Music festival season is underway, and we are roughly a month out from one of the most highly anticipated festival events of the entire summer: The Peach Music Festival, returning to Montage Mountain outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania on July 25 to 28. Taking place for the eighth year in a row, The Peach Music Festival has by now earned a yearly reputation for cultivating the most enticing, super-stacked lineups of any weekend music event, 2019’s lineup seems to be only better than ever before.
When you start as the official first ever Allman Brothers-inspired music festival, live music greatness is probably in your future. And certainly that band alone has given roots to a number of must-see, collaborative Peach Fest magic—Les Bres and The String Cheese-Allman Incident are a couple that spring to mind. But even outside of ABB-led nights, Peach has played host to many other incredibly unique live stage shows (remember that jam session between Benevento Russo Duo and Oteil Burbridge?)
With past experiences at Peach Fest being a guide, we’re thinking ahead to all of the collaborative possibilities between artists on this year’s lineup. Here are some of our wish-list jam sessions for The Peach Music Festival 2019.
THURSDAY: Strings-idents and Aqua-pong
The Peach Music Festival will kick off it’s 2019 event on Thursday, July 25 with four bands: The String Cheese Incident headlining their first night (before their two big sets on Saturday the 27th) along with groove rock bands Aqueous and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and hotshot bluegrass Billy Strings and his band. Between just these four acts, a whole list of collaborative possibilities comes to mind. The first one? A Billy Strings Incident. The String Cheese Incident and Billy Strings recently collaborated, for the first time ever, on a stellar version of Cheese’s jamgrass hit “Black Clouds,” and it could be very likely they’d look to share the stage again at The Peach Music Festival.
On a different note, Aqueous and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong also have a resume of on-stage collaboration, and they may or may not again at Peach. But if they do, you won’t want to miss it.
FRIDAY: moe. Blues Please
Friday Peach has a lot of festival circuit’s freshest, most currently exciting acts, like the brand new collaborative effort The Allman Betts Band, which combines the dynamic styles of three Allman Brothers sons into awesome new group. There’s also Cory Wong of Vulfpeck, who has been surfing the limelight on huge tours with his own backing band. Check out the guitarists’ albums Live in The U.K. and Live Minneapolis (both available for streaming free online) to get a feel for how fun his shows can be.
For the Right under Cheese are Friday lineup toppers moe. and Blues Traveler, who will be right in the beginning of a collaborative summer tour that will see them perform sets together every single night. We wouldn’t be surprised in the least if these two foundational jamband acts take some time at Peach Music Festival to share the stage
Other highly anticipated acts for Friday: powerhouse jambands like Lotus, Big Something, and the recently reunited Dopapod, festival pros like Andy Frasco and The U.N. and Haley Jane and The Primates, and more.
SATURDAY: G.R.A.B a Peach
Saturday’s very enticing headliner is Trey Anastasio Band, scheduled to perform two back to back sets. Right under them is the unparalleled supergroup known as Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Both these bands have played highly regarded sets in Peach past, and we know how many eyes roll at the suggestion of some GRAB action (This is GRAB, if you don’t know), but hey, anything is possible. And any collaboration between these two bands, in any capacity, would make for the one of the best sets of the year.
Some more on Saturday’s savory schedule: Up and coming rockers like Mungion and Goose, funk leaders like Lettuce and The Motet, and bluegrass dominators like Greensky Bluegrass and Fruition.
SUNDAY: Gold Dust Warren and a New Phriend
Warren Haynes, a Peach Festival performance impresario, always delivers some kind of unique set here—something you can really only see at this music festival. In past years, it’s been collaboration with past Allmans family, overseeing a huge Gov’t Mule and Friends set, and other stuff yet. This year, the phenom guitarist will perform a duo set with the one and only Grace Potter. The pair have a long history of collaboration, both in the studio and on stage, and a whole set from them should be really special.
Sunday’s headlining set has us as excited about anything else on Peach Music Festival’s lineup: Phil Lesh and Friends will perform two back to back sets, with the Grateful Dead bassist’s friends being Warren Haynes and legendary jazz funk musician John Scofield, longtime Friends drummer John Molo, and, in a gutsy move, keyboardist Holly Bowling. At this point, Bowling is well known across the jam scene for her compositional treatment of the Phish and Grateful Dead songbooks, as well as for her involvement in the breakout supergroup rock band Ghost Light (who will be performing at the festival on Saturday.) Bowling’s miraculous technique for the piano will be a welcome addition to this sure-to-be very heady, very jazzy Phil and Friends set.
A few other sweet Sunday additions: Blues boy hero Marcus King and his band, bluegrass titans Yonder Mountain String Band, and others still.
Full Weekend and Single Day tickets for 2019’s The Peach Music Festival are on sale now. Head to the events website at http://thepeachmusicfestival.com/.