Well folks here we are finally on the last day of this event, I MUST SAY we have had some truly enjoyable performances as of now. To be honest the Legendary Shack Shakers pretty much won the BEST SET award so far..will they rule the roost here…we shall see.

One of the great things about Muddy Roots is the diverse patronage of groups and different walks of life that attend. We have Sunday morning Church services here is the video. We have sobriety meetings for people like me that don’t really drink much there. I have seen Wiccan ceremonies, weddings, baptisms and all sorts of things.

You have groups like the New Bloodtubbs that assemble here, nice bunch of guys to me. Mr. Jason calls them all “Tribes” of people that assemble, and I could care less what they do it’s always peaceful and respectful and that’s all that matters. EVERY public gathering has a few problems and this wasn’t perfect but all in all it is a truly fine display of all different types of people.

When I’m into the music shows I leave my politics and my religion at my home and I observe RULE #1..Don’t Be A Dick. I WATCH crowds for pickpockets, card theft, merch theft and many other things. I’ll text Mr. Jason if I see things I deem dangerous or hazardous to his brand or public safety, and I’ll damn sure look out for the bands.

Mr. Monzie Leo Brummett: Guitar / Slide guitar / Vocals and Mr. Derek Long: Banjo / Guitar / Vocals make up this Kansas based folk Americana duo called Monzie Leo And The Big Sky and they were kind enough to send in a set list, even though I did see them too. “Let her go” opened their set. You know he and I have crossed paths quite a few times and I haven’t really been able to sit and listen to his music for long, so this was quite enjoyable.

“Locust street murder” was next followed by “5th of July” and another called “Dark Angel”. They displayed wonderful harmonies and well written songs bearing relate able lyrics and guitar musicianship. “Dirty ol River” was next followed by “I gave you Time” and one song I thought had a really cool name was called “The heart is a pomegranate
Trestle”.

Mr. Tim Vee came to us from New York to bring his music there. I have seen him on social media and we have shared comments but I didn’t get to see his music until now. I think that’s the true beauty of music festivals is that many people and bands are brought together.

“Runaway” was first, from the very beginning I could easily tell he was having FUN up there. This gentleman is ALL about business, and he works very hard on the road. I watch him…I watch many others too, I see all the ones working 300 plus shows yearly.

“Poison (rancid cover)” and another son called “Live your life” were two next songs I got to hear during his set. You know today was a true challenge for me with all 3 stages pumping all day again. I had three chairs set up at every stage bouncing back and forth. He closed his set with “I’m Breaking down”.

Video property of Miss Lisa Wells

John The Revelator This band I just didn’t get to see enough of but here is a nice piece from their website:

John the Revelator is the solo project of Jake Garrett. Jake is more known for his blues rock trio MasonJar Menagerie and his newly founded record label, DeepRoots Family Records and Productions. Along with MasonJar, Jake plays with 6 other bands regularly. Many of which, he writes the music for. Jake has been writing songs for over a decade, compiling 100’s of songs. John the Revelator acts an outlet for these numerous songs that he isn’t using with other projects.

The name John the Revelator derives from an old Blind Willie Johnson song. This is also where Jake draws a lot of inspiration from. Jake does a brilliant job at mixing all of his inspirations and sounding like something completely unique. Using a variety of instruments and his rare vocal styling, John the Revelator dares to do what many artists won’t attempt. John the Revelator is raw and electric.

Jake displays many of his musical talents in John the Revelator. Simultaneously playing guitar along with a bass drum, snare, and high hat. On top of all that, he manages to bust out some mind-melting lyrics. This act is unique, exposing, and riveting. I got to watch this man perform his songs called “whiskey Kisses” and he played another called “Feel Like Dying”.

Mr. Soda Gardocki was an artist I have covered for many years. Moonrunners also brought me to this artist as well as others. He played the first two Muddy roots festivals and a few more as well, I do remember him. He comes to us from the Chicago area and is always a sure bet for a fun time.

He played “Liza Jane” as Mr. Puppy hammered on the drums like he did for Husky Burnette and for Soda in the past, and then Mr. Soda played a song for Izzy Cox, who also played the first Muddy Roots and lost her life to cancer. I also remember him playing “Sleight Of Hand” and “Gutter Queen”, and it’s always nice to have the opportunity to catch up with him and his music.

