The Nashville office of Gold Mountain Entertainment signs Front Country to their roster.  Gold Mountain Nashville's current clients includes Ronnie Milsap, Nanci Griffith, The Crickets, Todd Snider, Hard Working Americans, Jeff Austin, Great American Taxi and Jason D. Williams.

Front Country Formed in 2011 as a collective of the Bay Area’s finest young acoustic talent, Adam Roszkiewicz, Jacob Groopman, Jordan Klein, Leif Karlstrom, Melody Walker and Zach Sharpe joined forces to play a monthly gig with friends in San Francisco’s Mission District. They quickly found a musical rapport that was open to challenging arrangements, unique covers and original songwriting....

Wakarusa Music Festival is thrilled to announce the third and final round of the artist lineup for the 2015 festival. This year’s final announcement of artists includes Major Lazer, Thievery Corporation, Umphrey’s McGee, Dirty Heads, Lotus and many more.  The 12th annual Wakarusa will take place on the majestic Mulberry Mountain June 4-7, 2015 near Ozark, Arkansas.
 
This year’s lineup will feature an eclectic mix of indie, rock, EDM, hip-hop, reggae and more. Headliners will include Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, back from a seven-year hiatus, and electronic music powerhouse Major Lazer. In addition, Jimmy Fallon’s house band and neo-soul group The Roots, and dub-infused electronic band Thievery Corporation will be joining the musical talent at Wakarusa....

Bear Creek Music has announced that Bear Creek Music & Art Festival will return to Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, Florida on a new weekend, moving from mid-November to October 1 – 4, 2015. Hosting Bear Creek earlier in the fall is expected to provide warmer weather for fans.
 
Steeped in the tradition of New Orleans and New York funk music, Bear Creek’s line up always provides an eclectic mix of artists and powerful big bands like The Roots, Bootsy Collins, Umphrey’s McGee, Galactic, Lotus, Dumpstaphunk and Lettuce along with genre-defining performers in world and roots music, live electronic, rock, and everything in between. As is tradition at Bear Creek, many of the bands perform on two separate dates during the weekend and several talented instrumentalists act as artists-at-large, creating memorable surprise sit-ins and inspired performances. Bear Creek also features live art, yoga and workshops, along with a charity food drive and disc golf tournament....

The Wild Hymns is the eponymous project originally intended to be either a solo album by singer-songwriter Megan Woodland Donley ( performing at the time as “Little Bird” with a  back up band) or at the least  a demo of her original songs.  Working with York, Pennsylvania based sound-man/recording engineer/musician wunderkind Mike Couch saw the project bloom into both a full-fledged album of great merit, as well as  a band to perform the songs with promise of more collaboration in the future.

The band’s sound touches  many musical styles, but in the broader sense sits nicely into the Modern Folk/Americana genre with leanings toward Jazz and a touch of European gypsy music.  Although the band’s sound can be described as a bit “Retro” (which to my ears means, in this case, well written, beautifully performed and recorded with no gimmicks or unnecessary studio frills), The Wild Hymns sound fresh, modern and very relevant.  The album is a breath of fresh air in a musical world  ( at least the so-called mainstream musical world) that puts artifice over heart and soul....

Mother Nature was kind to the roughly five thousand attendees of the 10th annual Art Outside in Rockdale, TX.  With highs in the mid-eighties, lows in the mid-sixties and plenty of shade the backdrop was set for festival goers to enjoy a perfect weekend of camping with friends, listening to amazingly talented artists, participating in workshops and admiring art and the artistic process. 

It was hard to miss the art.  Upon arriving to the festival grounds, you were greeted with Christian Ristow’s Face Forward sculpture.  A 20 foot tall face made from metal connected to an array of servo controllers that controlled a number of facial “muscles” to make a complete expression.  It was fun to watch the faces made as people came and went from the controllers. Christian also brought his Fledgeling kinetic installation where you could climb a staircase on the back of a giant bird and hop in the chest of where you sit and pedal to make the wings articulate in a flapping motion. Another favorite.  At night, when it got cold, Charlie Smith’s sculptures kept everyone warm and Arc Attack, two giant tesla coils, kept the crowd entertained.  In addition to the big installations, just about every tree saw a number of canvases where artists built up their works throughout the weekend. ...

From the very start, this festival had enough to fill my musical void.  I’m sure this was a shared sentiment from the attendees during this weekend.  This was my first experience attending a festival at Spirit of the Music Park and Campground in Suwannee, Florida.  It was put on by SilverWrapper and Purple Hat Productions, with the help of String Cheese Incident.  It was such a delight overall that the excitement was hard to contain.  This wasn’t necessarily bad besides being giddy the whole time.  This also isn’t bad, especially for a 4 day, 7-set SCI festival in sunny north Florida.

Thursday night brought a solid set from Particle featuring guest spots Jason Hann of SCI and Aaron Magner of the Disco Biscuits.  The percussive addition of Hann created an exciting Latin/West African infusion in the mix along with the added keyboard chops from Magner.  From start to finish, they were dialed in and brought it to those who arrived early to see them play.  They also closed with a cover of Becks “E-pro.”  Later, Electron gave a great performance, playing many Disco Biscuits songs, but also playing Pink Floyds “Comfortably Numb>Rock Candy>Comfortably Numb” toward the end.  This was a great warmup for the weekend to be....