1.Chili Dog
2.Not So Lonesome
3.Dear Lyla
4.Stacking Up Dimes
5. Way Down The River Bend
6.Gas Tank
7.Gone,And I Ain’t Coming Back
8.Long Hard Winter
9.Little Maggie
10.Yard Work

In come the Smoky White Devils a rock band from Nashville consisting of Mr. Richie Owens (also has the band Farm Bureau) with bassist John Reed and guitarist Mr. Nick Kane. Their drummer is Mr. Mike Ferguson and together they make up the side band that Mr. Richie does.

I’ll always remember the pleasant conversation he and I had at Muddy many years ago about Mr. Riley Puckett, and other prominent Country Music historical figures. I got to see them perform songs like “See You On the Other Side” and a few more.

I truly enjoy Mr. Richie’s signature slide guitar rock music, and he always brings a damn fine band along with him on the stage every time I get to see him.  One of their signature songs called “Goin Down South” was played today on their set. I could easily tell that this band was an early favorite for my Muddy friends each year.

Other songs they played included “She Thinks She Runs This Town” and another called “PaPa John”. So the next time you are around the 5 Spot in Nashville or any local area go check out this man and his bands, you’ll readily agree that he has good music.

I am extremely exited today to bring you the rest of these wonderful bands I am about to cover here. One of them is a GREAT band from Chapel Hill North Carolina called Sarah Shook And The Disarmers. She recently released an album on the Bloodshot Records label called Years, and I promise you that it WILL BE on our TOP 50 of 2018.

I haven’t ran into her since last year when W.B. Walker had her on his fourth anniversary show in West Virginia, and back then she had some lineup changes. But now her band is completely secure and sounds absolutely KILLER together with the lineup of  Miss Sarah Shook – songwriter, vocals, rhythm guitar Mr. Eric Peterson – Electric guitar Mr. Aaron Oliva – Upright bass and Mr. Phil Sullivan – Pedal Steel.

She started her set with a song off her new album Years called “Good As Gold” , and moved to her album Sidelong to play the song called “Heal Me”. The next song called “Parting Words” displays some truly fine steel guitar work from her band.

Even in the direct sunlight heat this band was absolutely ON POINT this weekend, standing in the heat playing. It was so hot all the bands had to stop to take water breaks. The next song called “Fuck Up” was from the album Sidelong including the song “Nothin Feels Right But Doin Wrong”.

“Lesson” was another song included tonight in her set, as well as “Keep The Home Fires Burning” from her first album. You know, she doesn’t really move around much onstage, but still has a really good ambiance up there. I was truly impressed with her for not even needing to move around to keep everyone’s attention.

Now “Dwight Yoakam” does indeed move around a LOT, and that’s a good song there, and she closed her set with the song called “New Way To Fail”. I wandered around a little bit to the third stage to catch this Ohio based band with my friends called The Tillers.

I HAD TO go stop and see my friends Mr. Chase Humphrey and his lovely wife Miss Lauren, whom own and operate the Music City Wienery. They have some of the BEST bratwursts I have ever eaten! Then I went on over to the merch booth to buy some shirts and stickers. I’m ALL ABOUT band stickers.

Mr. Michael Oberst on vocals and banjo, Mr. Joe Macheret on fiddle, and brothers Mr. Sean and Mr. Aaron Geil make up the Ohio based quartet The Tillers. Perhaps one of Roots Music’s finest original bands, I view the LIVE at the Southgate House in 2012 as one of the integral Roots albums of all time.

“Revolution Row” was a song from the new self titled album, along with the next song called the “Riverboat Dishwashing Song”. Now folks this band will indeed be on my next festival coverage series from last weekend as well, where they played another stellar set!

“Like A Hole In My Head” was next followed by “Dear Mother”, so we got a pretty good taste of the entire direction of their new album here today. It’s been a few years since their 2013 release  called Hand On The Plow, with some wonderful new songs!

One of the only covers on their new album is called ‘All You Fascists Bound To Loose” and their next song was one that featured Mr. J.D Wilkes from the Shack Shakers fame called “I Gotta Move”. The last two songs of their set was from the album Hand On The Plow, one of them was called “Road Never Ending” and they closed their set with a song called “500 Miles”.

