WMOT is proud to reveal the lineup for this year’s Americanafest Day Stage, coming up Sept. 16-18 during the world-famous annual gathering of the Americana community. In keeping with a nine-year tradition of growing the series distribution, WMOT Roots Radio is partners on the Day Stage with NPR Music, World Cafe, and Nashville PBS.
That collaboration will lead to the widest coverage ever for the nine-year old Day Stage. Each day's music, from noon to five pm, will stream live on NPR Music’s YouTube channel and broadcast live on Nashville PBS’s main channel. Each night, the sets will air again on its second channel, WNPT2. Anchoring the show will be WMOT’s crack audio/video production team working with MTSU student techs and the MTSU Mobile Production Truck. WMOT is grateful for sponsorship support from Blue Note Straight Bourbon Whiskey.
The event moves this year back to the main room at Eastside Bowl in Madison, TN, with its extensive free parking and a mix of standing and seated options. It is open to WMOT members and Americanafest wristband holders. There’s still time to become a member HERE and receive an invitation.
While the full lineup is published in the graphic, WMOT journalist Craig Havighurst offered the following selective preview in his column in today’s weekly WMOT newsletter. Sign up for the free newsletter here if you have not already.
"When you get to launch a three day mini-festival with the legendary Grace Potter, things ought to go well. The Vermont/California veteran with the fearsome soul voice has been prolific (nine albums band or solo) and respected (four Grammy nominations), and she launches a new chapter this month with her tenth album overall, Trespasser. The same day will feature Sister Sadie, one of the most harmonically tuned and viscerally exciting bands in bluegrass, and 75-year-old Sonny Landreth, a mystically great slide guitar player who’s been modding up swamp pop, zydeco, and Louisiana blues since the 1970s.
Last year at this time, Nashville’s Sun Records was basking in the afterglow of its first ever Grammy Award, after Austin’s great Ruthie Foster won Best Contemporary Blues Album. On Thursday, Sept. 17, we’ll be celebrating her follow-up, Just Say Yes, which arrives on Aug. 28. It’s one of the most gratifying label/artist hookups we can remember. Also that day we’ll be honored to host Hiss Golden Messenger, MC Taylor’s long-running North Carolina dream-folk collective. They answer the question, what if serious songwriting sounded serene and lovely too? And let’s brace ourselves for Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs, because in case the name doesn’t ring a bell, Mike was the songwriting guitar player for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for decades. This is his long-running, dirtier rocking other band.
My love affair with Portland, OR band Fruition started with AmericanaFest a couple of years ago, and it’s exciting to have them back and playing our Day Stage for Friday’s program. There’s an inner peace in their harmonious folk rock, and they’re delivering “more” of it when their album Something More arrives Aug. 28. We’re so lucky to have Swamp Dogg, 84 years young, on our stage, because his mix of avant-garde soul and lusty humor is hard to beat. Folk singer Steve Poltz is WMOT family at this point, and we can only hope that he and Swamp Dogg get a chance to share stories, because they are raconteurs for the ages. This isn’t the first year we’ve had to hold the identity of one of our festival artists until the very last minute, but bear in mind this is our Surprise Artist day, and plan accordingly. You will be pleased."