The Dirty Guv’nahs, The Afromotive and Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues all announce plans to play this year’s Bele Chere Festival.
• Pictured below: Knoxville’s The Dirty Guv’nahs (rock, roots, funk) head to Bele Chere on the heels of the band’s Bonnaroo debut. While much of the group’s “rock gospel” sound is derived from key jam band ingredients, vintage organ, power vocals, grungy guitars and a swampy country-rock pulse recalls the Allman Brothers. The Dirty Guv’nahs have been voted Knoxville’s best band two years in a row by a Metro Pulse reader’s poll.
• The Afromotive (Afrobeat) calls Asheville home, even though the group’s jazz-meets-rock-meets-ancient-African-rhythms sound possesses a global heart. The group has made the round of the festival circuit (Echo Project, Bonnaroo, Joshua Tree Music Festival) and has been joined on stage by the likes of Erykah Badhu and Jeff Coffin.
• Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues is like the second career band of lifelong bluesman Mac Arnold. The S.C. native started on a homemade guitar at age 10. By the time he was 24 he was touring with Muddy Waters and sharing stages with the likes of Howlin’ Wolfe, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Junior Wells, Big Joe Williams, and Big Mama Thornton.
—Alli Marshall, A&E reporter
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