headline booking

Telluride Blues & Brews added George Thorogood & The Destroyers with guests Elvin Bishop and Eddie Shaw to replace the cancelled ZZ Top, nearly finishing the lineup for the Sept. 17-19 festival. Thorogood and friends will close the festival's first night on Friday with what will surely be a raucous blues-rock jam.

Saturday's headliner has been booked but will not be named until August 16. For clues, you might scan the roster of notable acts at Mile High Music Festival, which runs August 14-15 near Denver, considered in the same local market. I see at least three likely prospects on that list.

The great B.B. King closes out the festival on Sunday. Other notables are Alberta Cross, Allen Toussaint, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Cedric Burnside & Lightnin' Malcolm, Galactic with Cyril Neville, JJ Grey & Mofro, Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience, The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, and The Otis Taylor Band.

Another late add was Delta bluesman T-Model Ford.

Omega Events used to run two festivals—a jazz and a blues festival—at Johnson's Beach on the Russian River in Guerneville CA. Beginning last year, they're now combined into one big weekend, running this year September 11-12 at the popular vacation spot north of San Francisco in Sonoma County.

As per its custom, Omega will roll out its lineup a few artists at a time, having started off with the headline acts for the two days. Saturday is jazz day, and the program will be anchored by smooth saxaphone favorite David Sanborn with special guest organist Joey DeFrancesco.

For blues day on Sunday, attendees will enjoy the ever-popular Doobie Brothers as the festival closer. After many years, the Doobies are about to release an all-new studio CD, which will be featured along with the band's repertoire of hits from the 70s and 80s.

FP Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival page | RRJBF website

We missed an earlier round where FloydFest added the bulk of its outstanding lineup, but now it has topped off the list with a pair of headliners that add further luster to one of the best roots lineups of the summer. Breakout Americana band Old Crow Medicine Show, whose "Wagon Wheel" anthem scored highly on various music charts, joins previously announced Levon Helm Band and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals as headline performers, while New Orleans world-funk outfit Galactic joins a tasty list of notable attractions.

All told, upwards of 100 acts will appear on the festival's eight stages, including a raft of "under the radar" acts that will gain exposure playing for the 12,000 patrons of what has emerged in its ninth season as one of the mid-South region's premiere roots festivals. The musical attractions span a wide range of genres—folk, world, jam, bluegrass, blues and more. But the festival is not only about music, having a significant focus in sustainability, healing arts and superb camping and lodging in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia.

When I got the announcement this morning that Winnipeg Folk Festival had added reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff to its outstanding lineup, it made me realize I'd been seeing his name a great deal in the last two weeks.

Sure enough, Cliff has been announced at no fewer than six major festivals, beginning with Bonnaroo in early June and ending with Mile HIgh in mid August. In between is the date at Winnipeg plus appearances at Osheaga, Gathering of the Vibes and Lollapalooza.

That's an busy schedule for an artist who has not be active on the festival circuit in recent years. But it hasn't been an ordinary year for the man whose soundtrack for the movie The Harder They Fall is credited with bringing reggae music to an international audience.

In January, the 62-year-old Cliff released "Existence," his first new studio album since 2003. Last month, he was one of five new inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His official website does not provide tour information, so we don't know if he is playing concert dates as well as festival gigs this summer.

No sooner did I post a catch-up item yesterday about recent Strawberry Spring bookings, the top of the lineup grew even brighter with the addition of surefire attraction Lyle Lovett, making the upcoming festival's musical lineup one of the most appealing in years.

The festival has yet to publish a set schedule for the May 27-30 event, so we can't say who will be closing the program each night in the tradtional headlner slots. But for now I am going with Lovett, Richard Thompson and country star Patty Loveless as our designated headliners, moving the Desert Rose Band to the ranks of notables with others such as Loudon Wainwright, Crooked Still, John Jorgenson, Dala and the three acts I wrote about yesterday—Sarah Jarosz, 18 South and Joy Kills Sorrow.

This one is shaping up as a Strawberry not to miss.

Janet Jackson will play a rare concert date as the Friday night closer for Essence Music Festival, joining two other female vocal stars as headliners of the festival, which runs July 2-4 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Jackson has not performed publicly since 2008. It will also mark her first Essence appearance. The closers for the other nights of the festival are Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige.

For details, see FP's Essence Music Festival page and the festival website.

Capping off a triumphant three-year comeback, The Levon Helm Band has an active summer planned with festival gigs from New Orleans Jazzfest to Newport Folk Festival (with four more in between, see artist page). But the really special appearance will be at Mountain Jam on June 6, when the former drummer/vocalist from The Band will celebrate his 70th birthday on stage with an all-star lineup of his friends.

Mountain Jam announced the first batch of Helm's friends and also added a big name in Alison Krauss and Union Station with Jerry Douglas, supplementing an impressive lineup that was rolled out last week.

The birthday celebration will close out the festival on Sunday night and will feature some artists making an appearance solely to honor Helm and others who are otherwise scheduled to appear. In the first group are  Ray LaMontagne, Steve Earle, Jackie Greene and legendary producer David Hood. The latter group consists of festival host Warren Haynes, Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood (son of David Hood), and country singer-songwriter Allison Moorer (wife of Steve Earle). More "friends" are yet to be announced.

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