Suwannee Hulaween Band Spotlight: The Heard

The Heard. Photo by Soundfuse.

festgrrl is going to assume y'all are familiar with the big acts playing  Suwannee Hulaween this Thursday-Sunday at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fl. -- Colorado jam-funk-jazz-bluegrass-electronica masters The String Cheese Incident,  the popular live electronica band  Sound Tribe Sector 9,  Colorado hillbilly stompgrass band Leftover Salmon, , live electronica band  Emancipator and Disco Biscuits side project Conspirator. If not, see me after class. (Oh wait -- I forgot flatpicking guitar master Larry Keel and his wife, Jenny Keel, absolute treasures of the bluegrass-roots community. They play twice on Thursday.)

Here's a band playing Saturday that you may not have (no pun intended) heard of: The Heard, a  6-piece band out of Chicago. if you like down and dirty horn-driven funk, you're going to love The Heard. This band  is getting some major buzz, and with good reason. They are killin' it!

The Heard plays Suwannee Hulaween at 3 pm. Saturday in the ampitheater. Here's a taste of what you're gonna see::

Today's Suwannee Hulaween Band Spotlight: Van Ghost

Today's Suwannee Hulaween band spotlight is on Van Ghost, a six-piece  alt/rock/Americana band out of Chicago. Veterans of the Bear Creek Music and Art Festival and Jam Cruise will be familiar with Van Ghost's powerhouse singer/trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick, who has been an artist-at-large over the years, sitting in with various bands.

This alt rock indie band was founded by Chicago concert promoter/band manager Michael Berg. One minute they are sweet soft harmonies and the next they are raging rock guitars. One thing's for sure: The critics have some serious love for Van Ghost.

Glide magazine praised the band's "exquisite pedal steel guitars and guy girl harmonies that reflect a Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown/early Wilco Americana vibe."

Our friends at Jambase write:

"With an exquisite 6-piece band flavored with pedal steel and psychedelic guitars, an earth shattering rhythm section, and haunting guy/girl harmonies, the band played it's debut show before a packed audience at Chicago's revered Metro in January 2008. It was an auspicious beginning for one of Chicago's most promising new acts.

Following up their debut record, "Melodies For Lovers", on Split Red Records, the band headed down to Nashville, TN to begin the tracking of their next release. With 2009 Grammy award winning Producer/Engineer/Mixer, Justin Niebank at the helm the bands sound continues to develop and expand. Berg has established that he is as comfortable operating under the spotlight as he is behind the curtain. With Van Ghost he sets out to inspire music fans the same as other artists have inspired him - one song at a time."

Van Ghost plays the ampitheater stage on Thursday night at 12:15 a.m. And here's a video of them performing their song "Fortune Teller" at the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest: 

Suwannee Hulaweeen Band Spotlight: The Main Squeeze

The Main Squeeze. Photo By Soundfuse magazine.

festgrrl is going to assume that festival goers who will be at Suwannee Hulaween next week (Oct. 31-Nov. 2 at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla, ---(get your costumes ready, y'all) are familiar with national touring act The String Cheese Incident, our talented hosts for Suwannee Hulaween and the band which will preside each night. if not, check out this fantastic summer's show at Red Rocks Ampitheater to see their incredible diversity and musical chops

Aside from the String Cheese shows each night, Hulaween also has a nice mix of electronica, funk and bluegrass bands which will play during the weekend. Let's take a look at a few of them as we count down the days to our Halloween dance-a-thon in paradise.

Today, the spotlight is on The Main Squeeze , a hellaciously funky outfit born in Bloomington, Indiana in 2009, who now reside in Chicago.

This young funk band is known for their many covers-- from Stevie Wonder to Jimi Hendrix to Sly and the Family Stone and the Grateful Dead. Their originals are in-the-pocket goodness.

The Main Squeeze plays in the amphitheater at 9:45 p.m. Saturday, right after String Cheese's set.

Here's their cover of the Grateful Dead's Eyes of the World:

Alabama Shakes Touring Florida -- Get Your Tix While You Can

Breakout roots rockers The Alabama Shakes will tour the South in December -- the Alabama shows are sold out, but tickets for four Florida shows are still available. (See dates below)

This powerhouse 5-piece band emerged out of Athens, Alabama in 2009 and had a meteoric rise after they were showcased at a music industry conference and caught the eye of a New York Times writer, among others. They have since toured sold-out shows around the world, hooked up with Jack White  for recordings, gone on Conan, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Saturday Night Live and -- coolest of all -- shared the stage with Stevie Wonder at a festival in England.

The Shakes got three Grammy nominations in 2013, including Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance ("Hold On" --which is absolutely a-MAZING, see video below), and Best Recording Package for their debut album, Boys & Girls.

Much of the acclaim swirls around lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard, who  is just the Real Deal -- raw talent, passion, and a serious set of chops. She sounds like the love child of Otis Redding and Janis Joplin.

