Click Here to download the Festival Brochure which includes a Map of the Area and the Schedule of Events.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2007
11:00am
Location: MSU campus, Swalm Chemical Engineering Building, 4th floor
Lecture: John Hayes of the University of Georgia’s Department of History will speak on religion and the South through the prism of Johnny Cash. Hayes will explore Cash’s complicated sense of redemption as it was expressed in his music. Sponsored by the Mississippi State University Department of History.
2:00pm–until
Location: MSU campus, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house
Community-wide social: Johnny Cash performed at this fraternity house during his 1965 visit to Starkville. Local bands will perform, and alumni who spent time with Cash here more than 40 years ago will attend.
7:00pm–8:00pm
Location: MSU campus, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house
Charity auction: Items such as Johnny Cash memorabilia will be auctioned off at a live auction, including a black Martin Guitar signed by Marty Stuart, Cash’s family, and others.
8:00pm–10:30pm
Location: MSU campus, Amphitheater
Outdoor Movie: Showing of Walk the Line, the 2005 film that portrayed much of Johnny Cash’s life.
Rain location: Rick’s Cafe
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3
9:30am
Location: 326 University Drive, Starkville Public Library
First hand account: Johnny Cash’s original bass player Marshall Grant will speak about his book, I Was There When It Happened, which details his lifelong friendship with “The Man in Black.”
11:00am–10:30pm
Location: Main Street
Downtown Events: A mix of country, bluegrass, gospel, jazz, and country-rock performers will play in a festival atmosphere on Main Street. Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives will headline the event.
11:00 – 11:45 The Golden Gates
12:00 – 12:45 Superstar Donkey Donkey
www.myspace.com/superstardonkeydonkey
1:00 – 1:45 Jordan Carter, The Real Deal and special guest Linda Lee
www.jordancarter.com
Jordan has won many awards at local, state and National Levels. His recent accomplishments was winning 7 top awards at NACMAI(North America Country Music Assoc. International): 2007 Top Male Entertainer of the year, 2007 Top Male Entertainer (traditional country), 2007 Most Promising Vocalist of the Year, 2007 Most Promising Award, winning Album, 2007 Singer/ Songwriter of the year/ traditional country 2007, Singer/Songwriter of the year/ country gospel, 2007 Top Traditional Duet of the year.
Jordan Carter is an accomplished Nashville Recording Artist from Southern Illinois. He has performed on stages from Chicago, Ill., to Tennessee and Oklahoma.
2:00 – 2:45 Nash Street
www.nashstreet.com
All the way from a Sunday morning of 30 to a Saturday night of 30,000, Nash Street has traveled the Southeast performing and sharing their love of bluegrass music with their own contemporary twist with a little taste of country and blues. Nash Street, a very youthful band with members ranging in age from 17-23, far exceeds the expectations of a young band. Their skills on their individual instruments, tight harmonies, and intriguing arrangements are often a surprise to their audiences.
The band consists of 4 members who play traditional string band or bluegrass instruments. Hannah Melby plays fiddle, her sister, Caroline plays mandolin, Daniel Hare plays stand-up bass, and Jason Graham plays the guitar. Hannah, Caroline, and Jason are the vocalist in the band. All members are from Starkville, Mississippi. The band got the idea to form from their school’s strings teacher, Mr. Norman Mellin. He taught two of the members to play their instruments and encouraged them to hold on to the musical traditions of our region and revive the songs that were soon to be forgotten. So, when the young people were in the 5th grade they formed a band named the Goat Ropers and began entering competitions, performing for events, and adding new instruments. The group has changed membership from time to time, but three of the four have remained the same throughout their history as a band.
The group has been fortunate to have opened for a number of outstanding performers such as Rhonda Vincent, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw’s Swampstock, Little Big Town, The Grascals, Alecia Nugent, Jeff Bates, Blackhawk, Marty Raybon and many others. This spring Nash Street won a preliminary contest in the Colgate Country Showdown and will go on to the next level of competition in October. This summer the band performed at the world famous “Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge” in Nashville twice and at the Charlie Louvin Museum for the celebration of his 80th birthday. Nash Street has performed in Nashville on the Ernest Tubb Record Shop’s Midnight Jamboree where the band performed before a live audience and was heard on Sirus Radio around the world.
