Wanee Youth: BIG Something, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and The Marcus King Band

At this point, many Wanee veterans are already at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park awaiting the glorious music that starts this afternoon at 4 PM. Many more are on the road today, tons more tomorrow. This is the 14th edition of the Wanee Music Festival, birthed by the Allman Brothers Band and venerating Southern jam, funk, and rock.

And the headliners — Widespread Panic, Phil Lesh & the Terrapin Family Band, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, North Mississippi Allstars, and George Porter, Jr., & the Runnin’ Pardners — are some of the most adored and appreciated performers on our scene.

But…

It would be a mistake to ignore the “youth” movement always present at the park this year. In particular, three names come to mind. Each of the three have made a huge impression on the past two Jam Cruises, and they are intent on doing the same this weekend.

BIG Something had a glorious Jam Cruise debut on the 2017 edition, with their opening day late-night pool deck blowout and another days later in the Spinnaker Lounge. This superb sextet from Burlington NC played Wanee in 2016 and killed on the Mushroom Stage. Their own festival, The BIG What?, returns to Pittsboro NC again this August for another great run, and they’re previewing that with BIG What? Wilmington next weekend (April 27-28).

What Big Something delivered was on an entirely different astral plane from the eleven shows I had seen before; they just tore it up! Jesse Hensley has always been a superb guitar player, but he too was in rare form, as was Casey Cranford, who plays alto sax and EWI. The set started appropriately with “Song for Us,” “Blue Dream” and “Waves.” When they hit “Love Generator,” the dance party was in full swing, and that led to “UFOs Are Real.” After a Cranford alto solo, he duked it out on EWI with keyboard whiz Josh Kagel. Bravo, boys! So pleased to see you on my first Jam Cruise (and hell YES I already rebooked for 2018!).

Catch BIG Something Thursday on the Mushroom Stage from 4:00 to 5:30. You’ll feel the Love Generated! And their new album will be released on 4/20!

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong are a Baltimore quartet that lit up this year’s Jam Cruise with two brilliant sets. They were the talk of the cruise for their riotously manic shows; Marc Brownstein shouted them out by name in praising the new wave of talent on board. PPPP also curates its own festival, Domefest, which takes place near the end of May in Bedford PA. PPPP have played the park before, but this is their first Wanee.

But it was time for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, the rematch. On the pool deck. Dressed in pink. Did Scrambled Greg have a pink tutu, too? Of course he did! This got even more stupider, in the vernacular. There were lots of guests, and they delighted with “Julia > Under the Sea > Julia.” For pure fun, it was tough to beat this sequence: “Burning Up My Time > Kashmir > Burning Up My Time > Horizon,” with a bunch of teases, including “Slipknot,” “Moby Dick,” and “Heartbreaker.”

Join The Flock Saturday at the Mushroom Stage from 2:30 to 4:30, because the Pigeons just want to “F.U. N.K.”

The other guy who lit up this year’s Jam Cruise is Marcus King. He and his band played two stunning sets, and he had more brilliant sit-ins than anyone else, including his remarkable performance with Karl Denson on some of the Eat a Bunch of Peaches covers. You’ll forgive him if he doesn’t have his own festival — yet; he just turned 22. He is a part of As the Crow Flies, an amazing collective, and will tour with them this spring. During the summer, he is part of an incredible tour with Tedeschi Trucks Band and Drive-By Truckers.

The opener began with one of King’s tunes, and with that a real roller coaster ride began, surging through a number of rock classics and gems including “25 or 6 to 4” and Funkadelic’s “I’ll Stay.” That romp lasted 20 minutes! Next King’s voice was prefect for another King’s tune, B.B’s “Sweet Little Angel.” Deshawn Alexander sounded great on Hammond B3, and Justin Johnson had a nice trombone solo. And King did King, so sweetly.

After an awesome funk romp with Alexander on clavinet, the unmistakable intro to CSN&Y’s “Ohio” emerged. The jam kept shape-shifting seamlessly through so many genres and tempos, turning red-hot with two solos from tenor player Dean Mitchell, then into “Jungle Boogie,” so really nasty funk and then swing jazz! Stephen Campbell’s walking bass was amazing! It was clear that, at the age of 21 King is both capable and knowledgeable to go anywhere he damn well pleases.

King introduced a new tune, and we were off through another ride involving Mitchell on baritone sax, a fine drum solo by Jack Ryan, some variation on “Sexy Thing,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and some slam blues. By the time Jam Cruise was over, everybody understood that the torch had been passed — to King — and he grabbed it like a champion.

Find out what the buzz is all about Friday at the Mushroom Stage from 2:30 to 4:30, and catch Marcus with As the Crow Flies Saturday on the Peach Stage from 2:15 to 4:15.

Wanee Youth: BIG Something, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and The Marcus King Band