Every year on labor day weekend for the last thirteen years, I have made my way down to Cookeville Tennessee for the annual Muddy Roots Music Festival. I got to town on the Thursday before the festival to get things set up for festival coverage as usual something HAD TO break, and it was my tablet. I had to buy a new one anyways, so I bought a NICE one and now it’s taking me hours to set it up.
Which is fine because to be honest this hotel is a getaway all in itself and I have a lot of battle plans to lay out, because this year there are a LOT of vendors and people involved that I want to include in this massive undertaking that I do every year. After you spend a little time with me on this article ( which is the same format I use for other festivals as well ) I’m hoping that you feel like you were there right along with us. I don’t charge anybody for writing on my blog, It costs you 0 to log on and read my articles, and I enjoy investing my time into my blog.
I personally enjoy going through every angle of a music festival from the bands to the vendors to the staff.There are quite a few times that music events that I cover contain bands on them that aren’t Country, and I hope that my little scenario I have doesn’t turn my readers off, I am just simply spending time writing about music I enjoy, and I’m into Country more than any other genre.
Muddy Roots has always been such an important part of my life in so many ways, and I have witnessed more Legends of so many different genres performing at Muddy through the years.Through the years there have been so many different people involved behind the scenes of Muddy Roots that have been responsible for the proliferation of the event.
I believe that if so many people haven’t contributed in their own way, and if we didn’t expose our youth to the meaning of Muddy, there is no way Muddy Roots would exist today. In the next few weeks, I am going to be delving into an extensive tour of the entire Muddy Roots experience from my perspective as a fan and a historian.
I rolled into town earlier on Thursday and checked into my hotel to unpack and do all the prep work involved to do the computer work for this huge event. In the last several years ( since around 2013 ) I had automatically stayed at the La Quinta Inn off Hwy 40, however this year Mr. Joshua found a new Hilton hotel being built right down the road, and we thought we would try it out.
I stayed in the Hilton Home 2 Suites off Jefferson street, which is a brand new hotel that was built right before I stayed in the room. You know, at first glace the initial perceived value is quite evident, as it is meant to be in any business. But as I continued to stay there further, I found the hotel itself to be completely lacking in service overall.
I am currently in contact with their corporate people, to at least complain about the issue, but I will not be staying there ever again. Trust me, if you want a hotel in the area…stick with La Quinta Inn. I been staying there since 2013, the first 3 I stayed at Comfort Inn, I cannot do that camping stuff.
This year Muddy Roots was a little different than others because I believe it was one of the largest attendances I have ever witnessed. The two tents often made their way out onto the main vendor aisle, and that’s To be expected at an outdoor festival. In order to experience growth and longevity you have to have growing pains that help you evaluate problems for future years. I can tell you for a fact that Milton and Delaney and MANY MORE worked VERY HARD this year to put on this event in such a meticulous fashion. The grounds were kept so clean this year, I wanted to give an extra special THANK YOU to all of those wonderful volunteers.
I arrived at the Friday portion of the festival pretty early to get everything set up and check out the first few acts of the weekend, including King Strang, which is the side project of Michael Sinner from the Bridge City Sinners. That band will be discussed later on in this article. For now let me talk about some ragtime roots music that began our weekend like the song “Don’t Call Me lazy” from his Sad Boy Stomp album in 2018. Although this song was performed a little more up tempo live this album was my personal favorite of his.
Also from the Sad Boy Stomp album was the next song “Cocaine”, which highlights the sort of debauchery his music explores. This is a funny thing to explain how an old recovered junkie and drunk like me enjoy music that glorifies dope? Well, “Why Can’t I” reflect on my own rowdy days of old?
The Second Coming Album generated his next song called “Why’d I Have To Fall In love Again”, and he played as few more as I moved on down vendor row, getting hugs and seeing faces I only see online or here once a year. Many of the vendors are not quite yet in full swing, so we will gather more info as we live this.