Here are the dates:

Dec.3 - Orlando's Hard Rock Live
Dec.4 - Miami's The Fillmore
Dec. 6- St. Petersburg's Jannus Live
Dec. 7- St. Augustine Ampitheater

And here's Hold On:

Magnolia Fest Delivers Fine Tunes

Rushad Eggleston of California punkgrass band Tornado Rider

What a fine time we had at last weekend's Magnolia Fest! The fest was hassle-free, eclectic and absolutely magical at Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla. Credit goes to the organizers for keeping the stages all running on time and for booking stellar talent that had something for everybody -- from the hard-rock Drive by Truckers to gospel great Mavis Staples and a lot of musical ground in between.

This was a Magnolia fest filled with musical legends: The great Willie Nelson delivered a standout performance Saturday night, showing that age has not slowed down either his strong voice nor his fantastic facility on the guitar.  Willie is a real pro, and it shows. Not a dry eye in the house for You Were Always on My Mind and rousing cheers from the audience for the quirky Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. 

R &B stalwart Mavis Staples (Staples Family Singers) delivered an electrifying performance under the night sky with mind-blowing renditions of  Wade in the Water and The Band's The Weight.

 John Prine is a musician's musician, and he showcased his long songwriting career with fine voice and (naturally)  a stellar band. You could see more than a few guitar players in the audience following Prine word for word and chord for chord.

Unfortunately, I'm sad to report that  the show by Kris Kristofferson suffered from abysmal sound. whether that was Kristofferson's trouble or the sound booth's trouble I don't know.  Folks in the very front of the ampitheater stage reported that they could hear him, gravelly voice and all, run through his songwriting hits. But those of us further back in audience couldn't hear Kristofferson.

Honey Island Swamp Band from New Orleans

Tallahassee's Scott Campbell jams on guitar with keyboardist Trevor Brooks
 of the Honey Island Swamp Band

Honey Island Swamp Band continues to impress with their catchy New Orleans sound and party presence. If you have not seen this band, do. They have a strong new record out called Cane Sugar.

Aaron Wilkinson of Honey Island Swamp Band

Nikki Talley put on a rousing mountain-song set Friday

Seth Walker from St Augustine continues to impress with swing blues

Two Jacksonville bands made great showings: Bluegrass band Back from The Brink, and jazz-funksters Sentropolis. Another standout was jazzy Jason Lamar.

Keller Williams kicks it with the Travelin McCourys 

The audience broke into absolute dance frenzies at The Duhks show, at Keller Williams and the Travelin McCoury's, at punkgrass Tornado Rider, and at the rousing Rev. Peyton and His Big Damn Band.

Magnolia Fest was the first show in a a busy fall season at Spirit of the Suwannee.

Col. Bruce Hampton

Next up is Suwannee Hulaween, hosted by Colorado jam band The String Cheese Incident Oct. 31-Nov. 2 (Leftover Salmon  just added), then the magical funky throwdown, Bear Creek Music & Art Festival Nov. 14-17.

What a Lineup! Here Are Your Daily Magnolia Fest Headliners

The Great Willie Nelson plays Saturday

Music fans will start arriving the end of this week for the star-studded Americana gathering, Magnolia Fest and we'll all create a happy little dancing, strumming city on the woods.

Here's a look ahead at the national touring acts is slated each night at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla. And remember, with four stages running throughout the weekend, every year you get to be surprised by some act that you never heard of but you'll leave loving. That's part of our musical adventure.

Mavis Staples

Thursday night: Railroad Earth

Friday night: Jon Prine, Kris Kristofferson, and Stephen Marley.

Saturday night: Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Donna The Buffalo and Drive by Truckers.

Sunday night: Donna the Buffalo closes out with a collaborative jam with various musicians.

Jon Prine

Check out the schedule here for more details

The Original Duhks Are Back -- Catch Them at Magnolia Fest

The Duhks today

Way back when in the early 2000s, a band of very young Canadians blew everybody's minds at a festival at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida. They were The Duhks, tattooed and quirky with a sound that featured a fresh blend of traditional folk, gospel and Celtic tunes -- some of them French Canadian -- set against Afro-Cuban rhythms. The soaring angel voices of fiddler Tania Elizabeth and vocalist Jessee Havey were something special to hear.

Right away, The Duhks got swept up by the Music Business. They got a record deal, an international tour, a Grammy nomination (2007,) and a video on Country Music TV. The constant touring turned out to be a challenge. Some members left the band, others came into the band, and then in 2010 they all took a break and went to pursue other projects.

The very talented Tania Elizabeth toured with alt-country singer Mary Gauthier, Jessee Havey did some solo work, banjo player Leonard Podolok formed a group called the TurtleDuhks (among other things), and guitarist Jordan McConnell went back to his life as a sought-after maker of fine guitars.  (Seth Avett, of the Avett Brothers, played one his guitars on the Grammys and has purchased a couple more from McConnell.)

I'm happy to tell you that original Duhks are back together and sounding super fine. They will grace the gorgeous ampitheater stage at Magnolia Fest on Saturday, Oct.19 at 5:45. I also predict they will do some sit-ins with other folks over the weekend.

Here's a nice video of the reunited Duhks absolutely nailing the haunting tune Annabel, which was recently featured on the Western TV series  Hell on Wheels, on the AMC network.