Cowpie has finalized the lineup for its summer soiree with UV Hippo, May Erlewine and more; Jake’s fest in early April stars four Grand Rapids bands playing the city’s newest music venue.
Heading to Shagbark Farm: Keller Williams will bring his exuberance to Cowpie Music Festival 2018.
VALLEY GIRL, THE AUTUMNATIC, CONRAD SHOCK, POTATOEBABIES TO PUMP UP JAKE’S MUSIC FEST IN APRIL
Jake’s Music Festival is stepping up to a new downtown venue for 2018: The Intersection’s much-buzzed-about Elevation, which hosted its first public concert Saturday night.
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Ready to Rev Up Elevation: Rev Charles Preston Smith and PotatoeBabies will once again play Jake’s Music Festival. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
The Autumnatic, Valley Girl and Conrad Shock + The Noise will pump up the April 6 festival which raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, with jocular and irreverent longtime Grand Rapids rock spectacle, The PotatoeBabies, also playing this year’s event.
Jake’s Music Festival, which had been staged as a day-long event for many years at Wealthy Theatre, was held at The Orbit Room in 2017. This year’s festival is also being held for the first time on a Friday night, as opposed to Saturday.
“We moved to Elevation,” said organizer Tom Scheidel, “because the new venue will be better suited to the festival feel of the event. Plus, being in downtown Grand Rapids provides an energy and visibility that will hopefully draw more people to the show.”
Elevation (Photo/Kendra Kamp)
Like last year’s event at The Orbit Room, the April 6 show at Elevation will feature a silent auction in the same room, with breaks between band performance to allow “attendees to visit the other activities without feeling like they were missing any music. The flow of the evening worked well last year, so we decided to keep that format for the 2018 show.”
Scheidel noted this year’s festival features two returning acts in The PotatoeBabies and The Autumnatic, with newcomers Valley Girl and Conrad Shock and the Noise. “This is going to be a very fun show, with lots of energy and great music,” he said.
Doors open at 7 p.m. on April 6. Tickets are $10 (or $25 VIP) and available online here.
All proceeds from ticket sales will go to support the local chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The event is sponsored by Perrin Brewing, the Gordon Group and United Bank.
For more about the new Elevation venue, check out this Local Spins story and video tour.
KELLER WILLIAMS TO HEADLINE COWPIE FEST 2018
One-man jam-band star Keller Williams will headline the 2018 edition of the Cowpie Music Festival, with Michigan music icons May Erlewine and Ultraviolet Hippopotamus also added to an impressive bill that already featured The Steel Wheels, Hyryder and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper.
Returness: Ultraviolet Hippopotamus will be back for Cowpie 2018.. (Photo/Anna Sink)
The Aug. 9-11 festival on Shagbark Farm in Alaska in southern Kent County will feature sets by two dozen acts, led by Williams, a live looping wizard who weaves bluegrass, rock, electronica, jazz, funk and more into his multi-instrumental repertoire.
The 48-year-old musician has released more than 20 albums since the mid-1990s and collaborated with a host of other musicians and bands (including Traverse City’s The Accidentals).
Singer-songwriter May Erlewine, meanwhile, has continued to generate sparks for her soulful Americana music, recently winning WYCE’s Jammie of the Year award for her latest studio album, “Mother Lion.”
And Ultraviolet Hippopotamus is getting ready to uncork its latest, lushly arranged and much-anticipated new studio album this fall.
Shagbark Splendor: The Cowpie herd in 2017. (Photo/John Sinkevics)
The rest of the lineup for Cowpie Music Festival, which earlier had announced a trio of national acts for this year’s festival (The Steel Wheels, Hyryder, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper), features a mix of established artists and up-and-coming regional stars:
Desmond Jones, Jake Kershaw, Mungion, The Bootstrap Boys, Fauxgrass, Paddlebots, Jimmie Stagger, Cabildo, Bigfoot Buffalo, Guitar Up!, Act Casual, Olivia Mainville & The Aquatic Troupe, Stay At Home Dabs, Melophobix, Trax-A-Trillion, Galactic Sherpas and Watching for Foxes.
One more regional band will be added to the lineup as part of the festival’s first-ever Pathway to the Pasture band battle series, with a dozen bands duking it out in separate rounds being held in four different locations. Grand Rapids rock band The Zannies won the first battle held at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill on Saturday night, with future rounds being held in Holland, Kalamazoo and Lansing.
The finals will take place April 21 at The Intersection. Get more details about Cowpie Music Festival online here. Early-bird tickets are not yet on sale.
Browse coverage of past Cowpie Music Festivals online here.
Copyright 2018, Spins on Music LLC
