Live on Stage July 18th: Josh Rogan
The music is Americana. Blues. Rock and Roll. And a dream. Not just an American dream—a universal dream, to be free, exchange stories, share music, to ride the open road. A dream of getting there, wherever there may be. But perhaps Rogan says it best himself, “Having a dream keeps you going, that’s for sure. If you have something you want and you don’t have it yet, it gets you up every day.”
Josh Rogan is true grit, living the love he sings. His music is rock roll soul with a near constant message: you’ve got to dream to make it happen, and it ain’t nothing if you don’t believe. It is about the emotions we share, it’s about down-and-out and up-and-up, it’s about freedom, fear, hope, passion, thrills and the beauty of the open country. Ben Sellers at Cville Weekly says Rogan’s “dark bluesy rock might just as easily have hopped from the same rail that carried Elvis into Memphis, or drifted ashore in the same Baha tide that produced Chris Isaak.” Rogan’s first two albums contained a gritty, hard-driven rock and roll sound. With his latest, At the End of the Day, he has tapped back into his acoustic blues roots and plays heart-felt, wrenching soulful original tunes. The album tells the story of his life with songs resurrected from a childhood of adventure and story-searching. The last track Scottsville Rain is a combination of old and new with an updated song written on a train in Spain as he sailed around the world on a tall ship at seventeen. It begins with a personal recording of a thunderstorm falling on beer cans at his house in Scottsville, Virginia. Rogan’s songwriting has a simple style where the silence is as important as the notes. The songs are about loss, longing, love, and the pain and joy of being human. He sings with a compassion that says I understand the feeling and I’ve been there too.
Performing live on Stage July 19th, 11 am to 2 pm: Celeste Kellogg & JRyan!
Singer/songwriter and top 40 finalist on X-Factor. J.Ryan received 4 yes’s from the judges including SIMON! J. Ryan is a 14-year-old singer-songwriter from the south & is a guitarist, and musician.
Opening for J.Ryan is Celeste Kellogg, an Actress, Songwriter and Nashville Recording Artist. Like many kids she started singing in her church and school choirs. It didn’t take long for her to realize this is what she wanted to do. A few years later, Radio Disney was holding auditions for a NEW Tween Pop Group called RD7 and she made it. They opened for Raven, The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and the Cheetah Girls. It didn’t stop there, she also performed an hour long show at the Kelly Clarkson, Addicted To Love Tour.
Performing live on Stage July 19th: The Green Boys!
The Green Boys are a four-piece band based out of Richmond, Virginia. Equally mislabeled as bluegrass, folk, or honky-tonk, the boys sometimes mention the idea of being a part of a “country-revival”. It’s a half-serious notion that nonetheless approaches the crux of the band’s complex sound. The Green Boys are led by brothers Sean and Ryan Green, each a songwriter coming from and delivering very different lyrical and melodic styles. Yet like the Louvin, Delmore, or even today’s Avett Brothers, the distinction between the two voices is grounded by a blood harmony, their edges blending towards a commonality.
Rounded out by the talented Mike Emmons and Zack Miller, the band’s live show is a trek through low-tempo lap steel melancholies, banjo and mandolin barnstorming, and jug band sing-alongs. All the while, their well-honed hooks tend to catch the ear. The Green Boys flirt with many genres, yet the focus never strays far from their goal. The melody, the lyric, and the feeling assembled into the band’s small contribution to what they feel is a national revival of a simple ideal: the songwriter is the singer, the sound is the way it feels, the words, simple too, are the way it was and is.
The Green Boys released a self-entitled EP in 2010 and will release their first full-length album in early 2013. They have shared the stage with artists such as Southern Culture on the Skids, NO BS Brass, Jackass Flats, The Hot Seats, Frontier Ruckus, Spirit Family Reunion and Folk Soul Revival. They have played many prominent regional venues and frequent the Virginia festival circuit including a 2012 first-place finish in the Watermelon Park Bluegrass Festival band contest.
One of the events major attractions to Lakefest each year is the Sand Sculpture. We wait for almost three whole days to figure out what great work of art will be carved out of that huge pile of sand. The attraction located in the Pocket Park, located at the corner of 4th & Virginia Avenue, near the LOVE sign. Back this year is Ed Moore who was here in 2012 and has been the main sand artist for Lakefest for many years. Ed is the Founder of Sandy Feat sand sculpture group, grew up to be an architect. But he never gave up on his childhood pastime, which resulted in ever more complex creations, from elaborate castles built on beach vacations to the scores of sculptures he has cut into blocks of wet sand since founding the professional sand-sculpting team Sandy Feat 24 years ago
The arts & crafts show is juried and the jury has been kept busy reviewing applications and photographs since early in February. Artists this year are coming from not only Virginia, but also other states– Florida, Ohio, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Maryland, Georgia. The crafters have been extremely active in applying for this year’s show. Water ink, acrylic and oil paintings…even face painters, pottery, leather products, birdhouses and garden accessories, carvers and sculptures, personalized jewelry, items to be personalized on the spot, blown glass jewelry, photography, clothing, home accessories and even pet attire–just to name a few.
