The Golden Record

Celebrating their 35th Anniversary together, Atlanta-based folk rock act, Drivin N Cryin, have spent most of their career on tour. In October 1985 Drivin N Cryin played their first show at Atlanta’s famed 688 Club. The band quickly gained attention for their blistering live shows, and amassed a rabid fanbase in the fertile soil of the late-1980s Southeast music scene.

Now, 35 years later, and after releasing four full length albums on Island Records and one on Geffen Records, founding members Kevn Kinney and Tim Nielsen find themselves enjoying a milestone anniversary for the band, having survived the pressures of fame, a shifting musical landscape, multiple lineup changes, and miles of back roads and highways to arrive here.

CHUCK MEAD is a Country singer with a rock n roll heart. He’s also a renowned songwriter, producer, music director, musicologist and architect behind the rebirth of Lower Broadway and the Global Neo Traditional Country music movement.

This Kansas native, has been at the forefront of what has come to be known as Americana Music for the better part of 25 years. Perhaps best known for co-founding the famed ‘90s Alternative Country quintet, BR5-49, whos 7 albums garnered a CMA Award for Best International Touring Act and three Grammy nominations, helped build an indelible bridge between authentic American Roots music and millions of fans worldwide.

Since then he’s toured the globe, entertained thousands on the high seas, released 4 solo albums, made 137 appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, co-produced critically acclaimed tribute albums to Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings, acted as Musical Director/Supervisor/Producer of the Broadway hit musical Million Dollar Quartet AND the companion CMT television show Sun Records.

With a deep connection to Memphis and a burning desire to keep building musical bridges, Chuck packed up the band and took time out of his crazy schedule last summer to record his fourth solo album with Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price/John Prine/Jason Isbell/Al Green) at legendary Sam Phillips Recording Studios, the result of which, ‘Close To Home’, was released June 21, 2019 on Plowboy Records.

Since 2019 Chuck has also hosted a radio show on 650AM WSM Radio in Nashville called “Face the Music with Chuck Mead.”

"It's hard for me to sit still," admits Rob Leines, the country-rock frontman and blue-collar road warrior who regularly spends more than 200 nights a year onstage, bashing out a mix of Telecaster twang, guitar-driven grit, and southern storytelling.

Long before he paid tribute to the touring lifestyle with albums like 2021's Blood Sweat and Beers, Leines crisscrossed the country as a child. The son of a military man, he was born in Georgia and spent time in both Utah and California before returning to the motherland, where he graduated high school and began working as a whitewater raft guide. Leines loved the South — its waterways, mountains, and and although he'd eventually move back to

California, those southern roots would always play a role in his music.

Following his 2018 debut, Bad Seed, and the 2020 concert album Live in Richmond at the National (recorded during a rowdy night in Virginia, opening for Whiskey Myers), Blood Sweat and Beers finds Leines occupying the intersection between outlaw country and southern rock.

It's a record that mixes tattooed twang, hardscrabble honky tonk, Appalachian rock & roll, and roadhouse roots music into the same pot, filled with songs that spotlight the highs, lows, victories, vices, and vixens that come with a life spent on the move.

"Won't find me on the radio, no late-night TV show / You'll find us in a smokey bar somewhere on the go," he sings in "Rock & Roll Honky Tonk Life," a celebration of the roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic that's steered his entire career. A longtime welder who spent years working in the oil and gas industries along the Pacific Coast, followed by a traveling gig repairing components of turbine engines at power plants across the world, Leines understands the value of long days and hard work. Blood Sweat and Beers is the product of that same perseverance, written and recorded after his long climb from the dive bars of California - where Leines played some of his earliest shows, giving up his metalworking gig in order to pull triple-duty as the frontman, lead guitarist, and booking agent of his own power trio - to cross-country gigs, national acclaim, opening slots for country legends like Dwight Yoakam.

"A lot of these songs are about blue-collar pride," he says. "They're about the workingman's experience. I'm trying paint a picture of what it's like on the road, and what it's like in the South. My roots are still very much tied to the area, and you can hear that in the sound."

