After keeping mum for months on the special guest headliner of the July 19 Nightfall concert, organizers at Chattanooga Presents finally have pulled back the curtain of secrecy and announced that Allen Stone will be at Miller Plaza that evening.

They're doctors and lawyers, students and teachers, retirees and recent graduates.

If there's one thing that irritates me about live concerts, it's when a band is so motionless the members could be mistaken for musical hat racks, automatons lazily strumming chords as they stare at their Chuck Taylors.

When Friends of the Festival booked Gavin DeGraw as tonight's Coca-Cola Stage headliner, assistant talent coordinator Jeff Styles says it felt — at first — like they were settling for a less-than-ideal fix to a desperate situation.

Lynyrd Skynyrd fans are not hard to spot at Riverbend. There's a certain unabashed blue-collar sensibility, a free-wheeling attitude they possess that would have made them easily identifiable Thursday night, even if they hadn't walked through the Riverbend gates bearing their idol's name on their shirts, hats, belt buckles and, in some cases, skin.

There is a pervasive — and decidedly unfair — impression held by a lot of people that an artist is only as good as the distance he must travel to take the stage.

Sitting on the screened front "porch" of Merlin Wagner and Janice Wilkey's houseboat as overhead fans churned up the sweltering summer heat Wednesday afternoon, it was easy to see the appeal of enjoying Riverbend by water.

Even if you couldn't tell from how easily his voice slips into an upper-register wail from a basement growl, you could see the musical DNA of Leogun frontman Tommy Smith in every curly blond lock falling oh-so-very-Robert Plant-like from his head.

Being a solo musician is a difficult proposition.

Being a solo musician is a difficult proposition. Without the benefit of band mates to add variety and texture to a show, keeping an audience’s attention can be tricky at best, next to impossible at worst.

Sweet Tea Night, the Riverbend Stretch, Faith and Family Night ... Tuesday.

With a beard that would make a moonshiner jealous, a lanky frame like a Georgia pine and guitar skills that most flatpickers would give a toe or two for, Beppe Gambetta looks every inch the bluegrass ideal.

In the entertainment industry, "ban" is a four-letter word.

With sunlight filtering through a haze of barbecue smoke and a soundtrack of wailing blues guitars and sidewalk vendors touting the superiority of their pulled pork, Monday night's Bessie Smith Strut looked, sounded and smelled like it always has.

There are 12 good reasons to see Stars of Chattanooga tonight, and almost all of them are under 18 years old.

A peacock. A butterfly. A character in “The Great Gatsby.” A body suit of his own face.

It’s good that there’s a largish, empty space fronting the Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union’s stage, because this gypsy jazz trio is bound to attract a lot of dancers.

In its nearly 30-year stint as arguably the most recognizable performance space at Riverbend, the Coca-Cola Stage has weathered more than a few storms, courtesy of both Mother Nature and the tempestuous talents who have performed there.

Tonight, five-time Grammy Award-winning pop/R&B singer Cee Lo Green will bring his larger-than-life music and fashion sensibilities to the Coke Stage as the Riverbend headliner. But how well do you really know one of music’s most eccentric, bombastic personalities?

By the time country giants Florida Georgia Line took the Bud Light Stage tonight, they looked out on a crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands and, according to festival organizers, was the biggest the venue had ever attracted.

MORGANTON, Ga. — When you're coaxing a gut-rattling roar out of a diesel engine propelling 30,000 pounds of steel up a steep incline, there's an inescapable sense that AC/DC should be playing a theme song in your honor.

A little more than 12 years ago, Elizabeth Cook emerged successfully from the country music crucible after her first performance on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

In the world of musical homages, there are tribute artists, cover bands and impersonators, but Craig Meyer's Almost Elton John show is something else entirely.

So, Riverbend starts tomorrow. Also, there's a mouth-breathing elephant crouched in the corner with a towel over its head, trying desperately to avoid notice.

In the 15 years since it was founded in a San Francisco suburb, Google, Inc.'s universe of products has grown to include everything from smartphones to mass transit to fiber optics.

After almost 20 years as one of the country's pre-eminent Celtic punk rockers, Dropkick Murphys are still surprisingly unaffected by their fame.

When Alex and Ben Morrison were growing up, their house was a kind of musical watering hole, the site of weekly parties and folk jam sessions hosted by their parents.

This week, let's talk about shame.

When Brandy Docev's family followed her husband to his posting at Fort Wainright, a U.S. Army base in Fairbanks, Alaska, she discovered that TV was no longer simply a diversion.

A five-piece horn section. Three guitars. Two percussionists. And a bassist in the back seat.

After touring for 16 years, the Southern hair-metal outfit Big Engine finally started firing on all cylinders, but the surge of forward momentum was really the result of looking back.

It’s hard to imagine a world in which The Beatles never existed, but were it not for John Lennon’s love of wordplay, The Fab Four might never have been.

S'mores? No thanks. "Kumbaya"? Heard it. Secret candy stash? Gone stale.

Don't tread on me. Remember the Alamo. Turn on, tune in, drop out.

For almost two decades, Scenic City vino lovers have looked forward to fall in anticipation of Wine Over Water and an evening of sampling wines from all over the world.

In a sense, Cody ChesnuTT is as much an emotional exhibitionist as a neo-soul singer with a vintage sound that's as smooth as crushed velvet.

I fully intended to spend this column crying foul over the "shameful" misrepresentation of Chattanooga's Internet speeds in "Iron Man 3."

If there were a royal court of African music, Zimbabwean vocalist Oliver Mtukudzi would undoubtedly occupy a place close to the throne.

Some fathers and sons bond over fishing, throwing a ball around or working on cars. The Thompsons trade riffs.

This week, I want to bring things back down to earth and talk about something serious: Bigfoot.

To some, Bigfoot is just a myth, the product of overactive imaginations and a plaything of hoaxers for decades.

One of the fastest metabolisms in the animal kingdom. The most featherweight of avian species. The only bird that can hover, fly backwards or even — gasp — upside down.

On an oscilloscope, the brash, no-frills sound of The Cusses probably looks something like a single-finger salute. Care to guess which one?

To get a feel for just exactly how authentically funky Lee Fields is, just listen to the first 12 seconds of "I Don't Know Where I'm Going," a track buried in the middle of his 2002 album, "Problems."

Now that we've all turned the pages on our kitten calendars to May, let's get this out of the way: This is going to be a big month for music ... really, really big.

He has Hugh Hefner's libido, Bill Gates' bank account, Stephen Hawking's IQ and a suit of high-tech armor with enough firepower to make the Joint Chiefs of Staff drool.

They'll keep your mugs frosty and serve you an honest pint, but at bars and restaurants around Chattanooga, bartenders' duties run the gamut from friend and tour guide to confidant and matchmaker.

Southsidenstein Stout. St. Elmo Smart Ass. The Mud Slinger. Seven States Pilsner. Hill City India Pale Ale.

When he was growing up, there was every chance that James McMurtry's career could have been swallowed up in the shadow of his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lonesome Dove" author Larry McMurtry.