2 years ago
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Kevin Griffin is “cool arsenic a cucumber” erstwhile talking with HollywoodLife. At the time, it was little than 3 weeks distant from the 2022 variation of the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival (taking spot tomorrow, Sept. 24 and 25, astatine the Harlinsdale Farm successful Franklin, Tennessee.) This year’s variation of the long-running festival featured Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, The Avett Brothers, Elle King, Jon Batiste, and a stacked lineup, but the Better Than Ezra frontman – and festival co-founder – wasn’t sweating the details. “Honestly, it’s similar summertime camp. Everybody starts coming successful implicit the adjacent week, and erstwhile it winds down, and we’re doing the postmortem, taking things down and cleaning up the park, it’s that ‘sad extremity of camp’ benignant of vibe.”
“Me and my partners, W. Brandt Wood and Michael Whelan, were fortunate to turn up going to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,” shares Griffin. “And what Jazz Fest is, it’s a solemnisation of the champion music, food, culture, artisans, and merchants of the Gulf southbound — New Orleans has been spreading retired — and man, you’ve got indie hipsters and scenesters with kids and families – and there’s a large foundation, helium Jazz & Heritage Foundation, that supports euphony programs and antithetic charitable organizations successful the metropolis — each those things. I grew up thinking, ‘Hey, each festivals are similar this.’ It’s family-friendly. It’s cool.”
Kevin Griffin (Ray Garbo/Shutterstock)“And, and engaging musically and family-friendly are not mutually exclusive. They tin beryllium together, and origin I’ve seen, I grew up with it,” helium adds. Such is the lawsuit with the Lil’ Pilgrims Family Stage And Mare Barn Theatre, 1 of the 5 stages astatine the Pilgrimage Music Festival. Families tin instrumentality successful the sights and the sounds of the festival passim the day, and beryllium backmost successful clip to spot Jon Batiste and Brandi Carlile adjacent retired Saturday connected the Gold Record Road and Midnight Sun stages.
Better Than Ezra (Robby Klein)Pilgrimage offers its ain unsocial experience. When Kevin relocated to Franklin, Tennessee, successful 2013, helium wanted to bring that “Jazz Fest feeling” to his caller home. “Even successful 2013, determination was already Bonnaroo; determination were already a ton of festivals. But I was like, this higher-end, smaller festival experience, there’s truly a lane for it. Maybe you went to Bonnaroo, partied successful your tent, and present you’ve got a family. Or, you’d similar immoderate bully food, but you inactive think, ‘Man, I inactive excavation immoderate chill music.’ It’s truly chill what we get to bash present successful the city. It conscionable clicks.”
Helping this twelvemonth “click” is simply a absorption connected Americana music. “If you look astatine our past lineups,” says Kevin, “it benignant of changes. We’ve had immoderate years that person leaned Americana country, similar this year. We’ve had immoderate years that person leaned much pop, similar Justin Timberlake and Walk The Moon. And then, much stone similar Foo Fighters and The Killers. And we conscionable benignant of consciousness what we’re into that year, and what feels like that year.”
Sometimes, “the lineups conscionable autumn together,” says Griffin. “Sometimes, it’s by accident, and sometimes, it’s by design. This year, we locked successful Chris Stapleton and Brandi, it benignant of acceptable the tone. And we’ve ever wanted to get Jon Batiste – and we whitethorn beryllium 1 of his fewer nationalist performances this year. He’s not doing immoderate festivals due to the fact that he’s dealing with his wife’s sick health. So we’re precise grateful to beryllium having him. But, this is simply a precise circumstantial onshore we’re going for this year, and it feels similar we’ve chosen right.”
However, what truly makes the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival stand retired among the remainder is the absorption connected the second fractional of the title: the culture. Griffin tells HollywoodLife that’s not conscionable immoderate “lip service” oregon branding, but that the festival celebrates the interaction the country has had connected modern music. “We person this immense structure called the American Music Triangle tent. And the ‘music triangle’ is the triangle that surrounds the Mississippi Delta. If you bash a triangle from New Orleans up to Memphis implicit to Nashville and backmost down to New Orleans, that portion – from Louisiana to Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee – is arguably wherever not lone American euphony (rock, blues jazz) has travel from, but it’s infiltrated the full world.”
“So we person this structure wherever municipalities from each successful the triangle — Greenville Cleveland, Tupelo, Muscles Shoals, New Orleans, Memphis — astatine adjacent San Antonio with Tejano music, they each person booths there. And we person Mike Wolfe from American Pickers curating the country with each these antiques from his backstage warehouse. When you spell into this tent, it’s similar stepping backmost successful time. You person radical speaking astir euphony genres connected stage, and past you person an creator exhibiting that. We truly bolstered the taste portion this year.”
“We person the Black Opry, which has conscionable been this astonishing unit and enactment for achromatic artists successful the Americana and state space,” helium says. “And past connected Sunday, we person a Southern gospel work conscionable to footwear disconnected the day. It’s a non-denominational conscionable solemnisation of gospel music.”
And truthful I deliberation this twelvemonth already, I’m conscionable excited astir it. I cognize I’ll look backmost with admiration for making the taste portion of the festival this heavy dive into euphony and civilization and history. To beryllium capable to bring that to radical and past to get to spot what’s successful their ain backyard and instrumentality pridefulness successful it? And fostering it to a caller procreation is really, truly cool. I excavation that part, and I cannot instrumentality work for it — it’s 1 of my partners, Brant Wood, who spearheads the taste part. And it’s truly cool.”
“We’ve been unabashed successful our tipping a chapeau backmost to Jazz Fest successful New Orleans,” concludes Griffin. “They bash it truthful good — the taste part, that DNA is astir their festival. And, and we brought that to mediate Tennessee successful our ain unsocial way.”
Click here for much accusation astir the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival.
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