Down By Downtown Festival in Roanoke, VA

As some of you may know, this is a Southwest Virginia based music blog. Now rarely do I talk about things happening in the area because well....rarely do things happen in the area. That has all changed here recently though, with good shows coming to town, radio support for Americana (yes folks we have station in Roanoke that caters to Americana located at 101.5 FM), great venues, and a budding local music scene.
Now most of this is new to me, and Roanoke is still a good hour away, but by-god it's a local music scene and it's my kind of music. Now all of this activity seems to be culminating this week with a festival that has the unfortunate name of Down By Downtown (Facebook link).
Down By Downtown kicks off this Wednesday in downtown Roanoke with shows at The Jefferson Center, my fave local venue Kirk Avenue Music Hall, Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill, and Blue 5 Restaurant.

The festival lasts until Saturday and features many local talents along with some name acts. Personally I am most looking forward to Chris Knight and Cory Hunley this Saturday at Kirk Avenue Music Hall.

Click here for the full schedule

Now I don't know if I have any local readers in SWVA, but I like to think I do. So if you are in the area, or are going to be in the area, get downtown and check it out.

Let's get all hippy and meloncholy up in here...

.....since it is earth day afterall



That's Eliza Gilkyson doing her father's song Greenfields off her excellent live album Your Town Tonight

Free Music Alert: Golden Bones - Self Titled

What the hell is going on here? Two posts in two days! Am I over my blogggers block? Hopefully!

Here's a cool little album that was pointed out to me by Twangnation. The Golden Bones are a country-rockish group out of Brooklyn that remind me a lot of Frontier Ruckus, only with some very cool 70's style country rock harmonies. Recommended (but not limited) to anyone who like that old country rock harmony sound (i.e. CSNY, America, Manassas, etc...)

Download and Stream the album here

Magnolia Mountain - Redbird Green Vinyl Project

This evening I had the pleasure of hanging out with Mark and Jordan from Magnolia Mountain, a roots band based out of Cincinnati. Not only are they great guys, but they also make some damned fine music (see below:)




Now, I wanted to help them get the word out about a cool thing I think they are doing which is putting out their upcoming album on vinyl. Well I should say they are TRYING to put out their upcoming album on vinyl. That's where folks like you and me would come in. See they have a backer system in place where 25 bucks will not only get you a copy of the album on Vinyl (double album I might add), but also helps finance the making of said album! How sweet is that. There are other backer levels such as the $100 level which will get you a producer credit, the $300 level which will get you a homecooked meal and a private acoustic set, or the $1000 level which will get a song in your honor on a future Magnolia Mountain record.

The way I see it is if you are going to buy the album on vinyl anyway, might as well throw down now and be a backer. Better hurry though, there are only 18 slots available for the $25 vinyl album level. Go to the site either below or here for more info.

Official - Facebook