Nash Street is proud to announce that their junior CD will come out in October containing 14 songs. Three songs were written by Jason, one is an instrumental by Caroline, another is an original song given to them by a Nashville composer. The last original song they completed is an anniversary song to Katrina and a tribute to the people from the coast. This song was a commissioned song, but left the band closely identifying with the victims of the storm; thus the naming of their CD, “Carry On”. Nash Street had the honor of recording at Ricky Skaggs’ studio in Hendersonville, TN this summer with Ricky’s sound engineer, Lee Groitzsch. “It was pretty awesome to walk around that studio, look at his photos on the walls and imagine all of our heroes being in the same place we were and doing the same thing we were doing”, said Daniel Hare.” “Ricky really made us feel comfortable and was genuinely interested in us as a band and also as young people caring on a tradition that is important to him”, said Hannah.
3:00 – 3:45 The Larry Wallace Band
www.larrywallaceband.com
From the Mississippi Delta to the hills of Kentucky, The Larry Wallace Band has been busy traveling the road and performing for the many fans of Bluegrass Music in America. The highlight of their short history has to be their performance at The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee and since that September day in 2002, the band has established quite a following.They have been invited three times to perform at Bill Monroe’s Home place in Rosine, Kentucky at the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration and also have appeared on “The Cumberland Highlanders Show” on RFD-TV. The band performed there in Rosine in October of 2004 with special guest Tom Ewing. Tom is a 10 year veteran of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and The Larry Wallace Band was honored to accompany such a legendary performer.In 2003, The Larry Wallace Band was very fortunate to be chosen and was honored to be the featured entertainment for Vice-President Dick Cheney’s visit to the State of Mississippi. In 2005, the band had the distinction of playing their style of traditional Bluegrass music on three of the most popular radio shows in the South: The award-winning “Thacker Mountain Radio” on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the “Sucarnochee Revue” and “Country Music Flashback” on Alabama Public Radio. The band, in its short history, has performed at shows and festivals in many states including: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia. Larry Wallace was a member of Jimmy Martin and The Sunny Mountain Boys in Nashville for 10 years and holds the record as the banjo player with the longest tenure with the King of Bluegrass – Jimmy Martin.
The Larry Wallace Band plays Bluegrass music in the traditional style, with a rock-solid presentation of heart-felt singing and tasteful instrumentation, along with a very professional and high-energy stage show. You will definitely enjoy their presentation of TRADITIONAL BLUEGRASS MUSIC!
4:00 – 4:45 Sweetwater Jade
www.myspace.com/sweetwaterjade
Three green-eyed teens and sensational singers, Kelsey Carroll, Jeanna Upchurch, and Whitney Hennigan have been serenading audiences for the last seven years as a trio, and their jade colored eyes inspired their chick name, SweetWater Jade. Kelsey, Jeanna, and Whitney’s trendy musical flair for modern country music is perfected by their unique voices and unique harmonies coupled with their spunky personalities.
SweetWater Jade has showcased their talents from venues adorned with boots and spurs to bright lights and crowds with thousands of fans. SweetWater Jade has been the opening act for the Beach Boys, Sammy Kershaw, Dierks Bentley, Josh Turner, and Aaron Tippin. Kelsey, Jeanna, and Whitney have performed with Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty Stuart, The Williams Brothers, Carola, an international Swedish pop star, and alongside James Burton. They have performed at the Peavy Awards, where they were presented as Mississippi’s Future Grammy Contenders, the Liberty Bowl, Mississippi Dixie National Rodeo, and their first 2007 CMA Music Fest Nashville, Tennessee.
5:00 – 5:45 KingBilly
www.myspace.com/kingbillyband
At a KingBilly show, you’ll experience something completely different–a blend of high, lonesome bluegrass harmonies, bluesy lap steel and banjo and the country equivalent of AC/DC power riffs, all rolled into one. The six bandmembers members are totally into picking and songwriting; like deep-sea anglers, they throw back the good tunes and only keep the great ones. KingBilly’s crew of writer/multi-instrumentalist/vocalists, handpicked one member at a time by writer/producer Trey Bruce, have combined their myriad talents to create a group as tight and dynamic as the Blue Angels in flight. Bruce scoured the scene in and around Nashville in search of the best up-and-coming players out there. After getting tipped by several Music Row vocal coaches, Trey located Donny Fallgatter (guitar, vocals) at a 24-hour gym where he was working as the midnight-shift manager. He snagged Josh Matheny (dobro, lap steel) while judging a talent contest in Belmont. John Osborne, a classical upright bass major at Belmont and second chair in an all-state symphony, also happened to be a chicken pickin’ country & western guitar player. He’s a killer mandolin player as well, and he can handle the fiddle if you’re in a pinch. Amazing players by any standard, Matheny and Osborne were both going out on the road with various Nashville-based acts, playing the Opry on Saturday nights and hiring out as sidemen in clubs every week when they took the KingBilly pledge. Bruce met Charlie Worsham (banjo, electric and acoustic guitar, mando, fiddle, dobro) through his connections with Memphis musicians. The Mississippian will soon graduate from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Kevin Weaver, the drummer for another band Bruce had worked with, had spent several years on the road with various signed country artists. Weaver also plays mando and guitar. The last to join was dreadlocked bass player Matt Utterback, another onetime Berklee student who has done some film composing. “I reside in the dining room of Hotel Villa, the KingBilly mansion, pursuing a life in music,” says Matt, who removes his tongue from his cheek to add, “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” KingBilly is currently working on its first album, with Bruce producing, natch.
