2012 Performers

Acoustic Syndicate
Known for their down-home hearts, local farm raising and rollicking live shows, Acoustic Syndicate has a been a driving force in high-energy new-grass for 20 years and running.  Western North Carolina’s own have trekked the countryside playing to thousands across their long-winded careers, being featured at events like Bonnaroo, Farm Aid, Merle-Fest, and of course the Blue Ridge BBQ Festival!

Starting back in 1992, brothers Fitz (drums) and Brian(banjo) McMurray, along with cousin Steve McMurray (guitar) and mutual friend Jay Sanders (bass) have been writing and playing songs with an honest message and a driving progression.  Considered now some of NC’s greatest musical pioneers, the foursome is now joined by dobro virtuoso Billy Cardine.

With a new album due out this year, Acoustic Syndicate is swinging like old times again.  And it is easy to remember old times when reminiscing amongst a 20-year Anniversary milestone!  With an incredible night to remember at last year’s event, we at the Blue Ridge BBQ are ecstatic to be hosting a 20th Anniversary party for Acoustic Syndicate on Friday night!

The Lee Boys
The Lee Boys are one of the finest African-American families practicing the music known as “Sacred Steel” today. “Sacred steel” is a type of music described as an inspired, unique form of Gospel music with a hard-driving, blues-based beat. The musical genre is rooted in Gospel, but infused with rhythm and blues, jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, country and ideas from other nations.
When The Lee Boys bring their joyous spiritual sound to the stage, audiences instantly recognize that this is not “sitting and listening” music: dancing, shouting out, and having fun are considered essential parts of their tradition. Founder and bandleader Alvin Lee explains “The inspiration and feeling that comes along with our music is the reason that people feel good. It is like the new music on the block and it’s just getting ready to explode!” It’s mostly original material, with a few standards and hymns the group “blueses up a little.”

Audiences often dance, shout out, and always have a great time. In 2008-09 alone they performed for more than 250,000 music fans at festivals throughout the United States. In the process, their unique sound has attracted musical artists such as Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Los Lobos, Gov’t Mule, Derek Trucks Band w/ Susan Tedeschi, The North Mississippi Allstars, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Oteil & Kofi Burbridge, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Toubab Krewe, Victor Wooten, The Del McCoury Band and The Travelin' McCourys– all of whom have played with the Lee Boys and/or invited them to tour with them.

Featured at such festivals as Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Merlefest, Wanee, Memphis in May and so many more, we are bringing them to Saturday night to make one serious soul saving shakedown to close out the festival.

Charles Walker and the Dynamites
If the first attention-grabbing horn lines of The Dynamites album Kaboom! evoke a dramatic curtain call from a late ‘60s funk concert at the Apollo Theater, it’s no accident. After all, that’s exactly where Charles Walker, the band’s singer and front man, first cut his teeth as a performer. When the revolutionary ‘new bag’ now known as funk first made the scene, Walker was right there in the thick of it, opening for the likes of James Brown, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett, and imbibing himself in a cultural movement’s genesis.
Walker deserves his due after decades as an unsung musical hero. He first became a professional entertainer in his native Nashville in the late 1950s, recording with hit producer Ted Jarrett and appearing nightly at the New Era Club, one of the South’s leading black nightclubs. Walker spent most of the 1960s and ‘70s in New York, performing frequently at the Apollo Theater and Small’s Paradise when the original funk scene coalesced.

Sol Driven Train
Sol Driven Train is a band in motion. Perpetually piling on and off the bus, the momentum of their hard work and heart-felt music propels the group in front of growing crowds across the country. At shows, the band members bounce to the pulse of the music along with the crowd. Stylistically the band seamlessly mixes Allmanesque Southern rock, languid world-beat, swampy funk and downright catchy melodies as they swap lead singers and instruments. A punchy horn section adds an extra dimension of sweaty soul‚ (Atlanta Creative Loafing, 11/21/06). “Believe,” the band’s 8th independent release, is earning critical praise and quickly gaining the band many new fans through national radio airplay.

Since the fall of 2005, “the train” has been touring full-time, averaging 150 shows per year at festivals, theaters, and bars. In the spring of 2010, they celebrated their 1,000th live show and ten years together as a band. In those ten winding years they have shared stages and bills with a diverse array of artists including Micheal Franti, Richie Havens, Keller Williams, Arlo Guthrie, and Blues Traveler. Sol Driven Train is no stranger to the Blue Ridge BBQ Festival, but expect new and amazing from this national up-and-comer, recently voted 2012’s Artist on the Verge by Relix Magazine.

