From the good folks at Suwannee Roots Revival: The 10th Suwannee Roots Revival is excited to announce lineup additions for this fall’s festival including Amelia Day, The Resolvers, Victoria Cardona, Asydequest, Two Foot Level, Suns of Stars, Yet To Be Gold, The Jack Shealy Band and Firewater Tent Revival! They are joining a fabulous lineup which includes Trampled by Turtles, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon, Peter Rowan, Donna the Buffalo, Jim Lauderdale, Shadowgrass, Eddie 9V, Shinyribs, The Lee Boys with Roosevelt Collier, Armchair Boogie, Verlon Thompson, Jon Stickley Trio, The Grass Is Dead, Mosier Brothers Band, Holy Roller, Nikki Talley Band, Quartermoon, and Sloppy Joe. Suwannee Roots Revival takes place Thursday, Oct. 8, through Sunday, Oct. 11, at the renowned Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, Florida. Fostering the longtime tradition of hosting some of the most prominent names in American roots music and beyond, this four-day family-friendly music festival includes camping, music workshops, kids’ activities, arts & crafts, and daily yoga. Nestled in 800 acres of gorgeous Spanish moss-draped oak and cypress trees along the Suwannee River in northern Florida, Suwannee Roots Revival celebrates community-based fun, growing friendships, laughing families, and the joy you get from making memories with friends old and new. Festival Director Beth Judy says, ”When it comes to music festivals with camping onsite, our venue, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, is the very best. Combine that with our Suwannee Roots Revival’s rich history of amazing festivals that have created an open, loving community of people from all walks of life and ages. Add to that this compelling and exciting lineup and you’ve got the blueprint for an incredible musical adventure filled with fun, laughter and friends. I highly suggest making plans to be there if you have not already. You’ve never had such a good time!”
The streets of downtown Raleigh will come alive for the second Raleigh Wide Open Music Festival, presented by PNC, with more than 40 artists performing music on multiple stages along downtown’s Fayetteville Street.
There will be something for nearly every musical taste including bluegrass, folk, country, rock, norteño, gospel and many other genres blended in, “played by real humans who make music about real things,” according to the website. Best of all, it’s FREE! There are no tickets or wristbands needed. Just show up ready to enjoy a great time with friends and family.
I am particularly looking forward to hearing Caleb Caudle, Hank, Pattie and the Current, The Honeydew Drops, Tan and Sober Gentlemen, Jacob Sharpe and Joseph Terrell of Mipso, Shinyribs, Jim Lauderdale and Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road. I am also looking forward to being introduced to new artists I haven’t had the chance to hear before.
In addition there will be arts vendors, food trucks, an N.C. Family Fun Zone, and more all celebrating roots music and community.
It all starts on Thursday evening, Oct. 1, with a Kickoff Celebration featuring music under the string lights at The Corner on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus. Then, on Friday, Oct. 2, and Saturday, Oct. 3, downtown Raleigh comes alive with multiple stages of music and a celebration of community that spans several city blocks.
The festival remains free this year thanks to generous sponsors and donors, whose support ensures the music is accessible to everyone.
To see the full artist lineup and schedule and learn more at raleighwideopen.com.
Band Together announces the 2026 Mighty Giveback concert on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, at the Lincoln Theatre Outdoor Stage in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. This milestone event marks 25 years of impact and a continued commitment to creating Infinite Good across the region.
Headlined by Southern soul powerhouse JJ Grey & Mofro, with high-energy indie folk favorites The 502s, the 2026 concert carries forward Band Together’s legacy of pairing nationally recognized artists with meaningful local impact.
Proceeds from the Mighty Giveback concert support Band Together’s 2026 Impact Partners across two key areas, Music and Community. Our music impact partner is The Raleigh Music Collective, empowering youth with music education. Our community impact partners are Oak City Cares, who connect people experiencing homelessness to services and care, and PORCH Communities, who create sustainable neighborhood-based hunger relief programs.
FloydFest organizers have released the final lineup of acts to be included in the 2026 edition of the festival, FloydFest~Daydream, which is set to take place at FestivalPark on July 22-26.