The Tejon Street Corner Thieves (Yes I realize the video is spelled wrong) come to us from the Denver Colorado area. Much like Mr. Moose Allen and Mr. Monzie Leo I have talked to these boys on social media a lot, and never had the opportunity to see their music live.

Connor ‘Crawdad’ O’Neal – Banjo, Lead and Backing Vocals, Shawn ‘Spicy Fingers’ D’Amario – Washboard, Guitar Lead and Backing Vocals and the rest of the band bring their string band roots music to stage 2 this morning, with great songs like “Fat Girl” and “Take Me Home Tonight”.

These boys from Denver are part of the Triple Nickel crowd and are part of the many tribes of Muddy Roots community, great group of guys and I look forward to having a lifelong friendship with them all. I’ll try very hard to bring them to my area sometime, it’s something that is in the works in my mind.

You can go on their website and purchase their albums that have songs like ‘Whiskey”…I mean WHO DOESN’T like Whiskey? I also got to hear them play a song called ‘Morning Child”. Now that brought me back to stage 1 where I got to re catch up with my buddy Mr.Sweet GA Brown who has some of the best and inventive songwriting you’ll ever hear.

Along with Mr. Dave Dowda he brought some damn fine songs filled with sharp wit and profanity filled quips from his Wordsmith album and his newest release Catfish Sullivan. He too played a song called “Whiskey” but perhaps one of my favorite songs I ever found at Muddy Roots years ago was a song called “I Broke Wahoo’s Leg”.

In fact TODAY on stage 1 it featured three of my favorite songs I have ever found at Muddy Roots, and that’s one of them. He also played a song called “Words” and followed that up with several more. I got to see him play a cover of Roger Miller’s “Dang Me”.

Mr. Greg Gemberling: Vocals, Guitar, Songwriting, Mr. Chris Robles: Bass, Taxidermy, Miss Hana Marie: Banjo, Vocals, Mr. Ryan Davidson: Dobro, Goddamns and Miss Michelle Elaine: Fiddle, Vocals make up the band called Woodland Remedy that brought some DAMN FINE Bluegrass into the mix.

As if Miss Liz Sloan and Miss Lucy Cochran were not enough talented fiddle playing ladies this weekend this band brought out another, that I couldn’t stop watching play. They had a pretty darn good stage presence and the crowd responded well to their music, also they seemed to mix with one another well.

I have known Mr. Chris for many years now from previous festivals, he like me goes every year, and he was telling me about this project as well as gave me a CD of their work. The recording was alright and the songs were good but it didn’t GRAB ME until I saw them live.

They had songs like “Should Known Better” and included “Danger Love” in their set. If you visit their Facebook page I’m sure you can buy an album on there. “Defying Gravity” was next followed by “Moonshine” and the best song of their set in my opinion was called “King Of Sunny Days”.

I was pretty much getting geared up to move onto stage 1 for one of the top shows of the day and as I was preparing to move on over I heard them close their set with “Evil Monkey”  and another called “Trippin Balls” . Their final song was called “Ram Down”.

Now this next band is somebody I wanted to heavily focus on Mr. Pat Reedy, Mr. Brad Tucker, Mr. Leo Grassl, Mr. Ryan Elwell, Mr. Lyle Werner, Mr. Tony Frickey, Mr. John James, Mr. Corey McGilvary, Mr. Gabe Acita, Mr. Nokosee Fields, Mr. Derrick Spivey, Mr. Riley Downing, Mr. Logan Ledger and more DO OR HAVE MADE UP Pat Reedy And The Longtime Goners who are now recording on Muddy Roots Records.

For an independent album with no cover art his first album still attracted my attention immediately. As did his unique sound of Honky Tonk Country and hardcore sounds. He works a lot out of Kansas City now and is enjoying much success in the underground scene, however I think he needs to now embark on a push to go national and I intend to help do that.

This band blew me away this weekend with their craftsmanship but simple lyrics on songs like “True Blue” which is just simple two step Country Music. “Blood Shot Heart” was next followed by “Big Wheels” . One of his best songs in my opinion was called “Burgundy In The Rain”, and many of the songs displayed some truly fine steel guitar work.

The wood stage boasted a plethora of music tonight for me as the next four acts I wanted to heavily focus on…and did. However right now I was enjoying “900 Miles” and “Highway Bound”. Highway Bound has some really good beats and good steel guitar solos, and it is Country Music like Country Music SHOULD be played.

