Lisa Denton and Barry Courter
BARRY COURTER: Lisa, we are entering one of the busiest and best stretches of the year if you like lots of music. It's especially great for us ink-stained wretch types who enjoy writing about it. Between Riverbend in downtown Chattanooga and Bonnaroo up in Manchester, Tenn., there will be more than 200 acts playing music in our region over the next two weeks. What's not to love about that?
LISA DENTON: The only thing not to love is trying to get to multiple acts at the same time - and different cities if you're deciding between the two festivals. I've loaned out my Riverbend admission bracelets before if I wasn't interested in the headliner, then discovered there was a show on a side stage I would have enjoyed.
Not to get all maudlin, but Friday would have been Gregg Allman's show at the Tivoli. May he rest in peace.
BARRY: Yeah, it's been a tough week or so at my house. He'd been sick, so it wasn't a surprise to anybody, but the Allman Brothers Band has been on regular spin at my house for decades. It's my wife's favorite band, and the one I play when she tires of hearing My Morning Jacket or Bassnectar.
I had a great conversation with Don Felder last week about the Allman Brothers, Gregg and Duane - actually two conversations, since one was interrupted by a fire drill here at the paper, but he was super cool to call back. Felder, the former Eagles guitarist who will play Riverbend on Saturday, actually learned to play slide guitar from Duane. He told me the brothers and their bands used to soundly thump his groups in battle-of-the-bands competitions around Florida when they were coming up. When it comes to name-dropping, Felder might win in the "My Early Years" category. He taught Tom Petty guitar, and Stephen Stills was in one of his early bands.
LISA: Yeah, that's some top-tier name-dropping.
Felder will be on the Cola-Cola Stage the same night as Ludacris. Most people know him as a singer and actor, but he has a lot of writing credits too, including co-writing Usher's "Yeah."
BARRY: That's an earworm song if ever there was one.
LISA: Uh, yeah.
BARRY: Dang it. In fact, I had to go find it just now. "Take that and rewind it back, Ursher got the voice that make ya booty go."
LISA: It's got a nice beat, and you can dance to it, but I think the extra "r" in Ursher is what made that song a hit.
BARRY: Ludacris is just one of a couple of acts that are not your usual Riverbend fare. Joy Formidable, White Denim and, of course, The Flaming Lips, are bands we would not normally see there. I expect the Luda show to be great. I hope folks will go and watch all of them and see them for what they are. You might not like everything, but give it a try. In fact, I'd recommend making it a mission to see at least one band you've never heard of every time you go. The weirder - for you - the better. Don't be skeert.
LISA: I've already got bands for the first three days of Riverbend figured out: Five Alarm Funk, The Band Antle and Watch the Duck. It's like picking racehorses. The stranger the name, the better.
Get event details every Thursday in Chattanooga Now or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com. Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6354 and Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.