Right now, let me talk about some of the bands I briefly saw while I moved around to soak in the layout of the festival, while being in awe of the overall growth of this one. I firmly believe it was the biggest attendance yet. I wanted to touch on a young man named Jessie Williams, whom is a folk type singer from the Arizona area. I only got to hear him perform “Come From Nothing” from his 2013 album Last Day.
Those fine folks over at Flail Records had things going in full force this year with a band called Yes Ma’am. Many of the artists like Lightnin Luke joined many other artists on their set, while also having a solo set of their own. I really didn’t get the chance to document the song names so I will include this video compliments of my buddy Scott Mithun over at Hellbilly And Outlaw Radio”.
Also blasting away on the big tent with the new and improved big stage needed for GWAR, was a terrific band from the northern area of Spain called Moonshine Wagon. I believe I have covered them in the past on festivals for sure! This heavy duty Bluegrass band throw some gravely punk related lyrics into the mix and there you have it!
They played the song “Ghost”from their 2019 album Straight From The Mud, which also boasted several songs on tonight’s set like the next song “You, Yourself and You which is fueled by furious paced fiddle and lover’s remorse. This song reminds me of my own ex wife, as it is one of those look in the mirror type deals.
They continued the same album for the next few songs like “I Can’t Be Free” and another called “Day’s Go By”. Each member of the band is talented in their own right, as these songs are full of rapid fire instrumentals that accompany the rough lyrics.
“First World Problems” was included in their set as well as a rousing rendition of Motorhead’s “Ace Of Spades” and they closed with their most well known song called “My Liver Is Trying To Survive”. As a now sober addict I can surely tell you that my liver is indeed trying to survive all of my past damages, and I will be undergoing a biopsy in 2024 for that precise thing!
I’m going to bounce around here throughout the day if I can be allowed to do that, because instances like this upcoming schedule here, I am going to bring you both Pinata Protest and Daniel Mason at the same time. My Spanish is efficient enough to carry on a basic conversation with someone at work, and I can understand some of the lyrics from Pinata Protest, which is a “Tex-Mex Punk Band” (self described).
From their 2018 Necio Nights album, they played “D.U.I.”. Spanish is hard for me to completely understand, because there are so many meanings to the same word like the song “Al Rato Cruzamos” means after a while we crossed. Al Rato can mean a long period of time in different instances, and I am always studying how to use the different dialects.
“Vato Perron is a staple song in their set every time, from the 2013 album “El Valiente” which I understand to mean “The Brave”. I have to be in the mood for most types of music, and I am always experimenting with different things. This band is an energetic time and I find them extremely enjoyable.
At the same time in the small tent, Mr. Daniel Mason tore up Muddy Roots with his own set, and I enjoyed it very much. While I consider him an underground legend, having contributed many years to the band that backed up Shelton Hank Williams III, and also his son Coleman with IV And The Strange Band. As he did play “Getting Drunk And Falling Down” from the Rebel Within album.
He began his set with a warning “I hope you all ate your mushrooms”, before going into a haunting psychedelic sounding series of tunes that juxtaposed trippy sounds with licks from Slayer “Raining Blood” to Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil”. I’ll tell you outright that it was truly a thrill to hear him play some of Hank III’s songs at Muddy Roots, as I have always wanted to hear him play there.
Armed with an acoustic guitar he played “Cocaine Blues” and another called “Meet The Devil”….here I am! One of his own songs is one called “Fellow Traveler” , a song about partying on the road for as many years as he has with all of the shows he has played, the road is truly his home. The other single he as released was called “Next Track Of Life”, and I shall keep you all posted as I learn more about his solo project.
HEY LOOK It’s the veteran Muddy Roots band called the The Goddamn Gallows Only this time they are without that ol’ rascal named Fishgutzz (more on his solo projects later ), and they have added a new member Mr. Ronaldo Nicolacio from Brazil. And not only do they have a new member, but new music as well. The video for the song “Run Patsy Run” has Muddy Roots in it, so I thought it would truly fit this article.
