The Big Orange Music Festival Gives the People What they Want: MUSIC!
Written by Dalia Jakubauskas
In Southwest Florida, where it’s easier to find sled-dog races than a live music scene, Punta Gorda’s Big Orange Music Festival returns on September 8 and 9 to satisfy the cravings of area concert-goers starved for live music. Now in its second year, the festival will be headlined once again by international recording artist, Florida native and force of nature JJ Grey and Mofro, expected to play to a capacity crowd at the Charlotte Harbor Convention Center in downtown Punta Gorda on Saturday September 9.
Festival attendees will also be treated to other nationally known acts spanning several genres on two stages, including Grammy-award winners Los Lobos, Tinsley Ellis Blues Is Dead, Eric Lindell, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, and the Evan Taylor Jones Band.
Festivities kick off with The Big Orange Sunset Celebration on Friday, September 8 on the waterfront lawn of the Charlotte Harbor Event Center, where Punta Gorda’s The Yoga Sanctuary will host hour-long yoga sessions from 8:00 am until 12:00 pm. Friday’s celebration will end just down the road at Fisherman’s Village with a (now here’s a word you don’t hear too often) FREE concert with Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes and the Evan Taylor Jones Band from 5:00 pm until 9:00 pm.
If yoga is too gentle a pursuit for you, Saturday’s events feature The Big Orange Throwdown hosted by CrossFit Warpath, where teams from all over the state and beyond will try to outdo each other in inhuman feats of physical fitness. The competition will be held from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm on the lawn at The Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Punta Gorda.
Music gets underway on Saturday at 4:00 pm with Orlando-based soul-rocker Evan Taylor Jones and his eight-piece band again, who will be serving up a bit of Muscle Shoals along with a rock and roll roux. Jones has played to sold-out audiences around the world including at The House of Blues in his hometown, where he opened for Bob Marley’s legendary band The Wailers.
I defy anyone to cubbyhole New Orleans’ own Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes after they storm the stage at 4:45 pm. As close as it gets may be how David Fricke of Rolling Stone Magazine described them after a performance at JazzFest when he said a “jam band bonhomie and Louisiana stroll spice with klezmer-style violin and funeral parade horns – what you get if Phish had been born at Tipitina’s and studied under George Clinton and Frank Zappa every night on the levee.” Whuuaaat? See for yourself when this sextet brings its uncontrollable brand of joy to the festival.
Singer, songwriter, guitarist, harp player and Alligator Records recording star Eric Lindell takes the stage at 5:45 pm, bringing a gumbo of blues, rock, doo-wop, soul and roots music to a hungry audience. A frequent performer at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Lindell currently calls Louisiana home, where his many collaborations include projects such as Dragon Smoke, his side band with Dumpstaphunk’s Ivan Neville and Galactic’s Stanton Moore. His career spans 20 years, eight albums and at least 100 days a year on the road touring the world.
Multiple Grammy Award winning Tex-Mex artists Los Lobos, whose career spans five decades, bring their blend of rock, zydeco, R&B, country and Mexican folk to the main stage at 6:45 pm. Fans know them best from their 1987 hit “La Bamba,” and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. With a catalog of over 20 albums to draw from, count on Los Lobos to bring a boatload of danceable rhythms and cool grooves to the festival.
Georgia guitarist Tinsely Ellis and Tinsley Ellis Blues Is Dead share his take on the blues of the Grateful Dead at 8:15 pm, to the delight of Deadheads and the uninitiated alike. With 19 albums under his belt, Ellis has been laying it down on stages all over the world with soulful blues influenced by fellow Georgians The Allman Brothers, James Brown, Ray Charles and Otis Redding, and he has played with his musical heroes Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Otis Rush and James Cotton. Now it’s Punta Gorda’s turn to reap the rewards of Ellis’ outstanding talents.
For the second time, headliners JJ Grey and Mofro will be tearing up the main stage at 9:30 pm. If you’ve never seen Grey and his stellar band, Mofro, hold onto something or risk being blown out of your shoes. A native of Jacksonville, Grey and his band have been bringing the house down in venues all over the planet and have been fixtures on the festival and jam band circuits since 2001.
An enthralling storyteller and stage performer, Grey’s music is infused with the heart, soul and grit of north Florida’s people, rivers, backwaters, and coast, where he still makes his home. His music has been called “swamp rock” but that description doesn’t do it justice. The smoking cauldron of blues, southern rock, soul and funk that rushes over audiences is what would happen if The Allman Brothers and James Brown had a love child. And love, you will.
With 75% of tickets already sold, V.I.P. tickets are already gone, but there is still time to get general admission tickets to the festival, which will feature more seating this year. V.I.P.s will have seats at the front and side areas of the stage while G.A. attendees can give their sore, dance-fatigued feet a break on expansive bleachers at the back of the venue.
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