He played a good cover of Hank Williams “Ramblin Man” and Dave Dudley’s “Six Days On The Road” before going into his own songs again like “Coal Train” and ‘Slow down”. All together this set was one of the best of the weekend by far…and stage 1 was only going to get better!

So there were a few bands and artists I only caught pieces of C.W.Ayon was one of them and I got to hear some of his set tonight while walking. Gravelroad was another one, here’s a video courtesy Of Mr. Dave Flewelling . I want to THANK so many that helped me do this by contributing videos for me to use.

Lost Dog Street Band was another one I missed today, I can touch on them all but I just cannot actually cover 110 bands. This was truly one of the biggest jobs I have ever been faced with by all means. However Mr. Tim Easton was the only other act I missed.

Mr. Michael Oberst- banjo, vocal, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, Mr. Sean Geil- guitar, vocal, dobro, banjo, mandolin Mr. Aaron Geil- upright bass, vocals and my good friend Mr. Joe Macheret- fiddle, mandolin, guitar, vocals make up the Cincinnati based band The Tillers.

This band has recorded what I consider one of the most iconic live albums in Roots music Live at the Southgate House. and as I mentioned earlier about those HUGE songs, one of them is called “Willy Dear” and it’s off their album Hand On The plow. You Must listen to it REAL CLOSE to get the full effect.

‘Ruben’s Train” was first followed by “Shanty Boat” and then they played some new songs for us, at this time I haven’t much info about their new album. They played ‘Georgia Street Beat” and the ‘General Store Song”…I don’t think that’s the name but it’s cool. I have always enjoyed the way they hover around the mic like they do, it gives a good vibe of comradery within the band.

They closed their set with “Road Never Ending” “500 Miles” and one of my favorites called “old West Side”. As i made way over to stage 3 for one of my personal favorite bands I recently wrote about called Hillbilly Casino. I recently wrote an article about their new album you can read that HERE.

“Knocking At Your Door” was the first song from Mr. Nic Roulette, Mr. Matt Amnn, Mr. Ronnie Crutcher and Mr. Geoff Firebaugh who absolutely knocked the shit out of the Muddy roots crowd tonight. They are one of the only bands to have played all of the Muddy Roots festivals since 2010.

Then they played “No Toll Taken” and my personal favorite “The Hole”. My favorite song they play is Big Dan however that song was not included today songs like “She’s Got Tricks” were. I covered them during the Muddy Roots Nashville Boogie where they played many of their new songs for us.

The new songs abounded during their set today including “Give It All Up” and “Low Down”. Now there were a few songs on the new album that were on the LIVE album like “Trainwreck”. They played “Jibber Jabber” and as I was getting ready to move on I heard them play “Violets In May” and I had to get out of there before they induced the crowd into mayhem for “The Tennessee Stomp” their anthem.

Underground Legend Mr. Bob Wayne And The Outlaw Carnies played one hell of a show here on stage 1 as he played songs from his new album “Bad Hombre”, with a newly sober lease on life. He began with “Hell Yeah” and went right into his classic song “Sam Tucker”.

“Till The Wheels Fall Off” was next followed by “Still Truckin” as he went through his entire past list of songs for us today with songs like “Dope Train”. after all isn’t “Everything’s Legal In Alabama” a great song folks? It’s been several months since I had the opportunity to catch up with Mr. Bob Wayne and it’s always good to see him.

We put a metal chair off to the side of the stage for Mr. Bandana as he sang his new song “Mr. Bandana” he closed with several others that I listened to as i moved on to other stages to see the very first band Mr. Jason ever booked for Muddy Roots…The Calamity Cubes!

 

Mr. Joey Henry, Mr. Kody Oh and Mr. Brook Blanche make up this three piece Kansas band I have featured many times before, and I got to hear them play “Battle Of Hair Ribbon” and another song “Lillie Bell”.  Many of the acts tonight garnered HUGE crowds and it was impossible to get full frontal band pictures of them all.

It truly was fun to see this band around again, and I hope there are plans to continue it onward as they all three have good solo projects going as well. one of the side stages had a good Rockabilly band that won an Ameripolitan award last year and that was Lara Hope And The Ark-Tones. For some odd reason EVERY TIME I am around her band something comes up and I miss her set.