This is one of my personal favorite bands that the Roots festivals feature, and I have been a huge fan of them for almost a decade now. Time and time again it brings me so much joy to hear all of their songs of dark despair, and how grateful these guys are to see me at their shows. Every lineup of these guys have always been so appreciative of us fans, as we jam out to “Pass Me The Bottle”, from the Ghost Of Th Rails album from 2009.
“Raise The Moon” came from the 7 Devils album, and also included in this set were the songs “Dreadful Sinner”, “Y’all Motherfuckers Need Jesus” and also they played the song “The Maker” from that name album. The last song they played was called “Let’s Start A Cult”.
Pete Bernhard is the lead singer for another band I would LOVE to see at Muddy Roots called The Devil Makes Three. Apparently, during covid he began exploring into releasing moresolo music, and it was really a treat to see him perform some of his past solo albums, like the song “Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold” from the 2009 album Straight Line.
His latest album he put out in 2020 called Harmony Ascension Division were the source of his other songs I got to hear called “Land Of Milk And Honey” and another called “Can’t Find You”. Allow me some more time to elaborate more on how special The Devil Makes Three is to me. They released their live album called A Little Bit Faster And A Little Bit Worse right on the same day as I was granted my divorce from an abusive marriage.
So, this brings us to another internal struggle I have. That is the constant judgement I recieve from others about the fact I sometimes divert off the Country Music path. However every once in awhile I go to festivals like Muddy Roots that features some of the Legends of Metal just as much as it honors the Legends of other genres.
I grew up in the 80’s, so of course I believe that was the best era for Metal and Rap. To me, Thrash Metal was the absolute best form of it. I used to love to skate like many of you (I loved the Steve Caballero deck from Powell Peralta) and many of these Thrash and Punk bands were my heroes just as much as Country and Mowtown.
One of those many bands that HEAVILY influenced me is this band Suicidal Tendencies. And this article will also feature many more of those bands that I love further down in the reading here. I have been an avid fan of S.T. for the majority of my life.
I’m going to be completely honest about one thing…I wasn’t completely thrilled with their overall stage presence, mostly because we weren’t dealing with the original members. The only remaining original one was the singer Mr. Mike Muir. ( all he wanted was a Pepsi). I just was excited for a myriad of those classic songs, I never got to hear live like “Possessed To Skate” from their iconic debut album.
They were busy celebrating the 25th anniversary of it’s release, aside from playing their signature hits like their usual show opener “You Can’t bring Me Down”, they steamrolled through their entire 25 plus years of punk and Thrash crossover songs. It just sounded a little off to me. Mr. Mike still has a lot of energy left after all these years, but the fire inside the soul of the band was dissipated.
Additionally from that first album were the first time I have ever heard song “Two Sided Politics” , and even though I have seen them many times in my entire concert going history, I have never experienced songs like “I Saw Your Mommy” live. I just thought that the timing wasn’t on, and it was not as good live as it was on the album all of those years ago.
The song that openly mocks the TV evangelists called “Send Me Your Money” was one of the more well performed songs of their set, along with “Lovely” and “War Inside My Head” which came from their middle albums of the 90’s, like the EP “How Will I Laugh Tomorrow”
This year was one of the biggest vendor areas I have ever witnessed at any Muddy Roots yet, with the introduction of the Punk Rock Flea Market, which was pretty much self explanatory. It had literally everything you could think of in random vendor booths that were all definitely not for the “Live Laugh Love” folks!
Some of the vendors that were there are my beloved personal friends, like my good friends Miss Ellie Monster and my friend Miss Sarah Brown who runs Stoned beautiful Jewelry, and here are some picture galleries of the vendors. I’m sure if some of the things you see here that haven’t been sold you can find on their websites.
I find it VERY important to point out ALL of the different ways these festivals bring contributions from so many people, who cater to so many different people from ALL walks of life. I plan a few hours a day at any festival to do some touring and shopping, and I usually bring back a few duffel bags of stuff.