6:00 – 6:45 Ring of Fire
www.myspace.com/rofb
Michael Patrick’s “Ring of Fire” band stems from central New Jersey and plays as an offspring of the successful country-rock group entitled “The Suburban Hillbillies.” While the original band continues to tour locally, it’s members have put together this special project.. A tribute show to honor and pay homage to one of their musical icons – Johnny Cash.
Michael Patrick and his legendary band of “Suburban Hillbillies” have made a commitment to the revival of country, folk and roots music in their homeland of New Jersey. Michael and his band (including members: Dan Markovitch – Lead Gtr/Vocals, Lou Montella – Bass, and Drummer – Mike Bisozio) have made incredible strides and carved out a comfortable niche along with a handful of other local performers in fulfilling a desire for something different, gritty, raw and real in New Jersey.
Years ago Michael found himself captivated by the simplicity, sincerity and expressive deep voice exuded in the music of Johnny Cash songs. In an expedition to further explore the music and its roots, he planned a trip to Nashville in September of 2003. Sadly to say, his arrival in Nashville also marked the day of Johnny’s passing. It was a week of music, history, and education Michael will never forget. As time drove on, Michael set out to discover more & more about his musical icon and incorporated many of Cash’s songs into his bands set lists. In addition he has organized benefit tribute concerts, and many local area performances to honor the music of the Man in Black. His efforts have received national attention with many feature stories in various print and web media publications.
With the release of the recent hit Movie “Walk the Line” in addition to the Broadway musical “Ring of fire”, the “spirit of Cash” is in the air and plans to stick around for a long time to come.
“I laugh,” Michael said, “when young children request songs like ‘Ring of Fire’ because they heard it in their favorite Video Game… It serves as a reminder that this music is timeless and crosses many generations… You have to love it! Young or old it is music that will always be celebrated!”
7:00 – 7:45 Jimmy Tittle
www.myspace.com/jimmytittle
Jimmy Tittle has been involved with the entertainment industry most of his life as a musician, songwriter, singer and performer. At the age of eighteen he was fortunate enough to experience first-hand the enormous talents of Merle Haggard, as a member of his touring and recording band, The Strangers. Jimmy recognized immediately the genius of Haggard’s songwriting and considered him to be the quintessential writer of working-class poetry. Jimmy toured and performed with Merle for the next five years playing bass guitar, earning him six Super Picker awards as well as The Academy of Country Music’s Touring Band of the Year award four consecutive years. Jimmy left The Strangers to pursue songwriting and formed a country band with Ricky Frizzell and Danny Husky, the sons of two legendary honky tonk heroes, Lefty Frizzell and Ferlin Husky. The band toured the South extensively, gaining a large following until a tragic accident took the life of Danny Husky. Jimmy returned to Nashville and worked as a session musician while continuing to write.In 1982, Jimmy was invited to join the cast of another legendary performer, Johnny Cash. They traveled the world over the next seven years. Jimmy participated in numerous television specials and soundtrack albums, and has small acting roles in a film and several music videos. Jimmy left The Johnny Cash Show in 1989 to pursue an independent career in writing, recording, and performing. Bug Music in Nashville signed Jimmy in 1989 to an exclusive songwriter’s agreement and soon had his songs recorded by artists such as Jann Browne, Johnny Cash, Evangeline, Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. “On the Surface” was co-written by Jimmy and Rosanne which she recorded on her critically acclaimed album, “Interiors”. Jimmy has also co-written songs with Marty Stuart, John Hiatt, John Stewart, LeRoy Preston, Dave Alvin, Cindy Bullens and Rodney Crowell.Dixiefrog Records in Paris, France contacted Jimmy and he signed a recording contract which introduced him to the European market with his albums “Jimmy Tittle” (1990) and “Fade to Black” (1991). Sony Music France released his third CD titled “Real Life” as well as a compilation of all previous works titled “Room Full of Money, Heart Full of Pain”. Jimmy’s works with Sony Music helped him to reach a broader audience in Europe. His records are released in France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Spain, Germany, Italy and Australia. His blending of country roots and Southern rock is the result of many miles, powerful influences, heart and soul.
