Are you sure Waylon done it this way? Shooter Jennings is shredding through an Eddie Van Halen-worthy solo as his rhythm section hammers out a thunderous beat on the Palomino Stage. The wah-wah pedal lives, even at Stagecoach. The only thing Shooter’s solo shares with his daddy’s music is a refusal to play by Nashville’s rules. Musically, he’s following in the bootsteps of another famous country scion: Hank Jr.
– Randy Lewis
Photo by Michael Buckner / Getty Images
3:24 p.m.: I’m in the will call line to pick up my ticket. There’s a guy next to me with a warped straw cowboy hat, standard-issue blue jeans and black work boots — no shirt. He’s belting out to anyone who’ll listen, “On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…”
The Eagles set is still six hours away, but clearly Stagecoach is underway. And clearly it’s going to be “one of those nights.”
– Randy Lewis
Plan accordingly, broncos and buckaroos:
Friday
TUNDRA STAGE
Randy Rogers Band, 4 to 4:40 p.m.
Shelby Lynne, 5:05 to 5:55 p.m.
Trisha Yearwood, 6:20 to 7:10 p.m.
John Fogerty, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The Eagles, 9:15 to 11:15 p.m.
PALOMINO STAGE
Sons of the San Joaquin, 3:10 to 3:50 p.m.
Shooter Jennings, 4 to 4:45 p.m.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 5:10 to 6 p.m.
Mike Ness, 6:25 to 7:25 p.m.
Glen Campbell and Family, 8:20 to 9:10 p.m.
MUSTANG STAGE
Don Edwards, 4 to 4:35 p.m.
Star De Azlan, 4:55 to 5:35 p.m.
Rissi Palmer, 6 to 6:45 p.m.
Michelle Branch, 7:05 to 7:55 p.m.
Craig Morgan, 8:20 to 9:10 p.m.
Saturday
TUNDRA STAGE
Crystal Shawanda, 12:35 to 1:15 p.m.
Jypsi, 1:40 to 2:25 p.m.
Luke Bryan, 2:50 to 3:40 p.m.
Bucky Covington, 4:05 to 4:55 p.m.
Taylor Swift, 5:20 to 6:20 p.m.
Dierks Bentley, 6:45 to 7:45 p.m.
The Judds, 8:15 to 9:45 p.m.
Rascal Flatts, 10:15 to 11:15 p.m.
PALOMINO STAGE
Hayes Carll, 2:30 to 3:05 p.m.
Ryan Bingham, 3:30 to 4:20 p.m.
The Kentucky Headhunters, 4:45 to 5:35 p.m.
Cross Canadian Ragweed, 6 to 6:50 p.m.
Dwight Yoakam, 7:15 to 8:15 p.m.
MUSTANG STAGE
Waddie Mitchell, 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Red Steagall, 2 to 2:45 p.m.
Riders in the Sky, 2:55 to 3:45 p.m.
The Greencards, 4 to :4:50 p.m.
Cherryholmes, 5:15 to 6:05 p.m.
Sam Bush, 6:20 to 7:10 p.m.
The Dan Tyminski Band, 7:25 to 8:15 p.m.
JD Crowe, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Earl Scruggs, 9:35 to 10:25 p.m.
Sunday
TUNDRA STAGE
Halfway to Hazard, 2 to 2:40 p.m.
Chuck Wicks, 3 to 3:50 p.m.
Trace Adkins, 4:15 to 5:05 p.m.
Gretchen Wilson, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Big & Rich, 6:55 to 8:25 p.m.
Carrie Underwood, 8:50 to 9:50 p.m.
Tim McGraw, 10:15 to 11:15 p.m.
PALOMINO STAGE
Karista Smith, 2:15 to 3 p.m.
Whiskey Falls, 3:25 to 4:15 p.m.
Charlie Louvin, 4:40 to 5:30 p.m.
Billy Joe Shaver, 5:55 to 6:45 p.m.
Jack Ingram, 7:10 to 8 p.m.
George Jones, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.
MUSTANG STAGE
Wylie & the Wild West, 2 to 2:45 p.m.
Ian Tyson, 2:55 to 3:45 p.m.
The Isaacs, 4 to 4:50 p.m.
Carolina Chocolate Drops, 5:05 to 5:55 p.m.
Michael Martin Murphey, 6:10 to 7 p.m.
Jerry Douglas, 7:15 to 8:25 p.m.
Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, 8:40 to 9:30 p.m.
Without much fanfare, single-day tickets have just gone on sale for Stagecoach, California’s country-music festival, for $95. That’s a pretty good deal, especially for Friday when you can catch the hard-partying side of country with Shelby Lynne, Shooter Jennings and Glen Campbell as well as a local L.A. band of some renown called “the Eagles.” Goldenvoice golden-boy Paul Tollett has taken heat for less-than-inspiring headliners at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, but you have to give him credit for a Stagecoach lineup that packs plenty of horsepower.
–Geoff Boucher
The Stagecoach Festival now has the Eagles and an unofficial new motto: “Don’t fence me in.”