There were many vendors that had products you could buy and have your own designs and words printed on them, and a barber, and they did ONE HELL of a job on me! I got tired of loosing so much hair, and they helped me go totally bald now. She sold me some suggestive after shave cream for my head to soothe the razor burns.
Many of these vendors I have the blessing to see at other festivals and a couple of them I get to stay in touch with on social media all year long. This is a behemoth business that I have millions of friends that contribute in their own way to achieve the same outcome …great music!
Ba Ba Buttons was here this weekend, and I stopped in to spend a few bucks on some books they had. I had a really fun time shopping at all the different places before stopping at the Muddy Roots area to buy my festival shirt! Another important group I wanted to bring attention to that is run by some people I truly love and admire is Punks Care 2. They held their events at the Southgate House, which is a venue that I support a lot of shows on my Ongoing list of local shows.
Punks Care 2 is a partnership between Hüsker Foöd Zine (Cincinnati, OH) and The Peterson Compound (Millington, TN), where we organize benefit shows and donate the funds raised to a local charity – generally one that helps combat hunger in the community.
Our first event took place on June 4, 2022 at The Southgate House Revival in Newport, KY, and raised enough funds to provide 3,600 meals for the people of greater Cincinnati. The money we raised went directly to the Freestore Foodbank, so our little fest showcasing our friends had a direct and positive impact on the community.
Our second event, Punks Care 2: Part II, took place on May 27, 2023 and raised enough money to provide nearly 11,000 meals!
Allow me to write this one thing about Muddy Roots. It is one of the many festivals that I attend where the people that attend it come from all walks of life. And all of the different people come together to enjoy music and food, and set aside all differences for this. We don’t give a shit what color your hair is or what kind of clothes you wear, if you come to support the bands you are valued, loved and accepted.
And I have just begun writing about day 2, yeah it was that exciting my friends. All of these Legendary Heavy Metal acts and Punk Metal acts were so amazing to not only see again, but to witness them within this element was amazing. It really is a special place to me on so many levels.
This first artist from day 2 by the name of Joshua Quimby is going to be included not only in this article but an upcoming one as well on the Willie Nelson Outlaw Music Festival, which happened in Franklin Tn shortly after Muddy. Some of these acts I did not get pics of on day 2, will also have a few videos included.
This young man is one of this year’s top finds for me, as I have never heard of him before this year. His newest single is the song called “Long Green Cigarette”, along with a few more that he also played before the Willie Nelson show. To be honest I didn’t even put the two appearances together until after the Willie show when I heard him cover Colter Wall’s “The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie”.
This was the time of the day when I first got settled in completely and there were so many great bands playing at close times like this band from Southern California called The Howlin’ Roosters. They played on the Wood Stage right after Quimby, However at the same time Clyde McGee was playing a solo set in the little tent.
Rock Bottom String Band and another band popular at Muddy Roots is none other than Black Tarpoon. Both of these bands played some spectacular sets this weekend here in Cookeville in what was some of the most splendid weather we have ever had! But for now I wanted to touch upon the Howlin’ Roosters who played the song “Electric Funeral, originally done by Black Sabbath, from the 1970 masterpiece called Paranoid. But live, this song went into some tempos that aren’t featured on recording.
“Under California Stars” (Baby Wont You Dance With Me)? was another part of their set this afternoon, and as I bounced around the three stages I believe I heard them play the song “Puking up Blood” . So I am going to embed their promo video here, and move on to a very special set from my friends of The Rock Bottom String Band.
Yeah this specific time period on the second day is my personal favorite time of any festival. Everybody is well rested and pumped up, and many of the bands that play during the day are more thorough and energetic than the big name night time headliners. Just a never ending flood of amazing bands at one time!
