If you go
› Where: Songbirds Guitar Museum, 35 Station St. (North stage), 41 Station St. (South stage)› For more information: 432-531-2473RIVER WHYLESS WITH ADAM TORRES› Where: North stage› When: 7 p.m. Thursday, July 19› Admission: $15CECIL ALLEN MOORE WITH DALLAS WALKER› Where: South stage› When: 9 p.m. Friday, July 20› Admission: $12CHATTANOOGA GIRLS ROCK SHOWCASE› Where: South stage› When: 2 p.m. Saturday, July 21› Admission: $10JESSE GOGGANS BAND PRESENTS A TRIBUTE TO JANIS JOPLIN› Where: South stage› When: 9 p.m. Saturday, July 21› Admission: $12 in advance, $15 day of show
After becoming friends and playing music together while students at Appalachian State University, Ryan O’Keefe (guitar/vocals), Halli Anderson (violin/lead vocals) and Alex McWalters (drums) moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where they met Daniel Shearin (bass/vocals). Together, the quartet became River Whyless – a name McWalters describes as an amalgamation of their love for nature with a word from an e.e. cummings poem that captured his imagination: “whyless.”
Songwriting was their forte – all were strong writers in their own right; all owned their perspectives. But by the time 2016’s “We All The Light” was released, the four were following personal paths that were pulling them away from the band. O’Keefe had married, Shearing was engaged. McWalters was enrolled in grad school; Anderson moved to Oregon.
Even though Anderson had agreed to shuttle back and forth between Oregon and North Carolina, McWalters admits when the guys dropped her off to catch her flight, “we were uncertain as to what would happen. It was a worry of ours. When you are our age, it’s a reality we may end up going different directions, but we love each other enough to make it work.”
And they did.