$50 wristband gets you admission to all venues for the entire four-day festival! Mercy Lounge, Cannery Ballroom, The Basement, The Rutledge, and Station Inn are all included. Wristbands can be purchased right here. Single show ticket info TBA.
 

James McMurtry

The son of acclaimed author Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment), James grew up on a steady diet of Johnny Cash and Roy Acuff records. His first album, released in 1989, was produced by John Mellencamp and marked the beginning of a series of acclaimed projeacts for Columbia and Sugar Hill. In 2004, McMurtry released the universally lauded Live in Aught-Three on Compadre Records. 2005's Childish Things garnered some of the highest critical praise of McMurtry's career and spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Music Radio Chart in 2005 and 2006. In September 2006, Childish Things and "We Can't Make It Here" won the Americana Music Awards for album and song of the year, respectively. McMurtry received more Americana Music Award nominations for 2008's Just Us Kids. The album marked his highest Billboard 200 chart position in more than 19 years. The Washington Post noted McMurtry's live prowess: "Much attention is paid to James McMurtry's lyrics, and rightfully so: He creates a novel's worth of emotion and experience in four minutes of blisteringly stark couplets. What gets overlooked, however, is that he's an accomplished rock guitar player. At a sold-out Birchmere, the Austin-based artist was joined by drummer Daren Hess and bassist Ronnie Johnson in a set that demonstrated the raw power of wince-inducing imagery propelled by electric guitar. It was serious stuff, imparted by a singularly serious band."

Bobby Keys

Best-known for his long association with the Rolling Stones, tenor saxophonist Bobby Keys spent several decades as an in-demand session man and touring musician, able to play blues, R&B, and rock & roll with equal flair. Born and raised in Texas, Keys was playing in rock & roll bands as early as the '50s, and worked with Buddy Holly and Bobby Vee, among many others. Keys worked regularly at the famed Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama before meeting the Stones in 1969; his work on Let It Bleed (not to mention the simple fact of association) quickly made him a hot property. Over the next few years, Keys played on albums by George Harrison (All Things Must Pass), Delaney & Bonnie, Eric Clapton, Humble Pie, the Faces, Carly Simon, Nilsson, Joe Cocker, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and B.B. King. He also continued his relationship with the Stones, appearing on classics like Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street, and striking up an instant chemistry with Keith Richards. In 1972, Keys recorded a self-titled solo album for Warner Bros., which featured an all-star guest lineup including members of the Beatles, Cream, Mountain, and Traffic, plus his longtime trumpet-playing partner Jim Price. By the mid-'70s, his activities with the Stones were beginning to tail off, though he maintained a working relationship with the band over the years, both in the studio and on the road. He continued to find work through his old connections, and in 1979 joined Ron Wood's touring band the New Barbarians. In more recent years, Keys has continued to tour with the Stones and guest on the occasional album (including Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions), and also performed with the Lubbock, TX-based band the Ace Liquidators. ~ Steve Huey

Tim Easton

Prolific songwriter/traveling troubadour TIM EASTON will release not one, but two new recordings in the near future. BEAT THE BAND, fully-produced with full instrumentation, will come out on Easton’s own Campfire Propaganda label on June 21, 2011, and the acoustic-based recording Since 1966: Vol. 1 that will be digitally distributed via Dualtone Records on July 5, 2011. All in all, there are 21 new songs on the two albums.

From his Ohio roots through stretches in Paris, Prague, NYC, L.A. and Athens, GA, Easton has earned his credentials with a string of highly acclaimed releases and incessant touring, leading to his latest encampment in the high desert country outside of Joshua Tree, CA. With six solo releases under his belt—his most recent being Porcupine on New West Records--he has shared stages in North America, Europe, and Japan with artists/influences Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, M. Ward and more. His continuous adventures are evident in the songs on BEAT THE BAND.