8:30 – until Marty Stuart & the Fabulous Superlatives
www.martystuart.net
Marty Stuart is on fire creatively. He has recorded the four best albums of his career with his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, and has put on some of the best shows of his career. But he will be the first to tell you that his current achievements would never have been possible if he hadn’t walked every single mile of the highway that got him here. And he never would have made it if not for the mentors who showed the way and the partners who walked beside him. Those are his “Compadres,” and his story can’t be told without them.
The 15 tracks on his new album, “Compadres,” tell that story. It would be a mistake to call it a “duets album,” for the instrumental interplay with Lester Flatt, Steve Earle and the Old Crow Medicine Show is as important as the vocal give and take with Johnny Cash and Mavis Staples. It’s an album of collaborations with the artists who have meant the most to him over the years.
Stuart was just a 13-year-old kid from Philadelphia, Mississippi, when he joined Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass in 1972. The teenager’s mandolin solo on Bill Monroe’s “Rawhide” became his showcase number with the band and was captured at a 1974 concert at Vanderbilt University for Flatt’s “Live! Bluegrass Festival” album.Stuart never abandoned his bluegrass roots and often collaborated with such string-band legends as Earl Scruggs (heard here on “Mr. John Henry, the Steel Driving Man” from Stuart’s 1999 album, “The Pilgrim”); Del McCoury (heard here on “Let Us Travel, Travel On” from the 2003 tribute album, “Livin’ Lovin’ Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers”); and the Old Crow Medicine Show (heard here on a brand new version of the Who’s “I Can See for Miles”).Stuart stayed with Flatt till 1978 and then joined the Johnny Cash Show in 1980. The traveling troupe included June Carter, the Carter Family and the Tennessee Three, and Stuart often sang Jimmie Skinner’s prison song, “Doin’ My Time,” as a duet with Cash. The two men later recreated it for Stuart’s 1992 album, “This One’s Gonna Hurt You.” Cash was perhaps the biggest influence on Stuart, but the youngster absorbed lessons like a sponge from great singers like George Jones (“One Woman Man” is from Jones’ 1991 album, “The Bradley Barn Sessions”) and Merle Haggard (“Farmer’s Blues” is from Stuart’s 2003 album, “Country Music”).
Among Stuart’s most important compadres were his fellow Mississippians, B.B. King and the Staple Singers. Stuart sang “Confessin’ the Blues” with King on the latter’s 1997 album, “Deuces Wild.” He recast the Band’s “The Weight” with the Staple Singers for the 1994 album, “Rhythm, Country & Blues.” Mavis Staples helped sing “Move Along Train” on Stuart’s 2005 album, “Souls Chapel.”
After serving his apprenticeships with Flatt and Cash, Stuart felt ready to pursue a solo career. In 1986, he released “Marty Stuart” on Columbia and enjoyed his first top-20 single. The media dubbed him a member of the “Class of 1986,” grouping him with Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett and Randy Travis, four more singers who emerged that year with a modern take on traditional country. “Compadres” showcases Stuart and Earle on “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” from the 1996 tribute album, “Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly).” Yoakam and Travis joined Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris and many others on “Same Old Train” from the 1998 album, “Tribute to Tradition.”Stuart enjoyed his greatest stretch of chart success in the early ‘90s when he recorded for MCA. He had top-10 solo singles such as “Hillbilly Rock,” “Tempted” and “Burn Me Down,” but he also formed a fruitful partnership with another young traditionalist, Travis Tritt. They had top-10 success with such duets as “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’” (included on “Compadres”) and “This One’s Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time).” The MCA years ended with Stuart’s masterful concept album, 1999’s “The Pilgrim.”In the course of producing and co-writing the 1998 comeback album, “Connie Smith,” Stuart fell in love with the legendary singer and married her. “Hearts Like Ours,” a ballad from that album, has now been turned into a duet with a new vocal from Stuart. Smith’s favorite singer, Loretta Lynn, joins Stuart on a brand-new version of Dallas Frazier’s “Will You Visit Me on Sunday.”
Don’t call them guest stars. These singers and pickers are Stuart’s compadres. They have been his teachers and classmates, his heroes and peers, his buddies and brothers. In the music they made together, you can hear their common quest to keep traditional American music alive and vital.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4
10:00am–Noon
Location: MSU campus , Lee Hall Auditorium
Redemption Service: A church service featuring Johnny Cash’s sister Joanne Cash, Kevin Max, and local musicians singing gospel music that Johnny Cash enjoyed.
