BUDDAH SAYS KEEP ON FESTING WHILE THE WEATHER'S FINE!

May is JUMPIN, Y'all!'

Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, May 1-3, St. Johns County Fairgrounds, more info is here

Full Moon Festival, Alachua (outside Gainesville) May 8-10. $40 for the weekend. $15 to $20 sliding scale for the day. This fest is normally just one night, but this is a special three-day show at a different venue, just 5 miles from the old one. Rowan Brothers, Gator Bone, Crazy Fingers, Glass Camels,Third Stone, Quartermoon and more. More info is here

Mossy Headz, DeFuniak Springs, May 14-17, Pre-sale tickets are $66 for 4 day pass, $80 at the gate. Oversize vehicle pass is $25. Fabulous lineup: DubConscious, Ralph Roddenberry, Burnin' Smurnin's, Rebecca Jean Smith, Green Hit, Waco Ramblers, Fusebox Funk, and more. More info is here

Florida Folk Festival, May 22-24, Info is here

Acoustic Cafe, May 22-24, outside Birmingham, Alabama, $40 for the weekend. in a gorgeous intimate mountain setting. Edgar Meyer & Mike Marshall, Dread Clampitt and more. VW busses or tents only on the mountain, other RVs have to park a ways down. To car camp, get an up the hill pass while they last. Info is here.

Wannee Festival, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park June 4-7, info is here. Killer lineup, Doobie Brothers, Allmans, Wailers, Little Feat and more.

Love that Larry Keel!

Larry Keel and his band Natural Bridge BROUGHT IT at String Break last weekend. His hands moved so fast they were a blur. We were treated to several performances over the beautiful weekend.

String Break is a wonderful, small festival on some of the prettiest land I've seen. Fantastic, clean facilities, and a little creek for kids to play in.

Nice mix of bluegrass, newgrass, folk,and blues.

This is the same site for the larger Riverhawk festival in the fall. Highly recommended!

Heading Off to String Break!

Looking forward to a great weekend in Brooksville, Fl. near Tampa at String Break. These are the same folks who do the Riverhawk Festival in the fall. It is $85, which includes camping. Music starts at noon Friday. Here's the lineup:

THE WAYBACKS

RANDY MCALLISTER BAND

LARRY KEEL & NATURAL BRIDGE

THE GREENCARDS

HOOTS & HELLMOUTH

THOMAS WYNN & THE BELEIVERS

HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL

RADIO FREE CARMELA & the transmiters

GATORBONE

NOUVEAUX HONKIES

GYPSY WIND

Todd Charles

MUSTANG SALLY & THE HAMJO'S

BUGTUSSLE

HINDU COWBOYS

PICKFORD SUNDRIES

GRANDPA'S COUGH MEDICINE

I'll have a report uopn my return. We head home by way of Orlando, where we'll be seeing Fleetwood Mac!

Farm To Family Fest

What a sweet little fest outside Gainesville! We went to Farm To Family on April 4 and just loved it. Great vibe and kind folks. We loved reggae band Regwa, Third Stone, Umoja Orchestra, Quarter Moon, the singer songwriters Michael O'Meara and Brian Smalley. I LOVED the little band, The Bandits. Such gorgeous harmonies!

This is a great fest to bring kids to. It is very small and has a family feel. It's $10 or $20, sliding scale. There's a little open-air food place, some cool vendors, and real bathrooms as well as port o lets. You can come in to camp at 1 pm Saturday, show starts at 3pm, and leave on Sunday.

DRIVE SLOWLY PLEASE ON THE ROAD.... we don't want to perturb the neighbors and wreck the scene, now, do we?

Check the website, where they post dates. And also, they have an excellent You Tube channel (linked on the site) so you can check out the bands that you'll be seeing.

After going to this fest once, festgrrl is sure going back!

Special $100 Magfest Tix this week!

That's Rashad from California band Tornado Rider playing with Canada's The Duhks!

So, check it out: Magnolia Fest has a one-week special sale on ticket prices that will save you big-time.

Here’s the info from the folks at Magnolia Fest: "Out of necessity, our MagnoliaFest 09 ticket prices will increase and early bird tickets will go on sale later this month. In the meantime, we have a special offer for this week only. We are offering 500 Extra Special Early Bird Tickets for $100 each. These MagnoliaFest Extra Special Early Bird Tickets are on sale now until 500 are sold or thru Sunday, April 12th, whichever comes first. These are available online only - no phone orders are being accepted as our office will be closed this week. If you are in a position to purchase, we'd be especially grateful if you went online and did so sooner rather than later. We will distribute MagnoliaFest tickets ordered in April May & June in late June.

Click here for MagnoliaFest 09 Extra Special Early Bird Tickets:
http://www.magmusic.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MTM&Category_Code=FT
We invite everyone to join us Tuesday evenings from 7-9pm central time (8-10pm eastern) for our Internet radio program "The MagMusic Show" on Wildman Steve Radio: www.wildmansteve.com!

Best Donna Show Ever??

The above pic shows David Gans playing with Donna the Buffalo at Springfest '09! I think Saturday night's show was among the best Donna the Buffalo shows I have ever seen... and I've seen a lot of them. Jeb Puryear's playing was simply sublime, especially the way the band stripped down to just a few well-placed notes wafting on the swampy air in the ampitheatre during Everything Seems to Want to Hurt This Time. Just killer. Tara Nevin's vocals on the Sheryl Crow cover, A Change Will Do You Good, were kick-ass. Just great playing, great energy all around.

Other Springfest highlights this year were the Swedish string band Vasen, with Mike Marshall and Darol Anger -- wow! These string virtuosos created classical, jazzy soundscapes that gave me goosebumps. My only criticism was that they did not change the show at all when they played again, down to the same jokes. Ouch.

The Duhks from Manitoba, who got their big break at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park five years ago, were super fun as always and a definite crowd pleaser. The band's original lead singer, Jessee Havey, has been replaced by Sarah Dugas, and not a beat has been missed. Her vocals are awe-inspiring, and her drummer brother Christian Dugas is doing a great job on The Duhks' signature sound - Afro-Cuban-Brazilian beats played against traditional reels. They played some choice tunes off their excellent disc, Fast Paced World. Everyone I play that disc for goes crazy for it!

Tornado Rider from California was out of control per usual! I don't really have any words to describe it... grass-punk comes to mind. Rushad Eggleston is one hell of a player and the distortion he gets out of his instrument is mind-bending. Crowd surfing in skin-tight tights in a lightning storm while playing a distorted electric cello? Insane!

This is how the band describes their sound: "wild western neolithical cello banditry meets thunder-twinged yodeling elf rock of the 4th dimension."

Folk legend Richie Havens proved he's a true master and leader for peaceful people. I saw people crying during that show... maybe it was just the rain?

All in all another amazing fest, depite the rain storms. A good kickoff to a very very busy spring fest season. Next stop: Keel Family Function this weekend in La Fayette, Ga.