The inaugural announcement regarding FloydFest~Daydream on Nov. 6 introduced a quartet of 2026 headliners: Grammy Award-winning rock-and-soul juggernaut Tedeschi Trucks Band, rock-and-roll cultural legends My Morning Jacket, songcraft-alchemist Stephen Wilson Jr. and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson.
Organizers said these headlining acts “serve as a powerful representation of both Across-the-Way’s brand of purposeful programming, as well as the company’s dedication to delivering artists who top its patrons’ annual request lists.”
The strengths of those headliners are buttressed by additional artists in 2026’s initial announcement:
Larkin Poe
The Word (Ft. Robert Randolph, John Medeski, and North Mississippi Allstars)
Andy Frasco and The U.N., Amble
AJ Lee and Blue Summit
The Creekers
Penelope Road
Caitlin Krisko and The Broadcast
Jason Scott and The High Heat
Lespecial
MT Jones
Cruz Contreras and The Black Lillies
Coyote Island
Johnny Mullenax
Isaac Hadden
Music Road Co.
All artists on the initial announcement (and all subsequent announcements) can be discovered and explored via extensive bios, links and music at www.floydfest.com/lineup.
Additional information — including a 2026 Site Map, updated FAQs, Children’s Universe information, a playlist featuring FloydFest~Daydream artists, more information about camping and parking, and more as announcements roll out — is available online atwww.floydfest.com.
Patrons are encouraged to secure tickets now for FloydFest 26~Daydream by visiting eitherwww.floydfest.com or www.aftontickets.com/floydfest26daydream. Following the increase to Tier 1 pricing on Nov. 14, the Tier 2 increase is set for March 1, 2026, with the third and final move to Tier 3 pricing scheduled for July 1, if tickets remain.
Visit the following link for tickets and more information: www.floydfest.com
Wanna be first to hear who’s playing the 2026 Raleigh Wide Open Music Festival? Come to our free Lineup Announcement live event on May 12, part of our weekly Beer and Banjos concert at Bowstring Pizza and Brewyard in Raleigh.
From 6:30-9 p.m., you’ll hear music from the Beer and Banjos All-Stars and a guest band, and we’ve got some extra fun in store as we unveil the festival lineup. It’ll also be the first opportunity to buy our brand-new 2026 festival merch – yes, our beloved banjo-hoisting squirrel will be prominently featured!
Beer and Banjos is a free, family-friendly evening of roots music every Tuesday at Raleigh’s Bowstring Pizza and Brewyard. Hosted by the mighty local musicians known collectively as the Beer and Banjos Allstars, these weekly concerts feature guest musicians and take place on Bowstring’s spacious patio when the weather allows, or inside by the bar when rain, heat, or cold threaten the vibe.
Tips for the musicians are gratefully accepted (look for a helper walking around with a bucket for cash and QR codes for online tips), and don’t forget to check out the merch table. Bowstring serves tasty pizza and other food as well as cold beer and other beverages.
Learn more about Beer and Banjos events statewide here.
Parking at Bowstring Brewyard can fill up fast. If you arrive and find the parking lot full, here are some options:
PAY PARKING: Exit the Bowstring parking lot by turning right onto Wake Forest Road, then quickly take a right (at the light) onto E. Whitaker Mill Rd. Turn right into the parking lot of the StorageMax and look for a kiosk to pay.
FREE PARKING: Turn right out of the Bowstring parking lot and quickly turn left at the light onto E. Whitaker Mill Rd. Turn left into the parking lot of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church. It’s about a 5-10 minute walk back to Bowstring from there.
One of the constants at MerleFest is that it will rain. Sometimes it’s just a few drops and sometimes it’s a downpour, but as someone who has attended this premiere outdoor (mostly) festival that celebrates all types of music faithfully for more than two decades, I can promise you that something will fall from the sky and this year was no different.
