Back by popular demand to headline the 11th annual RiverSong Music Festival, July 12-13, are the Fabulous Armadillos.
The band made its first appearance at the festival in 2017 with its "Takin' It To The Limit: An Eagles Tribute Show." This time around, they're shaking things up with a musical tribute of the songs from the 1960s to today.
"They are super high energy," said Ronny Wilson, RiverSong talent committee member and operations committee lead. "They got people up and out of their seats. We're excited about that. They're really professional, polished musicians."
It was the chart-topping hit “The Way” that launched Fastball. The record skyrocketed to platinum-plus sales in six months. It scored a pair of Grammy nominations, an MTV Music Award nomination and appearances on late night talk shows including Conan O’Brien, David Letterman and Jay Leno.
Saturday night brings Fastball to the Front Porch Stage. The American rock band hit the big time with its second album, "All the Pain Money Can Buy," which sold more than 1 million copies. The Austin, Texas, group had three chart-topping hits from the album: "The Way," "Fire Escape" and "Out of My Head." Fastball has released a total of five albums with a new one expected later this year.
"A lot of people will recognize them from the late 1990s and 2000s," Wilson said. "It's a really fun group."
After each festival, the board conducts an online poll to find out who were the favorite performers. The top vote-getter is invited back. Returning for this year's festival is Good Morning Bedlam.
"It was their first time at RiverSong and they blew us away with their high-energy bluegrass/Americana sound," Wilson said.
If you missed them at the music festival, you may have seen them recently at Bobbing Bobber Brewing Co. in Hutchinson.
In addition to Fastball, new performers to RiverSong this year are:
Ronny Wilson described Miss Myra and the Moonshiners as having a “hot jazz club, New Orleans-style, swing style of music.”
- Annie Fitzgerald, a singer-songwriter,
- Corey Medina, Native American blues artist,
- St. George's Folly features original and traditional Irish music;
- Kent Burnside and the Flood Brothers, blues artists,
- Thunder and Rain, bluegrass,
- Dan Rodriguez, singer-songwriter,
- Chester Bay, American alternative rock band,
- Katy Vernon is known as the "Ukulele Songbird," and
- Miss Myra and The Moonshiners, vintage jazz and blues.
Wilson is bubbling with enthusiasm for this year's lineup. Among the acts he's most looking forward to is Kent Burnside and the Flood Brothers. Blues fans take note, Burnside is the grandson of R.L. Burnside, American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist.
"If you love blues, you will love Kent Burnside and the Flood Brothers," he said.
When it comes to RiverSong, Wilson has been involved since the beginning. He volunteered the first year and joined the talent committee the following year. It was a couple of years after that when he stepped up to become leader of the operations committee, which is responsible for coordinating camping, ticketing and vendors for the festival.
Good Morning Bedlam is returning to the Front Porch Stage at RiverSong Music Festival. The Minneapolis-based quartet is known for putting their own unique spin on traditional folk music.
Wilson has stuck with it because he sees it as a "very important face of Hutchinson and our community."
"It's important to me," he said. "It's a lot of work as we build up to the festival. It's a labor of love. It makes me feel good. The fruits of our labor is this beautiful festival enjoyed by so many."
Choosing the performers
According to Wilson, the RiverSong Talent Committee typically meets monthly with the most recent gathering Tuesday night. The lineup for the 2019 festival was mostly set, so they began looking for new talent for 2020.
When it comes to finding bands, Wilson said he looks at a lot of other festivals to see who is performing. From there, he'll go to Spotify, a digital music service, and listen to the bands and see what other artists it recommends.
Suggestions also come from RiverSong fans, family, friends and past performers.
Ronny Wilson of the RiverSong Talent Committee described Thunder and Rain as “a really awesome band with a great sound.” The Golden, Colorado, group is known for its Americana/bluegrass music.
The process for choosing bands begins by each talent committee member putting together their own list of favorites. From there, each list is passed along to Campbell, who will take all the lists and from them create a master list of performers. From there, the list is further broken down to monthly lists of 15 to 20 performers, which are distributed each month to members for listening and ranking. Ultimately, a new list of about 40 performers emerges.
In September, that whittled-down list is researched to find out if the artists are available and what are their fees. That's when the committee starts to put the lineup together.
"We have to be mindful of our budget," Wilson said. "We don't always get our first choice. Most of the time we can get the ones we want. Sometimes we have to reconfigure the lineup based on availability."
Feb. 1 is the group's soft deadline for finalizing the bands.
"This year we carried over the deadline by a couple of days due to availability," Wilson said.
Change at RiverSong
St. George's Folly hails from St. Paul. The band is known for playing original and traditional Irish tunes.
Change is happening at RiverSong Music Festival. It started with a new mission statement: "RiverSong celebrates Minnesota's rich musical heritage in an annual riverfront festival for music lovers of all passions and backgrounds."
"In that vein, we're definitely keeping two key points in our lineup," Wilson said. "Bands that have ties to Minnesota or the Upper Midwest and have a relative broad range of musical genres for the festival."
Last fall, Betsy Price, longtime talent committee lead, stepped down to take on fundraising. Replacing her is Josh Campbell.
Also new is Richie Kuttner, who was named president of the board. Carol Stark is treasurer and Katy Hiltner is secretary. Serving as the interim executive director is Price.
"It's the people that shape the direction of what we're doing," Wilson said.
Singer and songwriter Katy Vernon is known as the “singer of sad songs on a happy instrument.” Her instrument of choice is the ukulele. Although she grew up in London, England, she is now a Minneapolis/St. Paul-based performer.