The Black Lillies
With Whiskey Angel (debut album release), The Black Lillies established themselves, and it didn’t take long for them to make their mark on the national scene. They kicked off their first national tour at the Ryman Auditorium, the hallowed mother church of country music, and have since labored through three cross-country treks, with a fourth planned for the summer of 2011. They’ve performed on National Public Radio’s Mountain Stage and on two episodes of PBS’s Jammin’ at Hippie Jack’s, and they’ve conquered numerous festivals – Pickathon, the Americana Music Association Festival, Four Corners Folk Festival, Bristol Rhythm and Roots, even Bonnaroo. And in June 2011, the show that made country music famous – The Grand Ole Opry – invited the band to make their debut on the historic circle of wood where so many other legends have performed.

Their latest Album, 100 Miles of Wreckage, has so far spent more than five months on the Americana radio Top 40 charts – four of them in the top 20 – once again proving that a band with this much spirit can break through traditional industry boundaries to achieve success independently, without the constraints of a major label. The band continues to tour non-stop, and without a doubt, they’ll soon be appearing in a town near you. That’s a relative term, of course, but trust us on this – they’re worth the drive, however far it is, because you’ll leave feeling like you’ve witnessed an old-fashion Southern tent revival. These songs will haunt your thoughts long after the curtain closes, rattling through your head like a crooked screen door slaps against its frame when a storm is coming.

Flannel Church
When a history playing music with Col. Bruce Hampton is the glue that binds a band together, there's bound to be some serious mojo at play. Duane Trucks requires no introduction. The young drummer held his own as a frequent guest with big brother Derek as a teenager, before striking out as a full time member of Hampton's band, the Pharaoh Gummit. Rounding out the Flannel Church rhythm section is fellow Hampton bandmate, bassist Kevin Scott. But the Colonel's storied legacy digs even deeper with New Orleans guitarist and vocalist Gregory "Wolf" Hodges, a veteran of the legendary Codetalkers and Blueground Undergrass. From swampy late nights on Frenchmen Street to blazing hot shuffles on the Carolina coast, Flannel Church's live show is a raw celebration of jazzy NOLA funk and deep South rhythm and blues. Don't expect to be preached to, but you may just find salvation.

The Danberry’s
Whether one calls it kismet or destiny, some things are just meant to be, like The Danberrys. Dorothy Daniel and Ben DeBerry both began to learn music around the age of ten and later joined talents when they met in high school in 1997. They dated through their first two years of college and then after four years, Dorothy and Ben went their separate ways. Five years later they realized they never should have never parted. They were married in October 2006.

Drawing deep from the blues, folk, bluegrass and soul/funk traditions, the Danberrys deliver inspired original tunes featuring strong harmonies and dynamic musicianship. Company Store, their first EP, was released in April 2010 and was followed by the single Shady Grove in June 2011. The group is currently recording several new songs for upcoming projects.

The Danberrys have worked and performed with some of Nashville’s most talented young musicians including Ethan Ballinger, Ryan Cavanaugh, Ryan Furst, Geoff Henderson, Christian Sedelmeyer, Jake Winebrenner and Mike Witcher. Their engaging live shows are always energetic and soul-filled affairs with a healthy dose of improvisation and an emphasis on having a Danberry good time!

Aaron Burdett Band
A clear connection between honest experience and an artist's music isn't really the norm these days, but they are inseperable in a songwriter like Aaron Burdett. Aaron’s powerful, genuine songwriting style has a refreshing ability to communicate his own experience to any audience. A lifelong songwriter and musician, Aaron Burdett shares through his music an appreciation for the simple pleasures of life, often inspired by living day to day with his wife at their home in beautiful Saluda, NC.

Building on the traditions of the finest performing songwriters – such as John Hiatt, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, John Prine, and many more – Aaron’s music is a fusion of bluegrass, world beat and folk styling. His honest songwriting pours in between hammer-on chord changes and rolling rhythms, all the while keeping at the forefront his own unique sound and voice. Whether solo or with his band, Aaron’s talent for the art of songwriting and knack for re-forming older classics has won him praise time and time again.

From Ireland and the UK to the Southeastern United States, Aaron‘s abilities have been noticed and showcased on some of the premier singer-songwriter stages during his almost ten year career. Aaron has shared the bill and/or stage with many of the great American artists of our time, including Acoustic Syndicate, The Avett Brothers, Doc Watson, Keller Williams, The Larry Keel Experience, and Old Crow Medicine Show, just to name a few.