Mr. Joshua Black Wilkins is one of the few that I can say so many great things about personally. He is one of the nicest folks in the business I have ever run into, and one of the most talented. I have been messing with my new camera all weekend, just infatuated with new attachments for it and the science of lenses and such.

He is A VERY talented photographer, and his work is featured on many television shows and magazines. I look up to him as an artist, and I admire his passion to get others off their ass to vote. Even though I wouldn’t agree with everything we discussed on politics I would have a LOT of respect for his passion.

Musically, he has recorded a TON of albums and songs for the MANY years he has been performing shows. The first song he played was called “Bury Me Not” from the album called Rogue. He brought his rough around the edges harmonica laced music to Muddy Roots once again, with serious grit.

The next song called “Western” was on his album called Fair Weather, and from one of his very early albums called 17th And Shelby I remember him playing the song called “Sucker Punch”. I did have to cut his set short for me to go back to my camper and take some more insulin for the evening.

I got to hear him play “I Tremble” and the song “I Heard You Whisper” was on the album Settling The Dust, that’s the vinyl of his that I own, and it needs to be played on a different speed. I thought that was quite unique. I also jotted down the song “Church On a Hill” from an album called The girlfriend Sessions.

Left Lane Cruiser is another Roots band that quickly fills up the Muddy tent wherever they play, the last time I ran across them was in Chicago at Moonrunners last year. This Fort Wayne Indiana high powered duo always puts on a damn fine show.

Mr. Freddy J and Pete Dio have been around since 2004, and were included in the first few Roots bands we had. Of course they played “Black Betty” and some Muddy Waters tunes, while rocking out to some hellacious guitar solos.

As they continued their alcohol fueled insanity of punishing their instruments they played a Jimbo Mathus song called “Mule Plow Line”. Mr Jmibo was a co founder of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and has been a Roots Music Legend .

They played “Claw Machine Wizard” the title track of their 2017 new album of the same name. I didn’t jot down as many notes on their set because I was very busy enjoying their music tonight, it was STILL HOT and STILL muggy outside. I had over 20 pages of notes to sort through for this job.

Mr. Pat Reedy And The Longtime Goners is another name you will be hearing on my TOP 50 of 2018 in a few months. I recently spent some time with him at both festivals I covered, as well as his bassist John R. Miller.

This man and his entire band is nothing more than straight up pure Honky Tonk goodness, from the New Orleans area. However I first found out about him from my Kansas City friends out at the Westport Saloon area, and became an instant fan of his.

He opened with “Nashville Tennessee At 3AM” most of his set today was from his second album called That’s All There Is And There Ain’t No More. Now, he also played the title track in this set of the same name, toward the end of the set.

This man is not only my friend, but he is the REAL DEAL FOLKS I mean he works construction by day and Honky Tonks by night. He just gets up there and has a good time playing good music, and that’s basically the format of his situation folks, it doesn’t get any more honest.

‘Burgundy In The Rain” is one of my favorite songs he plays, and it is always included in his sets. His set is always laced with sweet toned steel guitar, and his band is always top notch.  ‘You Don’t Have To Tell Me Anymore” was another great song in this set today.

The heat carried on into the night and it was one of those change your clothes every couple hours weekends. I was pretty close to my camper, so I went back to change and get ready for the act I wanted to cover later tonight called Cutthroat Shamrock.

Cutthroat Shamrock is a Bluegrass styled Irish based punk rock outfit, that has also been around a long long time. They come from the Great Smokey Mountains of Tn and are pretty much Appalachian Punk Bluegrass…I just call them good music.

Included in their set was “Long Gravel Road” from the Blood Rust Whiskey album in 2009. Other songs they played were “Fly Away” from that album toward the end.  I’m not sure about any lineup changes from this band but I haven’t covered them for many years, so I couldn’t say.

They had a TON of energy here tonight, and I stayed for their entire set. I went back to the camper after this set because I was exhausted and drained from the heat.

From the 2013 EP called Dead Wind, they played the song “Sick Of The Times”, and from their album The Wake they played “Hell’s Shovel”. They displayed so much insanity here tonight it was really fun to see this band once again, as they steamrolled into “Cod Liver Oil” from the before mentioned EP.

They went on into the night with other songs, and other bands but I had to get up early Monday morning to go back to life, so I had to call this an evening. There were later bands both nights I didn’t get to cover, and other bands earlier I didn’t get to cover as well.