Mr.James “Slim Hand” is truly a Country Music Legend in his own right, he’s been doing this for a long long time now and I regard his album Mighty Lonesome Man a classic album in my collection. He brought Country music royalty to Muddy Roots once again with songs like “Don’t Tell Me That” as well as covers like “I Still Miss Someone”.

‘I can’t Help It” was next followed by his “Parakeet” song we all enjoyed, folks were yelling out all kinds of his songs and it was flattering him we knew them, what he didn’t realize was how much we love him. “Mighty Lonesome Man” was next followed by “When you Stopped Loving Me, So Did I”.

Unlike many other Country Music icons time has not faltered his voice at all, nor has it slowed him down on stage. He was absolutely stunning tonight, and in songs lie ‘In The Corner Lies A Jukebox” you could easily tell his originals still shine vibrantly. “Get Rhythm” was part of his set as well as Hank Snow’s “I Been Everywhere”.

‘Shadows For The Magic” was next followed by the song “Little Bitty Sip”. Mr. James was one of the few acts that I made sure to stay for the entire set before moving on to other stages tonight, and as he played ‘Baby Baby Baby” he played a few more before closing with “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”.

I had to quickly recharge my batteries and eat me a bite, before seeing more music tonight. This truly was a busy and blessed trip, what a wonderful weekend. I want to THANK Mr. Jason and the Junebug Ranch for everything. Another band I had to forgo seeing was Mr. LiL Poochie And Mr.Hezekiah Early. to say I was a little heartbroken to have to miss this was true.

One cool thing about Muddy Roots is that Legends always abound within it’s ranks, and they usually get to mingle and mix with the audience. That’s not something that happens at every festival or music function folks, trust me. And to say that these men are not true Legends is wrong, they are true hardcore Legends in their ilk.

The mighty Black Eyed Vermillionwas next tonight with an absolutely amazing show like always. This band is usually insane and full of energy and as they opened with “20/20”, I got over there quickly.

“Jesus In The Waiting Room” was next followed by “Box Of Pine”. This set was so immensely crowded I couldn’t get close to the stage at all, and was forced to stand back. So I quickly jotted down songs like “Pass The Bottle” and “Hard Time Believing”.

We haven’t heard of any new music from them for a little while and I have been keeping my ear to the ground for new announcements, this set included the song “Bones To Pick” as well as “Worst Of Times”. I was glad I had a camper this year and I didn’t have to drive at all, I was quite tired.

They closed their set with “Fare Thee Long” and “Hate And Whiskey” Quite a damn fine set they played here tonight and even though we don’t hear from them as much as some of the other bands, they still put on a good show. I missed most of the band Poguetry In Motion and some of Mr. Scott H Biram in order to see more of Mr. William Elliott Whitmore tonight.

Mr. William Eliott Whitmore played an amazing set here tonight, I mean he had the audiance completely mezmerized. One of the songs he played was called “Come Hell Or High Water”. Another one he played was “Lee County Brew”, and he also played ” Good Day To Die”.

Mr. Scott H Biram was an absolute madohuse here at Muddy Roots, and in fact he pretty much is insane wherever he plays…period. His new album has garnered HUGE attention by the independent media, and Roots Music festivals everywhere.

“Going Home” was one of his first songs tonight, I was standing behind the stage pretty much the entire show, and I thank the stage manager for allowing me to do that. HEY I work third shift…so the song “Graveyard Shift” was mine. His shows are always choked full of heavy instrumentals and guitar wizardry with songs like ‘Hard Time”.

Possessed By Paul James we haven’t heard any new music from in some time, and we don’t care. Because his 2013 album There Will Be Nights When I’m Lonely was an absolute masterpiece. His stage presence alone is well worth traveling any distance  to see.

His set included the song “Hurricane” and a really good foot stomping version of “Heavy”, as he propped himself up on top of a picnic table and just absolutely jammed up there. And as he played “There Will Be Nights when I’m Lonely” we jammed into the night and enjoyed him.

Every time I ever ran across him and his music I have always had a truly fun and blessed time, and he does a LOT for his community and for youth in his area as a school teacher. And as he played the “38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress” he completely mesmerized us once again tonight.

The weather the last two days was perfect and gorgeous and the music was amazing this weekend, a lot of us were glad to finally go back to our own beds and dry socks…but many of us didn’t this to end. But alas the entire festival did end and left us with many great memories and newly discovered bands. So once again this was a beautiful experience and I’m glad to have been a part of it.

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