Photo by Pixels on Paper Photography
Another constant at MerleFest is Jim Lauderdale, who made his 29th appearance this year. You can always find Lauderdale, a native North Carolinian, performing on one stage or another as well as jumping in to jam with The Waybacks during the popular Album Hour or just walking around the Wilkes Community College campus on his way to or from another set chatting with other musicians or fans.
This year Lauderdale released his 39th album — yes, you read that right 39th — called “The Birds Know” with The Po’Ramblin’ Boys at MerleFest on April 24. Lauderdale kicked off Friday’s festivities on the Creekside Stage with tunes from his new bluegrass album as well as his 38th album, Country Super Hits Volume 2, which he released in March.
It’s not the first time the Americana legend has teamed up with IBMA Award-winning torchbearers The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys. “The Birds Know” is a follow-up to 2023’s “The Long and Lonesome Letting Go” which also featured The Po’Ramblin’ Boys.
If you are already a fan of MerleFest, then you can skip to No. 1. For the uninitiated, however, MerleFest is the younger, Eastern cousin of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I discovered this gem of Americana festivals more than two decades ago after I moved to North Carolina from spending nearly a decade out West attending the Telluride festival. You may be surprised to learn that MerleFest has nothing to do with Merle Haggard, although that has proved confusing over the years. It was especially confusing the year the Hag himself closed out the four-day music festival. Instead it is named in memory of Eddy Merle Watson, son of bluegrass legend and North Carolina native Doc Watson. Known as one of the best flat-picking and slide guitarists of his generation, Merle Watson died in a farming accident in 1985 at the age of 36. Doc Watson started the Americana festival that bears his son’s name as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College in 1988 to honor his son and their style of music, that Doc referred to as “traditional plus,” meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever other styles the Watsons were in the mood to play. We lost Doc Watson in 2012 but he and Merle Watson’s musical celebration continues on featuring bluegrass, Americana, country, blues, rock and many other styles. This year’s festival will play host to a diverse number of artists, performing on 13 stages during the course of the four-day event April 23-26. Watch this video from the very first #MerleFest 1988 featuring Mark O’Connor, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Sam Bush and John Cowan, many of whom will be performing this year. And while there are many more than 12 reasons to attend MerleFest, it seemed fitting to highlight a dozen reasons since that is the same number of stages the festival features.
WILKESBORO –– MerleFest, presented by Window World, has revealed a star-studded roster joining its highly anticipated Late Night Jam hosted by Old Crow Medicine Show.
The beloved MerleFest tradition promises unforgettable collaborations between special guests including Charlie Starr (of Blackberry Smoke), Maggie Rose, The Creekers, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, DUG, Donna the Buffalo, and more to be announced.
MerleFest is proud to once again welcome our 2026 Acoustic Kids Showcases with Andy May. Since 2001, the Acoustic Kids program has given young musicians of any skill level the opportunity to perform on festival stages in a supportive environment.
Beginner through pro, all musicians 18 or younger are welcome to participate and share their music with the MerleFest audience. Each year, we host three 1.5-hour showcases and a half-hour Acoustic Kids Ambassadors set.
The WCC Foundation is thrilled to continue the Silent Auction this year, featuring the convenience of online bidding and the chance to view items in person throughout the festival. You can browse and place bids before and during the festival — all without missing a beat of the music. This year’s auction will showcase an even greater variety of distinctive, high-quality items, and the 50/50 Raffle is back for another exciting year! Proceeds support the SAGE (Supporting Academic Goals for Education) First Year Experience program, empowering students to start strong and achieve their goals. Stay tuned for more details at merlefest.org/silent-auction.
MerleFest 2026 tickets are available now, including the highly anticipated Late Night Jam. For general admission passes, reserved seating, camping, parking, and more, please visit merlefest.org/purchase.