It’s NOT that I don’t care for them, It’s just hard to cover a multi stage festival by myself and I didn’t have my partner Mr. Joshua here this weekend with me. To visually witness EVERYTHING and write it all down isn’t easy, and to be honest I think I do a pretty good job…but I miss things. I missed all of Thursday’s shows, I missed Mr. James Hunnicutt among others I missed were The Calamity Cubes! and another late late act Those Poor Bastards.

As a whole, I was pretty impressed with this year’s Muddy Roots Music Festival and I saw a few small drawbacks. But overall I was truly glad that it has grown to another echelon, with so many new patrons. Everyone came together to have a truly blessed time despite the horrible heat.

Muddy Roots Music Festival is one that I will pretty much cover EVERY YEAR without fail, because it was pretty much one of the factors that grew my idea into becoming a reality. I don’t see my website going anywhere but UP and you can damn sure bet I’ll be around many other music scenes all over America AND overseas I want to THANK EVERYONE for taking the time out of their busy day to read what I have to write year after year.

By Joshua Wallace

When I last posted about Party In The Pines happening October 19th and 20th in White Springs, FL, I brought you news of the main stage lineup.  Today, I am bringing you news of the showcase stage lineup which features artists you will not want to miss.

Friday :

Josh Card, Hallie Davis, Cliff Dorsey, Dylan Garrard, Billy Rice Band and Kellen Vincent Band

After Party featuring Adam Wakefield and Tyler Wood

Saturday :

Raleigh Keegan, Tobacco Road Band, Grayson Rogers and Scotty Williams and the Drifter

After Party featuring Tyler Booth and Jacob Bryant

I am excited to see these showcase stage artists getting some exposure alongside the bigger names on the main stage.  I’m especially excited to see names like Josh Card, Adam Wakefield, Tyler Booth and Jacob Bryant filling out the lineup.  These guys will surely bring some traditional country music to the proceedings making it a lineup that is very diverse and has something for everyone.

Be on the lookout for more coverage of 2018’s Party In The Pines on Gary Hayes Country leading up to the festival including the reveal of the full daily schedule.

By Joshua Wallace

Willie Nelson typically releases two kinds of albums these days.  He does an album of originals and then he will do a vanity project which is often a covers album.  This time he has released a tribute to Frank Sinatra called My Way. The thing that sets this a part from some of his other projects are the arrangements for these songs.  He takes the big band arrangements of Sinatra and turns them into more country and western swing jazzy arrangements. The results are very Willie sounding but still retain the essence of Sinatra.

The album kicks off with Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” which still features a horn section but it’s anchored by Willie’s long time harmonica player Mickey Raphael who plays a large part in this album.  Willie’s guitar shines on this cut with a great solo. Another favorite is “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” which is turned into more of a country blues number with an nod to the sound of the original.

“Blue Moon” is another favorite that moves into jazzy western swing territory.  The original by Sinatra was a big band jazz track that featured the horn section heavily.  I really dig the sound Willie creates on this one as he breathes new life into a classic. Norah Jones is the album’s only guest star as she duets with Willie on the track “What Is This Thing Called Love”.   Willie turns Sinatra’s classy ballad on it’s head and turns it into a jazzy duet fit for smoky dance halls.

Willie’s interpretation of other people’s songs can sometimes be hit or miss, but My Way is a big hit.  He pays homage to Sinatra’s signature sound while creating something new with a jazzy country western swing sound.  If you’re a fan of either artist I suggest picking this album up. It is available everywhere you can find good music on Friday September 14th, 2018.          

Favorite Tracks : Fly Me To The Moon, One For My Baby (One More For The Road), Blue Moon, What Is This Thing Called Love, My Way

Willie Nelson – My Way (2018)

1. Fly Me To The Moon
2. Summer Wind
3. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
4. A Foggy Day
5. It Was A Very Good Year
6. Blue Moon
7. I’ll Be Around
8. Night And Day
9. What Is This Thing Called Love (With Norah Jones)
10. Young At Heart
11. My Way

If  YOU have a show YOU would like added to my list PLEASE email me at garyhayes2@yahoo.com. I literally watch more than 40 venues in Nashville plus belong to many concert websites in order to bring you this coverage. NEW IN 2018, folks I am always looking for ways to enhance what I do for you. So this year I’ll be reporting on further Kentucky shows, and further Tennessee shows as well.

