UTOPiAfest Down In The Oaks music, art and nature festival will celebrate its 10th birthday on November 2 – 4 in Burnet, Texas. What began as gathering of music lovers on a ranch in Utopia, Texas, has evolved into a community of thinkers, doers and creators. The 2018 event will feature more than 35 bands including headliners STS9, Lukas Nelson and Patty Griffin.

All in the name of Music Heals International’s core mission to expand residents’ ability to make music in Haiti, Lukas Nelson headlined a humdinger of a benefit inside the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California on November 21.

“Music is like color,” Lukas Nelson has said. “When I listen to the musicians who affected me when I was growing up, I take from the primary colors to find my foundation. Then I apply secondary colors and the music becomes more and more complex.”

On March 11, 2016, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real will deliver their heavily-anticipated third album, Something Real, via Royal Potato Family.

Something Real documents the trail blazed by this hard-driving ensemble in its recent past. Most of all, it captures them in all their current glory as songwriters, performers and progenitors of the style they characterize as "cowboy hippie surf rock."

Of all the events that I have covered and shows that I have attended, none sparks or enlightens the soul more than ARISE. Creators and producers Tierro Lee and Paul Bassis have worked extremely hard to craft a festival that has something for everyone. This festival just feels good, like the energy in Maui. The music lineup is extremely diverse, the activities are plentiful, and the vibe is second to none.