Hey it’s the Rock Bottom String Band ( you can click on the above links for the band website) and they played one hell of a show this weekend. They are an intense mix of genres and also much like the Hackensaw Boys, their drum kit contains random items Tara Miller adds. Now then, what makes her different is she also implements symbols and other drum related hardware, and they don’t. She is a BEAST up there, and I admire her talent for many instruments. …they are ALL great onstage.
Their new video for the “In This Life” from the new album called Always Forward Never straight is now out, and that song was included in their set. Features a haunting banjo roll intro, with thrash metal influenced breakdowns and changes in tempo that keep your attention well.
From their 2016 album “Home Ain’t Where I’m From” they played the song called “Witches” with vocals from Mackenzie Dart, whom also played fiddle for this band. Speaking of the members of the band the other three members are Brian “Papa” Briseno, Alex Schultz and Sasha Sonnier.
The new album brings forth another song they did called “Bang Bang”, people just get this damn album, because it is some of their best work to date. These folks are a fucking well oiled machine. Also the song “Remembering Orpheus” was on the set list. ‘The Reefer Farm Breakdown” is probably one of the coolest story songs out there right now.
“Wonder World” is another one off the new album they played here this weekend, and I gathered up all my stuff to go down to the wood stage to see the next smashing ass band. None other than my good friends from Texas, who came her this weekend to say goodbye to Oatmeal Reed, their longtime bandmate.
Not many bands are better suited for Muddy Roots than are Black Tarpoon. The band consists of Jesse James, vocals- , Resonator- Billy Mo, Washboard- Tasha the Don, Cody Garrett West, Randall Platt, Dustin Johnson and Sean Hanson and from Corpus Christie, TX, have long been top practitioners of punk acoustic/electric Americana roots music.
I have had the opportunity to witness many people’s ashes being spread on the grounds of the venue that holds Muddy Roots, and that is the Junebug Ranch in Cookeville Tennessee. The owners are Herb and Amber Lee Clark, so if you see them out and about in 2024 please make sure you tell them how much we appreciate their use after all these years. I ASSURE YOU FOLKS EVERY PENNY YOU SPEND here goes to a small business owner and not some corporate chain bullshit.
The set of the mighty Black Tarpoon contained the song “Head On A Pike” from the album Probable Caws, ( I’m going to bounce around here ). They brought some ashes from our buddy whom we knew as Oatmeal, and released them while they played a song that I believe was called ‘Goodbye my friend”. this set was one of the most emotional sets of the entire festival for sure.
They played “Moth Song” which is a staple song on their sets almost every time I saw them play. Another great song that they do a lot live is the song called “Ghost On The Highway”, I did have to go check out other happenings, and I have a lot of other things to take in here. I sometimes wish I could sit at one stage all day, and just enjoy whatever bands come on! ha!
Many more awesome bands are coming up on this article my friends, like my friends over at S.S.Webb (Steering Ships With Empty Bottles), which is another one of the long list of Muddy Roots alumni bands. My friend Ross Clark played bass with them this time while Henry Berger, Chris Bissell and David Schuster plowed through many of their classic songs like “Gambling” off of the 2014 Skulls Will Sink album.
They don’t really play as much on the road as the other bands in the field, but you know what? I deem much of their music timeless and iconic in the crazy juxtaposed world of Roots Music. One of the songs I heard first was “Sharpen Up The Meat Cleaver”, from the 2015 album Revenge When It Matters Most.
One of the albums they have called North from 2011 is one of my top favorite albums of this type of music, and one of my top 100 favorite albums of ALL TIME. I seriously still spin these albums on a constant rotation. That album boasted songs included in their set called “Dead Man’s Bar” and another called “Drag Me Straight To Hell” which is one of my favorite songs they do.
From the North album, they played the song called “Make It Right” and directly after it in this set and on the album was the song “In the Ground” . Due to the larger amount of people that attended many of the tent crowds were still pouring out into the aisles a little more than past festivals.
They had this crowd going absolutely wild and it wasn’t even time for supper yet! So after these few more pictures of the S.S. Webb show I am going to include a few more videos on bands I missed the majority of, but wanted to include them as well.
