Spirit of the Valley Festival

The Spirit of the Valley Festival on October 28, 2018, is a Valley-minded mini Americana Roots Music Festival. The festival will highlight the rich history of the Shenandoah Valley through the music, food, beverages, crafts, agricultural tools, and activities that have made the Shenandoah Valley the agricultural heart of Virginia.

Four bands have been chosen to represent the best of Americana Roots Music:

Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders andrewmcknight.net/theband  Andrew McKnight’s music traverses influences from Appalachia, tasteful slide and jazzy blues, feisty anthems, rustic folk, and guitar-driven rock. Featuring founding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member Les Thompson, Les’ wife Stephanie Thompson, and Lisa Taylor, Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders blends his charming tenor voice and acoustic and electric guitars with banjo, upright bass, drums, and percussion. The band has delighted concert and festival audiences since their collective debut at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington (March 2008), as well as on their acclaimed 2012 CD/DVD set One Virginia Night.

The Howlin’ Brothers thehowlinbrothers.comare a Nashville-based string band composed of Ian Craft, Dan Swan, and Jared Green. Anchored in a bed of old-time blues and bluegrass, their upbeat shows are heavy with original and traditional music, featuring the sounds of slide banjo, harmonica, and old-time fiddle. Sounding like what would happen if a bunch of Appalachian punk rockers formed a jug-band, The Howlin’ Brothers play with a ferocious energy that drags you in and finds you boogieing along in spite of yourself.

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen dirtykitchenband.com. Since Frank Solivan left the cold climes of Alaska for the bluegrass hotbed of Washington, D.C., he’s built a reputation as a monster mandolinist — and become a major festival attraction with his band, Dirty Kitchen. Solivan, with banjoist Mike Munford, 2013 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year, award-winning guitarist Chris Luquette and bassist Jeremy Middleton, simmer a bluegrass/newgrass stew from instrumental, vocal, and songwriting skills so hot, they’ve been named Washington Area Music Association’s Best Bluegrass Band of the Year for four consecutive years.

Town Mountain townmountain.net. Raw, soulful, and with plenty of swagger, Town Mountain has earned raves for their hard-driving sound, their in-house songwriting and the honky-tonk edge that permeates their exhilarating live performances, whether in a packed club or at a sold-out festival. The hearty base of Town Mountain’s music is the first and second generation of bluegrass spiced with country, old school rock ‘n’ roll, and boogie-woogie. It’s what else goes into the mix that brings it all to life both on stage and on record and reflects the group’s wide-ranging influences – from the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and the ethereal lyrics of Robert Hunter, to the honest, vintage country of Willie, Waylon, and Merle.

The Festival will feature a Rockingham County Classic Chicken Bar-B-Que cook-off contest with 5 of the best crews from the county and beyond! And since the event sits on the birthplace of the modern turkey industry, turkey will also be on the barbecue grill. Additional menu items provided by food trucks.

For the adults gathered, a selection of local breweries, cideries, and distilleries on the Shenandoah Spirits Trail shenandoahspiritstrail.com, among others, will share their local spirits. Imagine admiring the view, playing in the jam tent, and listening to bluegrass while sipping locally (now legal) Shenandoah Valley moonshine.

Family-friendly agriculture activities will be provided by The Heritage Museum, home of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, and The Farm Museum in the Shenandoah Valley, created by J.L. Hopkins, III. Educational history exhibits and fun games will remind festival goers of life on the farm (or in the moonshine hills).