All are playing Saturday, July 25:
• Highly Kind (Southern rock, funk) would be the perfect name for a reggae band, but in fact this quartet from Gadsden, Ala. is distinctly rockin’. That the group sports an Allman Brothers-in-their-Macon, Ga.-heyday sound is apt—this is Southern rock—but its probably no coincidence that when Highly Kind needed a drummer they landed Duane Trucks, little brother of the Allmans’ virtuoso guitarist Derek Trucks.
• Atlanta’s Delta Moon (blues) is a frequent visitor to Asheville’s Jack of the Wood. Fronted by lap steel guitarist Tom Grey (who famously penned the Cyndi Lauper hit “Money Changes Everything) and guitarist Mark Johnson who, according to his Web site, “While not born in the South…did grow up in a trailer park in Ravenna, Ohio.” Last year Delta Moon signed with European label Blues Boulevard; this year the band released Howlin’ Under the Southern Moon.
• Recognize this name? The Family Stone (funk, soul) evolved from 60s hippy-funk icons Sly and the Family Stone (think: “If You Want Me to Stay” and “Everyday People”). In the band: Sly Stone’s little sister Vet Stone, Skyler Jett (who sang on Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”), Rose Stone (Sly’s middle sister) and her daughter Lisa, and Freddie Stone (Sly’s brother). The group is pictured, below, in a 1969 promo shot.
• Fusebox Funk (funk, hip-hop) claims a sound “that teeters between a crazy breakdown and a relaxing groove.” Figure that one out. The band (also mad skilled at stage names: CrizP, Dr. Concussion) called Jacksonville, Fla. home when not touring its jammy, free-form sound up and down the eastern seaboard.
Every year Bele Chere scrapes the bottom of the barrel to find entertainment, More reasons not to go.
Is there an over view of all the bands playing Bele Chere? Are there any good bands playing? Like Marty Stuart or David Holt? Or just hippy bands and nostalgia acts?
Perhaps those who are critical of Bele Chere entertainment. can volunteer for next years festival & help raise funds to expanded the line up.
I am grateful & thankful there are people willing to help create a better community. The dharma belongs to all of us.
Ever since moving here in 2006, I have been very impressed with Bele Chere. It blows away events like the Seattle Folk Festival, the Imperial Beach, CA Sandcastle Competition, and many other big draw events on the west coast. The headliners are not was impressed me, it is the local acts. There is always something I’ve never heard of that knocks me out. Anyone hear Jon Scales the steel drummer on that tiny stage next to the Flat Iron Building last year? Stephanie’s Id? Any number of fine bluegrass bands? If anything, I think the festival should be even more local.
I’d love to volunteer, but it would be a major conflict of interest as a local musician. I can suggest that bands like the Connells, Dillon Fence, Pylon, Let’s Active, Don Dixon… yes, they’re from the Piedmont, but this is NC’s finest modern musical export – why have they not played BC since I’ve been here?
Also, good local acts should always get a leg up, yet it seems that AVL is a one horse town, the same few getting all the shows, open it up and spread it around.