About MerleFest MerleFest, presented by Window World, was founded in 1988 as a fundraiser for the Garden of the Senses at Wilkes Community College to memorialize world-renowned flatpicker Doc Watson’s late son, Eddy Merle Watson. MerleFest is a celebration of “traditional plus” music, a unique mix of traditional, roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region, including old-time, classic country, bluegrass, folk and gospel, blues, and expanded to include Americana, classic rock, and many other styles. The festival hosts a diverse mix of artists on its 12 stages during the course of the multi-day event. MerleFest is the primary fundraiser for the WCC Foundation, funding scholarships, capital projects, and other educational needs.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Campbell Law School’s website on Oct. 15.
David Childers ‘81 has been called one of North Carolina’s most underrated song writers.
The Campbell Law School alumnus practiced law with his father, Max Childers, in his Gaston County hometown of Mount Holly after graduation. For more than a decade, Childers handled everything from criminal to domestic cases to DUIs, ”just whatever was thrown at me,” he told music writer Mark Kemp in this story from The Charlotte Ledger in August 2025.
Childers began writing songs on his acoustic Gibson guitar, basing them loosely on some of the characters and their lives he saw through his law practice. He started performing in small Charlotte clubs. He released his first CD when he was 45 with his then group, The Mount Holly Hellcats.
Childers continued to practice law along with his music making throughout the late ’90s, recording three more albums with a variety of notable musicians, including members of Charlotte bands Lou Ford and The Rank Outsiders and the late West Coast guitarist Duane Jarvis, who played with Lucinda Williams.
But on a hot, humid night in July 2000, Dolph Ramseur of Ramseur Records, an independent label that would go on to produce Childers along with The Avett Brothers, happened to catch Childers at the legendary Double Door Inn in Charlotte.
“Most of the songs he performed that evening were filled with the subject matter of Jesus, damnation, salvation, the Devil, forgiveness and redemption,” Ramseur is quoted in Childers’ bio on his website. “I will never, ever forget it. It was such an inspiration that the next day I wrote David a personal letter asking him if we could make a record together about those things in which he was singing about. We have been friends ever since. No record or manager contract. Just a handshake.”
That record, “Blessed in an Unusual Way,” ended up being recorded in Ramseur’s home. “David’s been a kind of a rock for me in many ways,” Ramseur told Kemp. “Much like it is with the Avetts and me, David and I speak the same language — that Southern Piedmont mill town thing. We’re all made from the same stuff.”
Ramseur adds on Childers website, “It is my hope David’s greatness as a songwriter and artist will be recognized and appreciated by many in years to come.”
Turns out, on Thursday, Oct. 16, that hope will come true as Childers will be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, which is home to musical legends, including James Taylor; the late, great Doc Watson; John Coltrane; and the aforementioned Avett Brothers.
Childers is being inducted alongside country music star Luke Combs, Clyde Mattocks, Dexter Romweber, Hattie “Chatty Hatty” Leeper and Robert Deaton. The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place annually to honor music legends with roots in North Carolina. The ceremony is open to the public for a night filled with music, celebration and nostalgia. The 2025 class to be enshrined during the annual induction ceremony at the Mooresville Performing Arts Center.
The ceremony is a commemorative occasion in which music industry professionals who have made a significant impact on American Music are introduced as new members of our Hall of Fame. The ceremony will feature each inductees’ acceptance of their induction, video presentations and live performances. Tickets are $50 and $80 and are available at this link.
Childers’ Hall of Fame induction comes at a time when the musician, poet and artist could use some good news. In summer 2024 Childers was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. While he tried to keep his illness quiet, once his friends and other musicians found out they created a GoFundMe account to help with his bills. To date, they’ve raised more than $30,000.
Childers told Kemp, “I had no idea how appreciated I was … I mean, the amount of love that just poured in. And not only that, but also the financial help. I get checks in the mail for $500! I’m like, ‘What’s this for?’ and they’re like, ‘Well, just because of what you’ve done. You’ve meant a lot to me — your music.’”
His latest song, about a vagrant in the Durham bus station, includes the lines, “Sometimes bad things happen… Keep your focus. You might get an answer. There might just be an angel standing next to you.”
Kemp writes, “Childers has put his trust in angels his entire life. His songs and paintings are all about darkness and light, sin and redemption, hard times and freedom. He doesn’t know where life will take him from here, but he knows he’s going to be OK.”