Some of the bands that I wanted to see but just couldn’t get to so I included some of their videos on here, even though I really wanted to see the The Dead Milkmen, because honestly I have never seen them live before. Now to be honest I am not really familiar with this band called Belushi Speedball. And I also included this band called The .
I also took more time out to do some more shopping at the Punk Rock Flea Market and some of the others in the main merch area, and then I would work my way down to my truck parked on the end, so I could drop all of that merch off each trip. Then I would refill my cooler and hug necks on my way back up to the music areas.
I am going to include some pictures down below of some of the staff, who worked diligently to keep the grounds clean and kept the trash managed. I actually did miss the bathroom attendants but to be honest, I think this year they truly did a bang up job of keeping things up.
All through the weekend this year we had some of the most gorgeous weather that my Muddy family have ever had out there in Cookeville this year. And again, this year was probably the biggest attendance that I have ever witnessed here.
The Mudfits are a tossed together band that is exclusive to Muddy Roots, whom cover common Misfits songs like “Halloween”, and they had about 3,000 different lead singers. Sadly I didn’t get any pictures of Delany’s daughter Scarlet, but she sang “Nervous Breakdown” which was a Black Flag song.
This set was very special to the youth of this community here, and I was truly elated that some of the youth acknowledges bands like the Misfits and Black Flag. Other lead singers included Gary Lindsey, Jimbo from No Loves, Jimmy Faust and Spike from Oitakus.
Look people, if you love your Thrash Metal and Punk Metal, and you love all of the crossover types of Metal, and you do not know this logo….I feel sorry for you. This portion of my article is dedicated to one of my favorite crossover bands, the almighty Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I.) from Houston Texas. As of right now, they are on their 40th anniversary tour with two of their original members Spike Cassidy on guitar and Kurt Brecht on vocals. They are joined by Greg Orr on bass and Rob Rampy on drums.
“Violent Pacification” is from their origins around 1984 when they had released an EP of the same name, and this song was later covered by Slayer on the Undisputed Attitude album. While the song “Acid Rain” was from a much later period of the band’s existence, they play the songs with their current lineup quite effectively.
In 1998 this band released their album that catapulted them into my favorite band category, and that album is indeed Four Of A Kind. This album brought forth four songs that they played back to back from this selection. They steamrolled through the songs called “Slumlord”, “Manifest Destiny”, “Dead In A Ditch” and another called “Suit And Tie Guy”.
“Argument Then War” is a song that they played from the 1985 album called Dealing With It! Along with the song “Who Am I” from the Dirty Rotten LP from all the way in the beginning. The beginning is exactly where I always feel like I am when these bands play these songs of my youth, but their closing of the set with the song “Thrashard” and “Syringes In The Sandbox”.
Absolutely right now we will move onto the next amazing band that I have featured a few times on this website while performing at Muddy Roots, and that is none other than The Bridge City Sinners from Portland Oregon. From their website descriptions this band began with a revolving cast of members until the current lineup of Libby Lux on vocals , Scott Michaud on bass, Lightnin Luke on fiddle ( who played for a long list of bands ), Michael Sinner on guitar and Clyde McGee.
As I go through their current musical catalogue to make sure I get some of the song set correctly documented, I see so many influences in their style. Which, their style really doesn’t exist because they don’ t have one…..they have a plethora of them! All of their albums were available on vinyl, including the 2021 masterpiece called Unholy Hymns, which they pulled the song “Rock Bottom”.
If you like string bands with no drums however they possess impeccable timing and precise musicianship, than this band is right up your alley. “Devil Like You” if you like story songs then you need to listen to this twisted murder song. This cat marries a rich gal and murders her for the money, goes completely bat shit nuts and then is haunted by her ghost while siding into an alcoholic stupor.
