Orange Blossom Jamboree in Two Weeks! Enter to Win a Pair of Tickets!
WHAT? You don’t have your tickets for Orange Blossom Jamboree yet? It starts two weeks from today (May 19-22) at the Sertoma Ranch in Brooksville Florida!
MusicFestNews might be able to help! We are partnering with OBJ and have a pair of tickets to give to one of our readers, and it could be you! All the information you need is at the bottom of this article.
OBJ is presented by the Dunedin Brewery and your hosts, Russ and Toby Bowers.
While you’re thinking about entering, let’s talk about the music! Over the course of four days, you’ll have the opportunity to hear again or discover for the first time 68 bands and performers. the festival used to operate with three stages, but now there are four; the Bath Salt Zombies have graciously allowed their Cirque du Zombé Stage to be used throughout the day!
THURSDAY
Trigger City Trio gets the honor of opening OBJ at 2:10 Thursday afternoon with their mix of rock, soul and funk. And Harmonica Man and the Sawgrass Band, with Little Econ Love Fest host Trey Miller front and center, play at 2:40. From there, it’s off to the races. The deliciously demented Bath Salt Zombies play all three nights (Thurs-Fri-Sat).
Also headlining Thursday are Holey Miss Moley, who just helped throw the inaugural Mother Earth Music & Arts Festival; Flat Land, who just crushed at WMNF’s Tropical Heatwave and Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival; Ajeva, who recently debuted their excellent new album Evolve and are on the first wave of Suwannee Hulaween artists; and the Juanjamon Band, with Juanjamon just returning from a short tour with the amazing Joe Marcinek Band at Wanee and around the state. That is a ton of funk right there!
Kaleigh Baker will be shouting the blues; Row Jomah blending fusion, funk pop and rock (and cats); and Free the People freeing your minds with some eclectic psychedelia. Talented singer-songwriters Amber Lynn Nichol and Dean Johanesen both perform, each covering a wide array of styles. Endless Flow plays “feel-good” music (glad to see them back in action), as does Este Loves. The Sarasota Steel Pan Band will surprise you with their range, American Song Box delivers acoustic folk and rock, and Ben Prestage plays, too.
And that’s just Thursday!
FRIDAY
This is one jam-packed Friday, with 21 performances for you to check out. OBJ is Florida’s showcase, and there is so much going on. Laura Shepherd is a great singer-songwriter on hand again. There is a lot going on, but try to make time to visit with the delightfully quirky Hymn for Her (and their Airstream trailer!). This duo will knock you out with… everything! And guitar-slinging Heather Gillis takes a brief break from her tour with Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band to play with her band.
The BSZombies play Round Two, and Come Back Alice (also heading to Suwannee Hulaween) will close the Dunedin Brewery Big Cypress Stage, although perhaps nothing will match last year’s on-stage proposal! S.P.O.R.E. has absolutely KILLED at every show this year: you’ve been warned.
Some intelligent lyrics and great jamming come to you from shoeless soul and from Between Bluffs (welcome back from the brief break!). Your funk-jazz connection this day includes Serotonic, Leisure Chief (great new album King of Nothing) and Electric Kif, and more great jam rock comes from The Groove Orient, funkUs and Guavatron. It ain’t nothin’ but a party whether you’re with The Applebutter Express and Beebs and Her Money Makers, and Uncle John’s Band will show you why The Dead asked them to play in Chicago during Fare Thee Well.
The Ben Sparaco Band comes to OBJ after excellent sets at AURA Music and Arts Festival and Wanee. The Stereo Type bring you funky folk rock late night, while Fuzzy Britches switches on the surf-psych-grunge early in the day. Redfeather’s rock opens the proceedings just before noon.
SATURDAY
Suénalo threw down a great set last year, and again they are bringing their “AfroLatinBabymakin’DescargaFunk™.” Shak Nasti is probably the nastiest, wickedest band on the bill you haven’t seen (the Orlando folks know). BSZombies, Round Three. Displace is in high gear, preparing their funky new album for release, and Last Electric Rodeo plays “post-apocalyptic spaghetti-western surf rock.” Damn!
Three bands in a row on the main stage feature superb bands and outrageous guitar slingers. Justino and the Difference pump ‘70s fusion, originals and awesome covers into every show (4:10). The Savi Fernandez Band (6:20) was just announced for the first wave of Suwannee Hulaween artists, and the Bobby Lee Rodgers Trio (8:30), off several smoking performances at the Wanee Festival, will make “the world come tumblin’ down.”
The day starts early with two memorable acts: Ian McLeod’s Ism delivers “jazzy funk & soul with Afro-Latin spice,” and you’ll be delighted to hear the Grumpy Ol’ Trolls, if by old you mean they’re barely teenagers! There is more great Grateful Dead music in the form of Crazy Fingers, some badass blues from JUke, and the best damn Afrobeat band you’ll hear in Florida and beyond, Bengali 600.
For reggae, ska, soul and funk, be sure to check out Bootleg and Jeff White & Soul Taxi. On the Avenue is representing for alt-pop and rap-rock. And the Dunedin Brewery House Band is a great amalgam of talent.
Speaking of soul, you’ll be hard pressed to find any deeper and the blues bluesier than Troy Youngblood and the Soulfish. More of that mixed with Southern rock and the best harp player anywhere await you when the Corbitt-Clampitt Experience does their thing, and Boxcar Hollow offers an amazing mix of Americana, bluegrass, folk, and newgrass.
And make sure you get out to the Sunshine Stage (in the sunshine, where else?) for the OBJ group photo between 2:30 and 3:00.
SUNDAY
OK. You made it. The last day is easy. Well, easier. Only two stages to negotiate now, side by side: the Citrus Stage and the Big Cypress Stage (thanks again, Dunedin Brewery).
Phunk It makes it an early start at 11:00 (you can do it!). Blues and rock get twisted up with Beartoe, and the Psychedelic Monks will blow your minds AND melt your faces. Then Sosos will help us settle down (a little) with their blend of Americana and indie folk-rock. Next, the schedule might say Legacy, but believe this is an evil plot to lure you to see the Legacy Orchestra Collective, and it will be ‘yuge!’
If you think the Bath Salt Zombies are bent, wait ’til you get a load of Oranga Tanga! Then an exciting new project titled Sonic Stew brings OBJ favorite son Dennis Stadelman back to the stage. And last but certainly not least, when BLR drummer Thom Damon, wildman Clay Watson and Bengali 600 leader Jeff Richey gather some friends, they call it Brown Bag Brass Band.
What a way to close out OBJ 2016!
Enter the contest to win a pair of tickets courtesy of MusicFestNews and OBJ. Then listen to this spectacular six-hour music compilation of many of the artists you’ll hear! And be sure to check the official OBJ website!
[contesthopper contest=”13167″]