The one-day festival aims to jumpstart summer with an all-star cast that features highly regarded national acts as well as Southwest Michigan’s Slim Gypsy Baggage.
Blues/Soul Hero: Jonny Lang will fire up this year’s festival in St. Joseph. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
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Another hot lineup will grace the shores of Lake Michigan in downtown St. Joseph as the Fifth Annual BBQ, Blues and Bluegrass: A Taste of Michigan gets the summer festival season started a little early.
Jam-Packed Festival: Buddy Guy was a real crowd-pleaser when he performed at BBQ, Blues & Bluegrass in 2015. (Photo/Joshua Nowicki)
The May 20 festival at Whirlpool Centennial Park — which has brought in bluegrass heavyweights such as Sam Bush, Greensky Bluegrass and The Infamous Stringdusters along with blues legend Buddy Guy in past years — will be headlined by a pair of Grammy-winning artists: blues virtuoso Jonny Lang and progressive bluegrass favorites The SteelDrivers.
Lang, who was supposed to headline last year but had to back out at the 11th hour due to complications with his wife’s pregnancy, will be making his first appearance at the festival.
The SteelDrivers are making their second appearance, but the first since year one when they were signed to the bill just prior to former frontman Chris Stapleton’s departure. Their most recent album, and second with Gary Nichols at the helm, “Muscle Shoals Recordings,” earned them a 2016 Grammy Award for bluegrass album of the year.
The SteelDrivers (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
Joining the headliners will be up-and-coming blues giants The Marcus King Band, returning local act Slim Gypsy Baggage, who will perform with special guest Matt Rollings on keys, and Missoula, Montana’s The Lil’ Smokies, a band that has taken the newgrass world by storm having won the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition in 2015 and the Northwest String Summit Band Competition in 2012.
“They are killing it, just doing awesome,” festival booking agent Ron Weimer said of The Lil’ Smokies. “They are on a lot of major festival lineups this year and we are fortunate enough to get them. On the whole, we are really looking forward to this year’s lineup, I think we’ve got a really good one.”
Having sold out the past couple years, Weimer expects that the 5,000 tickets available won’t last long, especially at the pre-sale price of $20.
The Lil’ Smokies
For those who can’t get in, they will be able to take in the music from outside the gates on the adjacent bluff, he noted, but they won’t be able to get their hands on the tasty BBQ and beer that go hand in hand with good blues and bluegrass.
While the festival’s model has been to bring in national and regional touring acts, one local-turned semi-regional band has remained a staple on the bill: Slim Gypsy Baggage will take to the Whirlpool stage for the fourth time in the event’s brief history.
“The coolest thing is that it is right in our backyard,” said SGB lead guitarist Cam Mammina. “It’s a great thing for our community to have and we are just super excited to be a part of it and that we keep getting asked back. It’s the one time of year we get bands of this caliber coming to St. Joe.”
Slim Gypsy Baggage (Photo/Anna Sink)
Mammina said he is extra thrilled this year that the band will be playing with Rollings, one of country music’s top session piano players and producer of Willie Nelson’s recent Grammy-winning “Summertime: Willie Nelson sings George Gershwin.”
He’s also looking forward to having a side-stage view for Marcus King, one of the top young blues guitarists on the scene, who at 20 will be making stops at Red Rocks, Summer Camp and Lockn’ this summer.
Two of this year’s bands can be seen this weekend in southwest Michigan. Slim Gypsy Baggage plays Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill in Grand Rapids tonight (March 24), with The Marcus King Band performing Saturday at Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo.
Find a complete schedule and more information on the festival, including vendors, online here. The festival, organized by St. Joseph Today, is sponsored by Chemical Band and Trust and the Paul & Rose Suchovsky Charitable Trust.
VIDEO: Jonny Lang
VIDEO: The SteelDrivers
VIDEO: Marcus King Band
VIDEO: The Lil’ Smokies
VIDEO: Slim Gypsy Baggage
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