So, I’m breaking out my camping gear - cleaning out the tent, waterproofing it, freshening up the sleeping bag.  It’s the weekend before Summer Camp Music Festival! Recently, I caught Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and Twiddle on the Road to Red Rocks, and they were on fire! Twiddle is new to me. I really enjoyed the vibe going on between these two east coast bands.  They both are playing Summer Camp festival on a seemingly relentless touring schedule.

With a prolific career spanning 23 studio records and numerous live recordings, Keller Williams has announced the release of his new album, Add, on May 31. The follow up to his 2018 entirely instrumental release, SANS, Add sees Williams now adding vocals back into both new and previously unrecorded songs, as well as his own versions of “Brave Captain” by Firehose and Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want”.

Illustrious musicians from the vanguard to the nostalgic, some of who began plying their craft in the ‘60s, and others who are poised for big recognition in the 2020s, all shared a distinctive Southern California seaside aesthetic at the inaugural BeachLife Festival May 3 to 5. BeachLife, the biggest fest ever to blast its jukebox along the Santa Monica Bay at Redondo Beach, combined sun, sounds, sand, and surf and passed its acid test with flying colors.

The Borderland Music & Arts Festival™ unveiled the line-up for its September 21st and 22nd festival at Knox Farm State Park featuring over 20 bands on three stages with a diverse mix of national and regional Americana and roots artists. 

Ardmore Music Hall proudly reprises their annual 2-night fundraiser and concert event, Unlimited Devotion, on May 31st and June 1st with iconic social activist and “official clown” of the Grateful Dead, Wavy Gravy, as the guest of honor and yet another star studded lineup of musicians and bands to celebrate the music, spirit and generosity of the Grateful Dead community; The Unlimited Devotion event has raised over $80,000 in charitable donations so far - and counting.

Bluegrass royalty, Del McCoury Band, will headline the 15th Aiken Bluegrass Festival on May 10th & 11th in Aiken, SC. The two-time GRAMMY winner, celebrating his 80th birthday this year, is at the top of a bill that brings the three-stage festival back to the roots of bluegrass, while simultaneously celebrating the bright future of the genre. The full lineup includes red-hot Billy Strings, Keller Williams’ string band collaboration, Keller and the Keels, the 14th ABF appearance of Larry Keel Experience, hard-driving Horses

The BeachLife Festival is excited to announce its 2019 music lineup for a first-of-its-kind coastal event in Los Angeles happening May 3 - 5, 2019 at Redondo Beach, CA’s Seaside Lagoon.

The WinterWonderGrass Festival had its first ever foray to the east in mid-December. It was a warm welcome to the beautiful Vermont Green Mountains at the Stratton Ski Resort. There’s a saying in New England, and it especially applies to Vermont this time of year. If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour. This adage proved true over all three days of the WinterWonderGrass Vermont festival. Opening day Friday started out mild, mid-40s a bit grey. Everything looked perfect for a fine festival kick-off.

The sad passing on October 12 of Andy Goessling, founding member of Railroad Earth, the ongoing host band for the Hangtown Music Festival (Oct. 25-28), was a unifying thread at this year’s fest, prompting outspoken love, respect, and admiration. In the end, the shared loss sparked a like-minded cause for life celebration and a shared process of moving forward amid a backdrop of fabulous music, Halloween costumes, and community.

Twenty-four years, twenty-seven albums—to call Keller Williams a prolific artist is an understatement. Last week, the multi-instrumentalist talked with Grateful Web about record number twenty-seven, this year’s all-instrumental Sans.