Their first song was one of my favorites called “Song Of The Siren” while their song called “Virgin Sacrifice” is from the album Here’s To The Devil. Speaking of the devil, I am going to include some video footage from my from my friend Amigo The Devil and one from The Pentagram String Band. Who both played some mighty fine sets this weekend.
Amigo The Devil played the song “Murder At The Bingo Hall” as one of the first songs from his album in 2021 called Born Against, and his second song was an earlier offering called “If I’m Crazy” from the Everything Is Fine album. This show was the first time I have seen him with a full band ever before.
It was exciting to see all of these bands for the first time or for the first time in forever, and it was equally exciting to just bounce around from one to the next, being thrilled each time. But I will tell you this one fact here…the song called ‘Cocaine And Abel” is quite possibly one of his most well written and deep songs he has ever recorded.
His classic song he plays is called “hell And You”, which he doesn’t even need to sing, WE DID most of it, and it was very much fun to be a part of that live. I have one more band to talk about on here, for this day, and that is The Pentagram String Band.
They started out with their song called “Limp Dick” from their album called Trash Compactor in 2020. I will be honest as the years go on it is becoming incredibly harder to stay awake this long for the big dogs that play at midnight! And I do not even drink anymore!
Another great song they did tonight in a slightly different timing format is the song ‘Die” from one of my favorite albums Johnny Lawthron and his band has out called “Ten Godawful Ballads From The Hopeless, strange And Ill-Fated”. So, before I move onto day 3 I wanted to point out an entire set that I missed and had no idea they were even there! I DID get the chance to stop and talk with Sean K. Preston, as he was there with former members of the Drunken Cuddle.
OF COURSE I am going to include the fact that he did play “Barnburner” and a few others that I got to watch on video from other people. I was really bummed to find out that they were added to the list and I missed them. But I truly think I included the bands I did see to the utmost best of my ability here.
You know I am going to be honest here my friends there are so so many people that contribute to this event like Kevin Lassiter whom always works effortlessly at the gate to help us have a fun time. Mark Simmons who puts in LONG hours running the Wood Stage, which is where I began day 3 with VOLK. I saw them with Hillbilly Casino and the Delta Bombers a few years back, and they just keep getting better!
This duo that consists of Eleot Reich and Christopher Lowe are two of the most hard working duos out there today. They’re like an atom bomb was detonated on the Wood Stage this morning, because they unleashed a holy storm upon us with rousing covers of “Snake Farm” and others.
I wanted to go see more of Lightnin Luke and others before one of the Legends of underground music by the name of Bob Wayne, whom is another hardworking act that is a sure fire to notch show. I recently wrote an article about his podcast that he has that features many of the artists that have played there in the past, and I discovered many of those bands through Bob Wayne.
He has an upcoming album coming out containing all trucker songs, and he played a few of those songs for us today. His latest song from that upcoming album is called “Truckin For Jesus” but at the same time he did indeed include some of his beloved wholesome classic hits like “till The Wheels Fall Off” and “Dope Train”.
I mean, is it even a Bob Wayne show without songs like “Everything’s Legal In Alabama”? I have spent many years going around seeing Bob Wayne for over a decade now, and I have enjoyed him every time. I have always appreciated what he has contributed to the independent music world and I will always support him as he plays songs like “Space Truckers”.
More of the songs that he played during the rest of the set were songs like Psycho Trucker” and another one called “She Cut The Brakelines On my Truck”. And after all these years we all still know “his Cowboy Hat Ain’t Clean”. it’s amazing to me the journey he has taken us all on as even I continue to endure my own journey through sobriety like he has had. He is a true inspiration to people like me.
I wanted to see the entire set by James Leg, but I went back to the hotel to get the rest of my stuff, because I left that night right after Black Eyed Vermillion, but I got back in time to see the biggest act that I wanted to see this weekend, and that was GWAR.
I’ll be honest here, there is so much going on at one time during a GWAR show, I’m not completely sure where to begin on this one. Now, mind you they weren’t given their usual time frame to perform all of the skits that their show encapsulates, but they still indeed had a three ring circus going on up there.