Organizers of the huge country festival in Indio have announced a surprise third day of music and, by booking the bestselling country rock band ever, the May event is broadening its fan base and genre embrace. The newly announced day, May 2, will also feature performances by John Fogerty, Trisha Yearwood, Shelby Lynne, Glen Campbell and newcomer Rissi Palmer.
The Festival’s previously announced lineup for May 3-4 includes a reunion by the Judds along with Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Big & Rich, Dwight Yoakam, George Jones and Earl Scruggs.
In addition to the Eagles, the Stagecoach festival has announced a powerful lineup for its brand-new Friday slot — John Fogerty, Trisha Yearwood, Shelby Lynne, Glen Campbell and Rissi Palmer. What’s interesting about these names is that they represent a broader, less “mainstream country” aesthetic than the previously announced headliners suggest.
The biggest names slotted for Saturday include grown-up boy band Rascal Flatts, teen queen Taylor Swift, intelligent hunk Dierks Bentley and reunited matriarchs the Judds. Sunday features Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson. Though all of these artists have pop crossover appeal, they’re also very much products of Nashville. A changing Nashville that has made room for American Idols, harmonizing dudes from Ohio and rap-loving (though not exactly progressive) Muzik Mafioso, sure. But with these bookings, Stagecoach organizer Paul Tollett is definitely serving the fans who plant their lawn chairs in front of the main stage, rather than aiming for a more eclectic, “alternative” crowd.
This just in:
The country Coachella has added a little band called the Eagles to its line-up. California’s finest classic country-rockers (who won a Grammy last weekend for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group) will headlining the newly added third day of the festival Friday, May 2. Now all those “officially” country bands who copped the band’s sound — like, say, Rascal Flatts, who also hold a headlining spot — can take ‘em out for a date shake in Indio to say “thank you.”
– Ann Powers
Photo of Joe Walsh performing at Nokia Theatre in October: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times.
[Nope, just our Kenny Chesney post. That pic is as close as we could get
to the guy.]
There’s
little to add to the Kenny Chesney
conversation at this point. Either you’re the type of country fan who’s down with his
mercilessly optimistic brand of rum-soaked Jimmy Buffett-core or you’re not. Most folks
at Stagecoach seem to be okay with that.
The strains of "She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy" are currently wafting through
the desert night and I think I might have figured him out. Kenny Chesney is country’s
version of Diddy. Neither have any discernable charisma beyond good-times opulence and
the generic tropes of island revelry: booze, good-looking ladies and a sense of exotica
bleached clean of any actual sense of local lifestyle or attachment to the roots of
one’s given terrain. Which is, obviously, totally contrary to the values of country
music. But still …
For the auteur behind "Beer in Mexico," the actual country to our immediate
south is a set piece for his maxin’ and relaxin’ worldview, as opposed to a place where
real people live and work. But it’s probably asking too much to expect more, because
Chesney is, like Diddy, more of an idea than an actual artist, or even a person at this
point. They exist solely to embody the spoils of the successful entertainer’s life with
none of the trappings of actually maintaining a dangerous public persona. All of that
would be too messy, and would interfere with the on-message image of oily pecs, frothy
Coronas and a respite from the grind whom so many actual Mexican citizens help make so
much easier through selfless labor.
Chesney is all that is wrong with modern Nashville, yet also the archetype of the
post-9/11 country music mentality. Namely, that fans want to curl up under a palm tree
and sip fruity drinks while the busy, ugly world washes by.
Not so fast, buddy. This genre has some explaining to do first.
[Guest blogger August Brown is ready for some pizza deliverance.]
Drive-By Truckers represent everything
right about the impulse but bad about the execution behind Stagecoach’s mix of
alternative and mainstream country. The band is closest thing we have to a modern-day
Skynyrd (they wrote a double album, "Southern Rock Opera" about them, after
all), and their filthy, witty roughneck tunes should have destroyed the Palomino Stage,
even if they were competing with the former Mr. Zellweger on the Mane Stage
(and more on him in a bit).
But like Neko Case last night, the Truckers
had the dubious honor of being having the most skewed talent-to-audience ratio of the
day. We’re all about hyperbole here, but there honestly could not have been more than
200 people watching their set. And that is just unacceptable for such a relentlessly
awesome rock group that by all rights should have packed the place. The only conclusion
is that Stagecoach needs to de-ghettoize the alt-country groups from the Palomino Stage
and have more back-and forth across the field between mainstream and underground groups.
But given the attendance atrocity, the Truckers kept their chins up and delivered as
best they could. "Shut Up and Get On The Plane" was a worthy travellin’ song
that swung like a sackful of bricks, and the laid-bare fears on closer "Angels and
Fuselage" withstood the boozy affirmations of a dude screaming
"Truckers!" after every line, even if he drove guitarist Mike Cooley to gulp
from a handle of Jack Daniel’s onstage.
I’d like to think that Stagecoach can accommodate bands like the Truckers and win
them a new audience of mainstream country fans. But until Stagecoach figures out how to
introduce the two, the bad habit of a great band being criminally ignored by a whole
festival will probably continue. And that’s a shame.