Childers continued, “That’s one thing I want people to understand, I’m doing fine. I get out there, I walk about a mile and a half a day. I cut grass with a push mower. I lift weights. I paint all the time. I’m back to playing gigs…I’m probably the happiest I’ve been in my life. I ain’t planning on dying anytime soon.”
Fans of Yarn and RoosterWalk Music and Arts Festival will be excited to hear that the 5th rendition of the band’s annual alternative music festival is moving to Pop’s Farm just outside Martinsville, Virginia, on Oct. 16-18, 2025.
Tickets are on sale now at this link and start $110. The event’s address is 675 Hobson Road, Axton, Virginia.
Band leader and founder Blake Christiana says, “We are moving Yarnival 5 to Pop’s Farm in an effort to make it just a little bit bigger and hopefully even better. Big huge thanks and love to Jay and Constance Wyant for allowing us to grow this event at Alder Creek Farm for its first four years.
“In sticking with our small festival appeal where every ticket is a VIP, we will be limiting the number of tickets we sell and continue the laidback vibe that has made our past Yarnival’s so welcoming, friendly and comfortable. WE DO EXPECT A SELL OUT, SO GET YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE.
“We will continue to feature whatever kind of music we feel like alongside our feature of alternative forms of entertainment, i.e. magic, carnival arts, circus performers, burlesque, etc… You won’t be seeing any super ‘big names’ at our festival but you will be seeing talent that is equal to or even greater than said ‘big names.’ Most likely some will even go on to become ‘big names.’ The difference between a band that draws a hundred people every night and 10,000 people every night is a tiny speck of dust. Albeit magic dust, but just a little dust nonetheless.”
More about Yarn
Blake Christiana, founding member of Yarn, has the music in him. In fact, you could say that Blake is the music and the music is Blake; that’s how deeply he inhabits the songs he writes and plays. You can hear him struggling with his feelings, whether it’s on a skittering country shuffle or on a mid-tempo folk ballad or a straight-ahead rocker. His restless search for the chords and lyrics over the past 20 years has produced a plethora of memorable music, and since 2007 he’s led Yarn, a band that’s evolved from its earliest days as a bar band in New York City to an outstanding roots band that’s shared stages with Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss, and Leftover Salmon, among many others.
Yarn got their start by playing a weekly residency at Kenny’s Castaways in Greenwich Village in 2007. “We played there every Monday night for two years. I was writing like crazy, and we’d try out the songs. It was like rehearsing on stage; every night was different, and sometimes we played in front of five people and sometimes there’d be 100 people there.” Over the years, musicians have rotated in and out of Yarn, but drummer Robert Bonhomme and bassist Rick Bugel, along with Christiana, have remained the core of the band.
17 years and over 10 albums later, Yarn has a new album, “Born, Blessed, Grateful & Alive,” out in July 2024, and their exuberance shines as bright as ever; they lay down jubilant songs—even when the lyrics might be a little less than joyous—and play effortlessly across a number of genres. Joining Christiana, Bonhomme, and Bugel in the studio for this he album were guitarists Mike Robinson (Railroad Earth), Andy Falco (Infamous Stringdusters), and Mike Sivilli (Dangermuffin), bassist Johnny Grubb (Railroad Earth), harmony vocalists Heather Hannah and Elliott Peck (Midnight North), and keyboardist Damian Calcagne, who co-produced the album along side Blake Christiana.
The soaring Allman Brothers-esque mid-tempo rocker “Turn Off the News” opens with a cascading piano run that tumbles into the band’s echoing vocals that reverberate with a gospel-inflected acclimation of the joy we feel when we can “turn of the news” and “shake off the blues” of the incessant 24 hour depressing news cycle. The country shuffle “Somethings Gotta Change” strolls along the crystalline riffs of a pedal steel that darts in and out of a honky-tonk piano; the song exudes a joyous spirit even in the face of the world falling down around it.
Amelia Day
Asydequest 
Victoria Cardona
