Music Blog

Sure, we're still more than 3 months and 100 days out, but forgive us if this year's Pickathon doesn't just look (and sound) better and better. If you'll recall, the annual festival had previously announced names like Mavis Staples, Bill Callahan, Richard Swift, Laura Veirs, The Sadies and AgesandAges, to name but a few, as part of its lineup. But now comes another wave of additions....and growing anticipation.

Black Mountain, Grupo Fantasma, Wye Oak, Corrine West & Kelly Joe Phelps, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Michael Hurley, Lightning Dust, Dawn Landes, L.C. Ulmer, Sunday Valley, and Eilen Jewell are the names that bring the grand total for this year's lineup to 46. What can we say? With four past in-studio guests amongst the group (Wye Oak [1] and [2], Phelps, Sykes, Jewell), not to mention other bands we've played plenty, we're more than satisfied.

In other Pickathon news, they've posted the second batch of video performances for The Pumphouse Sessions, recorded during last year's festival. This includes Chatham County Line, Frank Fairfield and Eric D. Johnson (below) of returning act the Fruit Bats. This follows the initial group we told you about a couple of weeks ago, featuring Dr. Dog, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, and Langhorne Slim, among others.

Tagged: video