Peace River Revival: Filling Hearts and Souls with Music and Community
The Peace River Revival closed out its second year in spectacular fashion on Saturday, March 30, with perfect weather, a beautiful waterfront setting, a huge enthusiastic crowd, and a jubilant headlining performance by JJ Grey & Morfo. What could be better? Why, outstanding performances by a lineup that included Keller Williams’ Petty Grass featuring The HillBenders and Donna The Buffalo along with a stellar supporting cast of artists. That’s what.
Held in Punta Gorda’s Laishley Park on the banks of the sparkling Peace River, the day’s festivities got underway with local folk and blues artists Still Friends, followed by indie rockers Cat Ridgeway & The Tourists, both of whom I was too late to catch. One of my biggest regrets was missing roots and blues rockers RJ Howson & Friends, which included Howson on guitar and vocals, Mike Kach on keys and vocals, Pat McDonald of The Charlie Daniels Band on drums, bassist Todd Smallie of Mofro and percussionist Gerardo Velez, who played at Woodstock with Jim Hendrix. Note to self: in the future, do not miss a collaboration that warrants a standing ovation as I was told theirs did.
I did manage to take in some of Whey Jennings’ acoustic performance of Southern rock and country classics. His raw, earthy vocals folded over acoustic guitar did his grandfather, the late country great Waylon Jennings, proud. It was no less pleasing to an appreciative crowd that was already filling up the park’s grounds by late afternoon. Nashville roots and Americana artist J Edwards was also there, serenading festival-goers solo with short afternoon and evening sets of Southern soul and impressive country blues.
The weather was warming up, and so was the audience by the time Donna The Buffalo, one of America’s favorite practitioners of dance-infused rhythm and roots music, took the stage. This is a band that, after several decades together, has fun down to a science and garners a dedicated following called “The Herd,” many of whom were out in force at the festival.
Made up of Jeb Puryear (vocals & electric guitar), Tara Nevis (vocals, fiddle, guitar, accordion & scrub board), David McCracken (organ), Kyle Spark (bass) and Mark Raudabaugh (drums), the band coaxed the crowd to their feet with “Funky Side,” a jaunty little number that never fails to please. Then with the multi-talented Tara Nevis on lead vocals, the band perfectly harmonized their way through the achingly beautiful “If You Only Could.”
Donna The Buffalo indulged us with several superb selections from the band’s 2018 album Dance In The Street, which is an entreaty as much as anything. David McCraken tore open some seriously funky grooves on organ for “Heaven & the Earth,” and “Look Both Ways” was a tour de force of edgy, soulful Southern rock with a twist of country.
Nobody knits together genres better than Donna The Buffalo. At any given time, they’ll be pulling roots music, dance, rock, country, bluegrass and (one of my favorites) zydeco out of their bag of tricks. The band got after the latter with gusto on “Swing That Thing,” which was punctuated by Nevins’ vocals and punchy accordion. They rolled right into “Good Stuff,” a tune laced with reggae undertones off their latest album that speaks to our current turbulent times with relatable lyrics, McCracken’s bouncy organ, and perfect harmonies.
If there was anyone in “The Herd” feeling down in the dumps at the beginning of the band’s 90-minute set, it was impossible to feel the same by the end. Their spirit-lifting performance left no room for anything but warm feelings and maybe a few tired feet.
Keller Williams is a master of ingenuity who can’t be cubbyholed into any category. Williams is a one-man jam band who has perfected live phrase looping and dips into multiple genres including folk, jazz, rock, funk and bluegrass. His many memorable collaborations include Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass and Grateful Gospel, which both pay homage to The Dead.
Tonight’s set of Keller Williams’ Petty Grass featuring The HillBenders paid respects to the late, great Tom Petty with a joyous romp through his catalog of tunes done up in bluegrass. Tearing into “Listen To Her Heart,” Williams launched the first of many sing-alongs that wended their way into a whole other dimension with a stage full of stringed instruments.
Williams’s performances always push the envelope just a little, but tonight The HillBenders nudged him even further over the edge with an energetic delivery that set them apart as one of the most dynamic young bands in bluegrass today. With Williams on lead vocals and guitar and The HillBenders’ Mark Cassidy on banjo, Chad “Gravy Boat” Graves on dobro, Nolan Lawrence on mandolin, Gary Rea on bass and Jim Rea on guitar, the ensemble delivered Petty’s classics with the jubilant reverence they deserve.
“You Wreck Me” came with the full force of lightning-fast picking with Williams on guitar dueling with Cassidy on Banjo and several thousand voices raised for the chorus. “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” put Graves’ magnificent dobro skills front and center, and heads exploded on “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” which featured a furious jam where the band was clearly sharing out-of-body experiences.
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“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” melted into “Breakdown” and then back again to the delight of everyone within earshot. Nobody wanted this set to end, and it was hard to tell who had the better time – us or the band. But end it they did with a loving version of “American Girl” – one more sing-along that left the crowd breathless.
I can’t think of another performer more beloved in these parts than JJ Grey. A Jacksonville native whose honest songwriting and gut-wrenching delivery touches a cord deep in the hearts of his fans, Grey has a special connection to Florida and its vanishing beauty. And while he plays to enthusiastic audiences all over the world, it’s Floridians who live his songs and who claim him as one of their own.
So whenever Grey plays anywhere in his home state, he’s welcomed with the heartfelt enthusiasm reserved for a native son. Tonight, with the setting sun still glowing red just below the horizon, the crowd was on their feet and raising the earth’s vibration even before Grey and his rock-solid band Mofro hit the stage. They wasted no time laying us flat with “How Junior Got His Head Put Out,” a blast of brassy Southern funk and motor city blues with Grey blowing harmonica.
Mofro, made up of Todd Smallie on bass, Craig Barnette on drums, Eric Brigmond on keyboards, Pete Winders on guitar, Eric Mason on percussion, and the dual trumpets of Dennis Marion and Marcus Parsley, was as tight as could be, following Grey wherever he led. A gifted storyteller and wordsmith, Grey can read an audience like an open book and dished up fan favorites including “The Sweetest Thing,” “A Woman,” and “Every Minute.”
He took us inside “Jookhouse,” a local juke joint from his youth, where we boogied to the winning combo of Smallie’s bass and Brigmond’s keys and then held us rapt with “Gal Youngin,” a bluesy ode to his grandma with Grey getting greasy on lap steel guitar. Saw some tears flow during a deeply moving rendition of John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind,” a song about the destruction of The Everglades that resonates strongly here in Southwest Florida, where the environment has suffered severe blows of late.
We were nearly drained after an epic and emotional sing-along to “Lochloosa,” an elegy about a wild and pristine North Florida waterway threatened by unfettered development. But then came just the pick-me-up we all needed – a joyous “Orange Blossoms” and a little bit filthy “Slow, Hot & Sweaty.” We loved us some seriously funky “Ho Cake” (a for-real Southern delicacy) with Grey’s fast-handed guitar and the Mofro horns taking over.
“Shining Down” brought us down gently with Grey singing it like a spiritual and the Mofro horns once again front and center. The night still seemed young by the time the band shut the festival down with an achingly beautiful “Brighter Days.”
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We streamed out with our hearts full and a conviction that we’d be back for next year’s Peace River Revival. Promoters Matthew and Nick Nemec, the father-and-son team behind the festival, have created something special here on the banks of the Peace River, and we hope they’ll keep spreading the joy in this small corner of the world for some time to come.