MusicFest 2009
A HUGE SUCCESS!

This year's MusicFest El Dorado was one of the most successful in its 22 year history! With record setting attendance levels and boasting the biggest headliners ever at MusicFest.

Click Here to see the highlights from MusicFest 2009.

MusicFest Behind The Scenes

Just one of the many highlights from MusicFest 2009!

Mark Givens, Main Street Eldorado Executive Director, introduces the people who make MusicFest happen!

Surprising Joe Nichols!

Just one of the many highlights from MusicFest 2009!

Watch this little behind the scenes video of Joe Nichols getting a surprise during his performance at MusicFest.

Surprising Jack Ingram!

Just one of the many highlights from MusicFest 2009!

Watch this little behind the scenes video of Jack Ingram getting a surprise during his performance at MusicFest.

MusicFest Title Sponsor

Music Fest is almost here and we would like to take a moment to thank our title sponsor,
El Dorado Chemical, for making this year's MusicFest possible.

Click here for a hi-res version.
Front kneeling: Craig Griffin (MusicFest Chairman), Dianne Hammond (MF)
Middle Row: Brandy Lowery (MF), Shari Terry (MF), Ricky Love (EDC), Robbie Caviness (EDC), Margaret Combs (MF); Greg Withrow (EDC), Mark Givens (MSE Executive Director), Tamie Erwin (MF), Joe McFadden (MF) Ralph Cole (EDC)
Back Row: Carl Bradley (EDC), Lance Owens (EDC), Keith Atkins (MF), Preston Spires, Kevin Waldrum

MusicFest TV Interviews

Featured on Channel 7's Good Morning Arkansas & Channel 4's Arkansas Showcase

Click on the links above to watch the full segments.

MusicFest Announces the 1^st Annual Gumbo Cook-Off

Presented by Shaw Mid-States

Break our the BIG pots! Shaw Mid-States and the MusicFest Committee have announced the 1st Annual Gumbo Cook-Off.

 

Click Here for more information, including Regristration & tickets.

MusicFest Headliner Jack Ingram sets a World Record!

Jack Ingram breaks the Guinness Mark for Consecutive Interviews

Sitting in an easy chair in the shadow of New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, Jack Ingram was talking his way on Tuesday, August 25 toward a new world's record. Ingram was seeking to break the mark in the Guinness Book of World Records for most radio interviews conducted in a 24-hour span.

 

The previous record holders were two media speakers and writers, T.J. Walker and Jess Todtfeld, at 96 consecutive interviews. Prior to that, two members of the group Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz and Patrick Vaughn Stump, held the record with 72 interviews. Ingram was planning to surpass the record of 96 on Tuesday and then continue on. He was aiming to surpass 200 interviews by the end of the 24-hour period Wednesday. The last interview scheduled, No. 215, was set with Cody Alan on CMT Radio.

Click Here to read the full story.

MusicFest Headliners sure to be a big hit!

Blues Traveler, Joe Nichols, Jack Ingram, & Trout Fishing In America!

Blues Traveler

It's not every band that’s still staking out new musical territory and embracing fresh challenges more than 20 years into their career, but that’s the case with Blues Traveler. Having long ago graduated from the jam-band underground to mainstream stardom, the iconoclastic combo has consistently stuck to its guns and played by its own rules. For their new release (and Verve Forecast debut) North Hollywood Shootout, the quintet ventured out of their creative comfort zone to explore some adventurous new horizons. The resulting album is a landmark in Blues Traveler's large and widely loved body of work, demonstrating the enduring strengths of the band’s songwriting while capturing the spontaneous spirit of their legendary live shows. The aforementioned body of work encompasses eight studio albums and four live discs, six of them certified Gold or Platinum, with combined worldwide sales of more than ten million units. The band's best-known single, “Run-Around,” was the longest-charting radio single in Billboard history. Along the way, the band has played more than 2000 live shows in front of more than three million people.

Joe Nichols

Real Things, Joe Nichols' fourth album for Universal Records South, is thirteen songs about loss and victory, depression and transcendence, fleetingness and permanence, grit and grace, love and fighting. The collection presents the 30-year-old native of Rogers, Arkansas at the top of his vocal game.

Founded in the neo-traditional country styles Nichols reclaimed on Man with a Memory, his 2002 label debut, the music -- produced by Universal Records South President Mark Wright and Nichols' longtime musical collaborator Brent Rowan -- restricts itself only to Nichols' own notions of the real and the right. This is classic country from a singer who loves to tap the style's capacities for deep seriousness and deep fun. These songs, rooted and free, are something to hear.

Jack Ingram

At this point, Jack Ingram knows a thing or two about what is and isn't country music. While he's a new face to some, he began his career over a decade ago in the hardscrabble honky-tonks and dancehalls of Texas. He quickly earned the respect of his peers -not to mention his heroes. Waylon Jennings called him "an incredible talent," while Billy Joe Shaver pronounced him "one of the best performers around." Nonetheless, Ingram bounced between independent and major labels, none of which exposed him to the masses. A critic’s and musician’s favorite he mostly remained until Ingram partnered with manager George Couri of C.S.E. who recognized the power of Jack’s appeal and continually-growing fan base. The decision to sign with Scott Borchetta and Big Machine in mid-2005 completed the team – and the hits started coming. "All the label situations I've been in before, I don't think everyone at the company believed it could work," he figures. "This time, there was no question." It was a question, however, that took five years to answer. Ingram's last studio album, Electric, hit stores in 2001. During the subsequent process of building his audience, and finding a new home at Big Machine, Ingram went through significant changes in his life, reflected now on This Is It. "It's been a whole life cycle since I put out a studio record. I’ve become a father, three times over, and have experienced the seismic shifts associated with that – coming to terms with yourself, the central figures and the defining moments in your life." he says. "My records in the past paralleled my growth and maturity and This Is It is a further reflection of that. This is what I’ve been going through and what I’ve been doing.” Except now, there’s quite a few more ears wanting to hear what those things are. Ingram insists that the high expectations being placed on him didn't affect how he approached the writing and recording of the new album. "I know what the stakes are, but I'm not nervous," he says. "I feel like now is my opportunity to do what I've been working toward for 15 years. I'm fully prepared."

Trout Fishing In America

Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. The name taken from a Richard Brautigan novel, seems almost as incongruent and intriguing as a picture of this musical duo - Ezra Idlet (guitar) stands six feet nine inches and Keith Grimwood (bass), five feet five and one half inches. What is more intriguing is the musical career these two have carved out in three decades of writing, recording and performing together. Trout Fishing in America can look back at a body of work that is impressive and know they are just hitting their stride. On the heels of their fourth Grammy nomination Big Round World, and the release of a children's book/cd My Name is Chicken Joe, it is no wonder that Trout Fishing in America sees the future as the brightest part of their successful career.

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