Co-produced by Leines and Eric Rennaker, Blood Sweat and Beers doubles down on the raw, rowdy stomp of Leines' live show. For years, he's described his sound as "if Skynyrd and Cash had a baby," although Blood Sweat and Beer explores the wider orbit of country-rock, too. "Patty Lynn" is a murder ballad fit for campfires and front-porch pickin' parties, "Hold On" is an acoustic love song, and "Good Time" spotlights Leines at his funkiest, trading the amplified twang of Bad Seed for something soulful and greasy. At the center of Blood Sweat and Beers, though, are songs that rip, riff, and roar, from

"Bailing Hay" — a four-on-the-floor rabble-rouser that's equal parts ZZ Top and Waylon Jennings— tO

Bikeriders Tour is a chance for a couple of old friends, Lucero lead singer Ben Nichols and tattoo artist Oliver Peck, to hit the road doing what they love… riding motorcycles around the country, singing songs, and tattooing.

In each city, Oliver does tattoos at local shops during the day and each night Ben plays an acoustic solo show at a nearby venue, with Oliver acting as host and MC. Ben did the first Bikeriders Tour by himself in 2011, riding his ‘07 BMW R1200GS. The following year Oliver and a handful of other tattooers joined on their Harleys and since then they’ve carved out a week or two each year to travel together. Music, motorcycles, tattoos, and good times. This year renowned Cleveland tattoo artist Greg Christian will be coming along as well. 

Simpson Motorcycle Helmets was kind enough to sponsor the tour, providing motorcycle helmets to be raffled off each night, with the money raised going to American Core, a nonprofit involved in veterans mental health.

The tour is named after a Lucero song called “The Bikeriders” which was based on Danny Lyon’s famous book of photographs from the ‘60’s. The book inspired the song and the song inspired the tour. Ben still rides the same bike he started the tour on in 2011

The Wailing Souls are part of the small surviving group of reggae and roots originators still musically active today. The legendary group dates back to the late 1960s. The Wailing Souls members got their start learning from reggae icon Joe Higgs in Jamaica’s Trench Town yards and sung alongside other emerging groups at the time including Bob Marley & The Wailers. By the ’70s The Wailing Souls attracted interest from preeminent reggae producer Coxson Dodd and began a fruitful recording career. Four decades later the group has amassed three Grammy nominations, has been critically lauded for albums released by Island, Tuff Gong and CBS Records and gained a widespread international following.
The Wailing Souls saw large success in the early ’90s featuring songs on soundtracks including the certified gold album for Disney’s film Cool Runnings. Their 1992 album All Over The World also achieved a great deal of success for the group, selling over 800,000 copies.

The Wailing Souls pushed the musical limits of the reggae genre with that release, blending sounds of funk, r&b, and country into their roots tradition, securing their reputations as pioneers in the genre.

Fusing the harmonies of Motown with the roots and dancehall sounds of reggae, The Wailing Souls persist as one of the most powerful forces in Jamaican music. To this day, the group continues to release provocative, highly regarded regarded albums and is one of the most popular live reggae acts on the scene.

West of It All, the debut album from Americana folk-rock band Briscoe, is a coming-of-age soundtrack set against the backdrop of the Texas Hill Country. Written in the Lone Star State and recorded in North Carolina, it's an album that charts its own musical geography, with production from Grammy nominee Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats) and adventurous songwriting that bridges the gap between classic American roots music and its modern-day incarnation. 

From free backyard performances on the outskirts of UT Austin's campus to sold-out gigs at Antone's Nightclub and The Continental Club Gallery, Briscoe's growth — like the group's music itself — has been organic. Bandmates Truett Heintzelman and Philip Lupton met as teenagers, reunited as students at UT Austin, and built their grassroots following the old-school way: by carving out a sound that nodded to the golden era of folk, rock, and pop music, then getting onstage and building a genuine relationship with their audience. Signed by ATO Records while still pursuing undergraduate degrees, the Texas natives wrote West of It All as graduation loomed in the distance, funneling the stories of their college experience — from heartbreak to hard-won lessons to weekend trips into the rural countryside — into a raw, rugged blend of classic and contemporary influences. 

With contributions from drummer Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver) and multi-instrumentalist Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger), West of It All offers a singular version of genre-fluid folk music, from rootsy rave-ups like "The Well" to brainy, literary songs like "Sparrows." It's a self-assured album that follows no directions but its very own, stacked organic performance and sharp songwriting that negotiates the transition from adolescence to adulthood.