Folks WHATEVER YOU DO PLEASE support live venue music

The Dead South
Cannery Ballroom October 17th

John R Miller And the Engine Lights
Southgate House October 18th

Town Mountain
Station Inn October 17th and 18th

Whitey Morgan And The 78’s
Songbirds Chattanooga Tn October 18th

Town Mountain
The Burl October 19th

Cody Johnson
Marathon Music Works October 19th

Official Dailey And Vincent
Ryman Auditorium October 20th

Town Mountain
Bluegrass Museum And Hall Of Fame October 20th

Freight Train Rabbit Killer And The Legion Of Ghosts
Hooten Hallers
October 21st

Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
Ryman Residency October 22-28th

Town Mountain
Boyd’s Jig And Reel Pub Knoxville Tn October 24rth

Pistol Annies
Ryman Auditorium October 25th

Dwight Yoakam
Tommy Ash
Owensboro Convention Center October 26th

Wade Bowen
The Basement East October 26th

The Tillers
Willow Tree Johnson City Tennessee Oct 26th

Don Gallardo
The Southgate House October 26th

Marty Stuart
Rupp Arena Ky Oct 27th

Rye Davis
Sidelines In Glasgow Ky October 10th

Town Mountain
Zanzabar Louisville Ky November 1st

Connie Smith
Renfro Valley November 2nd

Smokey White Devils Record Release Party
3Rd And Lindsley November 2nd

Teea Goans
Midnite Jamboree November 3rd

Town Mountain
Southgate House November 4rth

Tim Atwood
Trinity Music City November 6th

Caleb Caudle
The 5 Spot November 6th

The Texas Gentlemen
The Basement November 8th

Cody Jinks
Tennessee Theater Knoxville Tn November 8th

Drive By Truckers
Cannery Ballroom November 9th

Official Dailey And Vincent
Ryman Auditorium November 9th

The Mavericks
Schermerhorn Symphony Center November 8-10th

Carson McHone
Jeremy Pinnell
Ags Connolly
Southgate House November 11th

Dave Alvim
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
3rd And Lindsley November 14th

Colter Wall
The Basement East November 14th and 15th

Casey Donahew
3rd And Lindsley November 15th

Billy Strings
The Standard Knoxville Tn November 16th

Ray Wylie Hubbard
Jaime Wyatt
The Warehouse Mt. Victor November 17th

Gene Watson
Dallas Moore
Kyle Wilson
Nashville Palace November 17th

Tracey Lawrence
Owensboro Convention Center November 17th

Jaime Wyatt
The Warehouse Mt. Victor November 17th

Carson McHone
The Basement East November 17th

The Harmed Brothers
Southgate House November 17th

Whitney Rose
Southgate House November 18th

Low Cut Connie
Ruby Boots
The Basement East November 18th

Jack White
Margo Price
Joshua Hedley
Bridgestone Arena November 20th

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Cosmic Charlie’s Lexington Ky November 21st

The Reverend Peyton’s big Damn Band
Matt Woods
Southgate House November 24th

the Steeldrivers
The Alhambra Theater
November 24th Hopkinsville Ky

Marty Stuart And The Fabulous Superlatives
Woodard Theater Owensboro Ky November 30th

Tyler Childers
Exit In November 29,30 and Dec 1st

Amanda Shires
Cory Branan
Southgate House December 1st

Tommy Ash
The Basement December 2nd

Del McCourry
Woodward Theater Owensboro Ky December 8th

Jerry Lee Lewis
Schemerhorn Symphony December 10th

Sunny Sweeney
Brennan Leigh
Bri Bagwell
3rd And Lindsley December 13th

Raelyn Nelson
Little Harpeth Brewing December 14th

Billy Strings
3Rd and Lindsley December 22nd

The Wooks
Southgate House Revival December 29th

Brent Cobb
Ryman Auditorium January 31st

Travis Tritt
Country music Hall Of Fame Feb 22nd and 23rd 2019

Kacey Musgraves
Ryman Auditorium Feb 27th 2019

John Prine
Ryman Auditorium December 31st

Kasey Musgraves
Bridgestone Arena March 1 and 2nd 2019

Reverend Horton Heat
Legendary Shack Shakers
Hooten Hallers
Southgate House Revival April 8th