It is not unusual in this day and age for a band to have it’s own festival. It is however, unusual, for a band’s festival to outlast the band itself. The Peach Music Festival, running August 10-13, 2017 was started by the Allman Brothers Band back in 2012. The band broke up for good a little more than two years later, but the festival lived on, featuring various off-shoots and solo projects of the band each year. 2017 has seen the untimely deaths of founding members Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks.
But the festival lives on. It will again host performances from Allman-related bands, including Gov’t Mule (joined by guitarist John Scofield and other unnamed guests), Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, and the final performance of Les Brers. More importantly, will be the special, not-to-be-missed Peach Tribute to Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks, which will feature Chuck Leavell, Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge Marc Quiñones, Duane Trucks, Devon Allman and many more family and friends.
“Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within…”
Gregg and Butch, Berry Oakley and Duane Allman, and the Allman Brothers Band, will live on in the spirit of the Peach Music Festival. The bands invited this year will surely keep it very much alive. A who’s who of the world of jam, it is a lineup that is tough to top in a summer crowded full with festival goodness. The headliners Thursday through Sunday read like a 2017 jam band All-Star team: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead reinvigorate the music from the king of jam bands on Thursday night, My Morning Jacket will set the mountain ablaze with their rock torches Friday night, and southern jam titans Widespread Panic sneak their limited tour north of the Mason-Dixon line for shows on both Saturday and Sunday nights.
Slip just below the top line and the names don’t get much smaller, with Mike Gordon fresh off Phish’s Baker’s Dozen run at the Garden, blues-guitar phenom Joe Bonamassa, and progressive jammers Umphrey’s McGee joining the ranks of the aforementioned Allman-related artists.
The rest of the lineup is buoyed by smaller but well-established bands like Galactic, Steve Kimock, Greensky Bluegrass, Lettuce, The New Mastersounds, Keller Williams, as well as new rising stars like Aqueous, Cabinet, Spafford, The Record Company and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. At no point does this lineup’s bottom fall out however, it remains solid to the last dot.
“First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is…”
The Peach Music Festival will once again be held on Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA. Not only is it a naturally beautiful location, but it also includes a full and accessible water park with rides, slides and a lazy river. This is no ordinary waterpark, it comes equipped with a custom live music soundtrack running throughout the entire day of course! The mountain also includes a full restaurant, bar, and bathrooms, in addition to the usual festival fare.
Once you bite into this Peach, the sweet juices will be flowing all weekend, but that large Allman Brother pit from which it grew, will continue to hold it all together. For daily or weekend passes, and all the information you’ll need to prepare for your time at the fest, visit the official festival site at thepeachmusicfestival.com. See you on the mountain, jamming!
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