MAY DAY! MAY DAY! Backwoods Fam Jam is This Weekend!
MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!
The Backwoods Fam Jam is this weekend — Friday, May 5 to Sunday, May 7 — in Hastings in Northeast Florida. This is a new festival at a new location with lots of familiar faces. We will shout out the schedule as soon as it is announced. In the meantime, here are more reasons to get on board (and you can read our first announcement article here).
With two stages, you don’t need to miss a single note (well, unless you take a power nap or something), and they have added Silent Disco for Friday and Saturday nights!
Several Fam Jam performers just lit up the Mushroom Stage at last week’s Wanee Music Festival. Roosevelt Collier, the premier pedal steel player, is hosting a Super Jam for Fam Jam. He played an incendiary set with the Bobby Lee Rodgers Trio at Wanee filled with jazz and funk. Roosevelt is also an artist at large.
Heather Gillis appears with her excellent band. She was part of the most talked-about set at Live Oak, the stunning Freight Train Band tribute to the late Butch Trucks. Gillis more than held her own in a band that also featured Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars), Vaylor Trucks (The Yeti Trio), and Damon Fowler (Damon Fowler Band). That is steep company, but she got more buzz than anyone, deservedly so.
Harp Smoke is Isaac Corbitt’s latest project. Corbitt is at the top of the harmonica player food chain, just incredible. He had great sit-ins at Wanee, including this remarkable one with the Marcus King Band. Corbitt joins in at the 8:20 mark. Corbitt is also an artist at large.
Ben Strok and the Full Electric have emerged from Herd of Watts, a fine funk band from Jacksonville. Last weekend, Strok and crew expanded from their normal quartet to an 11-piece tribute to Stevie Wonder for A Wonderful Evening. Here’s hoping we get to hear some of those tunes at Fam Jam!
And the Parker Urban Band is back on the scene after taking maternity leave! Proud parents Juanita and John Parkerurban bring their namesake band to Fam Jam for some of the most delightfully funky and spiritual music you will ever hear, also featuring Myrna Stallworth!
Look for more information throughout the week as we speed toward Friday and a weekend with Fam!
MusicFestNews will see you there!