Nashville, TN – The first annual ShoalsFest will take place on October 5th in the historic area of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The inaugural one day event will feature performances by Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Sheryl Crow, Mavis Staples and Amanda Shires on the main stage with a second stage line-up to be announced soon.
Four-time Grammy Award-winner, and area native Jason Isbell, developed his guitar playing and his deep reverence for music history as a teenager working at the world-renowned FAME Studios and playing with local musicians and members of the studio’s revered house band, The Swampers. Isbell teamed up with his manager Traci Thomas and Outback Presents to bring this special event back to the place that has given him, and the world, so much.
“I’ve always wanted to bring a music festival to the Shoals, and McFarland Park is the perfect place to enjoy world-class artists and the beauty of the Singing River,” Isbell says. “These acts are all personal favorites of ours, and we’re proud to bring them to our hometown and show them a good time. I hope y’all are as excited as we are about ShoalsFest 2019.”
Muscle Shoals, and the surrounding towns of Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Florence (collectively referred to as “The Shoals”) had an immeasurable impact on popular music with what was dubbed the “Muscle Shoals Sound”. Artists ranging from soul/gospel pioneers The Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge and Aretha Franklin to contemporary/folk/rock artists of the day such as Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan descended upon the unlikely “Hit Recording Capital of the World” to record at FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where they made some of their most seminal recordings that changed the face of music.
ShoalsFest will take place in the cozy setting of McFarland Park, located just across the Tennessee River in Florence, AL. The festival will be an intimate affair with only 5,000 tickets being sold. Tickets go on sale Monday, March 25th at 10am CST. For tickets and information go to http://www.shoalsfest.net/