In the beginning Sawborg Destructo comes out and talks shit about Gwar and his nefarious plans of eradicating them from Earth, see, the Destrucos are a long line of Gwar villains orginally started creativly by Hunter Jackson who played Techno Destructo. I have been an avid fan of Gwar since I was around 15.
Back then it was headed up by Oderous Urungus on the lead vocals but he passed away a few years back and is now replaced by the Berzerker named Blothar. The man who plays Blothar now used to play Beefcake The Mighty. That’s the beauty and secret behind the longetivity of Gwar, there have been so many people involved with the history and proliferation of the band.
I got to see Mike Dierks who plays Balsac The Jaws Of Death for my entire life along with Brad who plays Gizmak Tha Gusha on drums both almost throughout their entire tenure of the band. I lost count on how many times I have seen this band play live, and they kill the president every time. Biden did come out to be beheaded ( those people play what is called a decap ) .
They play the song called ‘Genocide” as the first song and for the last song many times they cover the AC/DC song called “If You Want Blood” but the songs that are between the two are what is the most fun about this band. They have so many albums to choose from, but here is the key to it all. All of the albums have so many different directions to them, as so many different people were involved with the project.
Perhaps the most well known song to date is the song “Sick of You” from their album called “Scumdogs Of The Universe” which was their second album, and it was on the major label. That album propelled this band out to the national market for as much as they would be. See, to be honest the greatest thing about this band is the fact that they have achieved their level of success without the national media, and that is why I believe this band belongs at Muddy Roots.
The show gets pretty wild during songs like “Let us slay” and the song called “F.T.P. Fuck This Place” where they bring out all assortments of monsters and costumes that coincide with the chaos that is coming from the speakers. Gwar began as a Punk Metal band however through the years they have embraced their Metal influences and developed quite a large following on the Heavy Metal fronts as well.
The big Putin (Rootin Tootin Vladimir Putin) comes out and fights with Bonesnapper and different slaves before they chop him all up and he sprays the audience with streams of blood. They have numerous different skits during the show that all usually end up in the same grizzly result…lots and lots of blood and gore!
Then, Blothar goes into berserker mode and becomes a huge 12 foot monster that gets chopped up by the other members of the band. Here recently, I read an article that the person who plays Pustulous Maximus on lead guitar left the band on good terms. See now the amazing thing about Gwar is that another person can jump into the costume or create a whole new character.
It was a lot of fun for me to get to see all of the work behind the scenes all of the work that goes into throwing a Gwar set. And I got to see up close what many of the props and weapons are made from, and how intensely creative the Slave Pit truly is. Because the Slave Pit is whom are ultimately responsible for a lot of the things they build and do. SO MANY PEOPLE behind the scenes make this legacy possible to continue to slaughter the Earth.
I mean come on now…if you are 45- 50 and you don’t remember Skullheadface then you suck. Becasue these guys really and truly made my teenage years a blast with their movies and videos. Back when tapes were the social media….tape trading was the SHIT back then.
The mosh pits and the crowds were absolutely WILD for Gwar tonight and the non stop action continued until the very last moment, as they played a bunch of new songs from their current new album out now. Songs like “Motherfucking Liar” and “Ratcatcher” are from that album.
I was insanely tired now, and as I tried to get all of my stuff organized to get home, I got everything together to see Black Eyed Vermillion before leaving. Here are a few more vendor pictures that I took today as I made my way around shopping for a few more things.
I did indeed get to see a few songs from Black Eyed Vermillion, like the song called “If Heaven Is Dry, I Don’t Wanna Go” from their iconic 2014 album called Never Shed A Bloody Tear. They also played one of my favorite songs they have called ‘Bitter Is The Day” from the Hymns For Heretics album.
This Muddy Roots was a very special year for me because of so many of these bands have been such an impact on my life. So overall, this year was one of my top 3 favorite Muddy Roots EVER!
