Nelsonville Music Festival adds Mavis Staples, Sharon Van Etten, Jonathan Richman, and more

NELSONVILLE, Ohio- Stuart’s Opera House presents the 9th annual Nelsonville Music Festival on May 30th -June 2nd, 2013 at Robbins Crossing on the campus of Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio. The second round of lineup announcements includes soul legend Mavis Staples, indie-folk songwriter Sharon Van Etten, and punk godfather (and legend in his own right) and cult singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman.

Wild Belle, David Wax Museum, Brown Bird, Endless Boogie, Anais Mitchell, and Lucius round out this second round of lineup announcements joining a lineup already headlined by Wilco and John Prine along with Calexico, Reigning Sound, The Coup, He’s My Brother She’s My Sister, Michael Hurley, Cotton Jones, Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Nick Tolford & Company, The D-Rays, and County Pharaohs with many more to still be announced. The 9th annual Nelsonville Music Festival will feature 4 days of music featuring over 40 bands on multiple stages all weekend long along with camping, kids activities, local artisan vendors, food, a beer garden, and much more. Weekend passes for all four days are on sale now $100, the price will raise from there until the gate price the weekend of the festival of $130 for a weekend pass. VIP Weekend passes are also available along with camping and RV passes. Tickets and more information can be found nelsonvillefest.org or by calling (740) 753-1924.

With her bold new album, You Are Not Alone, the legendary vocalist Mavis Staples adds a remarkable new chapter to an historic career. Staples is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and a National Heritage Fellowship Award recipient. VH1 named her one of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll, and Rolling Stone listed her as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. This project—which is being released more than sixty years after she began singing with her ground-breaking family group, the Staple Singers—is the follow-up to We’ll Never Turn Back, her acclaimed 2007 collection of songs associated with the civil rights movement, and to 2009’s Grammy-nominated live album Hope at the Hideout. It stakes out surprising new territory for Staples by matching her with producer Jeff Tweedy, a fellow Chicagoan who also happens to lead Wilco, perhaps the most respected band working in America today.
The new album caps an incredible decade for Mavis Staples, a resurgence that saw her receive Grammy nominations in blues, gospel, folk, and pop categories. She claims, in fact, that she has done so much diverse work recently that, until Jeff Tweedy helped guide the way, she wasn’t sure of her direction.

The shimmering sound of Sharon Van Etten‘s Jagjaguwar debut album Tramp both defies and illuminates the unsteadiness of a life in flux. Throughout the 14 months of scattered recording sessions, Van Etten was without a home — crashing with friends and storing her possessions between varied locations. The only constant in Van Etten’s life during this time was spent in the garage studio of The National’s Aaron Dessner.

 A two year journey brought her to that point of instability. Upon the release of epic (Ba Da Bing; 2010), Sharon Van Etten surprised the music world with a touching embrace. Having established herself as a reliable performer around New York, and coming off the release of her spartan first effort, Because I Was In Love (Language of Stone; 2009), Van Etten created a short album of diverse songs connected by a shared goal of expanded sound and her unmistakable voice. Since epic‘s release, she has opened the Pitchfork Music Festival, played The Hollywood Bowl with Neko Case and at Radio City Music Hall with The Antlers, sung on new records for Beirut and Ed Askew, and collaborated with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Megafaun on the Songs Of The South project.

Jonathan Richman has been writing songs, making records and performing live for most of his life, winning fans and making friends around the world with his guileless honesty and playfully catchy compositions. He’s revered by countless fellow artists, and has built a remarkably loyal international audience through his tireless touring. His deceptively straightforward songs embody timeless qualities of humanity, optimism, emotional insight and a boundless sense of humor, untainted by cynicism or transient notions of hipness. The records that Jonathan Richman has made over the past 30 years have long held a special place in the hearts of his fans. He began playing guitar at the age of 15, and in the early 1970s formed the Modern Lovers, whose raw, minimalist sound and emotionally forthright songs helped to lay the groundwork for punk rock. But by the time the group’s landmark debut album (including the much-covered “Road Runner,” a Top Five single in Europe) was released in 1976, Jonathan had already moved on to a quieter sound and a gentler lyrical focus. Since then, he’s continued to record and tour prolifically, first with a series of Modern Lovers lineups, later on his own, and eventually as a duo with drummer Tommy Larkins. Over the years, Jonathan’s music has absorbed a multitude of influences, from doo-wop to country to a variety of international styles, without sacrificing the artist’s effervescent personality. Jonathan’s fans have remained fiercely devoted over the years, and his audience expanded substantially in the 1990s, thanks to his frequent guest spots on TV’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien, his prominent appearance in the 1998 film comedy smash There’s Something About Mary, and the inclusions of his Modern Lovers classics “Ice Cream Man” and “I’m A Little Airplane” on Sesame Street.

Also included in the second round of announcements: Wild Belle, David Wax Museum, Brown Bird, Endless Boogie, Anais Mitchell and Lucius. They all join a lineup already headlined by Wilco and John Prine along with Calexico, Reigning Sound, The Coup, He’s My Brother She’s My Sister, Michael Hurley, Cotton Jones, Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Nick Tolford & Company, The D-Rays, and County Pharaohs with many more to still be announced.

Described by Andrew Bird from stage in 2012 as being “a hell of a lot better than Coachella”, the Nelsonville Music Festival continues to be one of the best in the region and one of the most unique music festivals in the country. Set in the beautiful, rolling hills of Southeast Ohio, this small and intimate festival continues to gain fans who want a music festival with a more personal experience. Catch live music on multiple stages including a small “no-fi” cabin and a picturesque “porch” stage in addition to our main stage. We take pride in offering a warm, accepting environment where local artisans can sell and be recognized for their work, where local, regional and national musicians instill their awe-inspiring talents and festival goers can relax and enjoy the fruits of our regional flavor. The Nelsonville Music Festival offers multiple stages of music all weekend long along with camping on site, kids activities, local art vendors, food, and a beer garden. Past performers have included The Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, The Avett Brothers, Iron & Wine, Andrew Bird, Neko Case, Yo La Tengo, George Jones, M.Ward, and many more. The Nelsonville Music Festival is a production of Stuart’s Opera House, a historic, non-profit theater located in Nelsonville that features over 75 events a year including live music, theater, films, educational programming and more. You can find out more about Stuart’s by visiting stuartsoperahouse.org.

Stuart’s Opera House presents the 9h annual Nelsonville Music Festival, May 30-June 2, 2013 at Robbins Crossing on the campus of Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio featuring Wilco, John Prine, Mavis Staples, Sharon Van Etten, Calexico, Jonathan Richman and many more to be announced. Weekend passes for all four days are on sale now $100, the price will raise from there until the gate price the weekend of the festival of $130 for a weekend pass. VIP Weekend passes are also available along with camping and RV passes. Tickets and more information can be found nelsonvillefest.org or by calling (740) 753-1924.

nelsonvillefest.org | stuartsoperahouse.org