lan Jackson, Sturgill Simpson, Miranda Lambert, and what’s left of Lynyrd Skynyrd will be the headliners of the 3rd annual Two Step Inn Festival. They will join 30+ other artists across three stages.
It’s a good time to be a country music fan. No reason to reach for the Backstreet Boys, Diplo, or Nelly to entice fans to the event. If anything, they give the whole lineup an ick factor it doesn’t need.
Sierra Ferrell made a grand entrance to the Under The Big Sky Festival in Montana on horseback. Shortly after, she would top her own memorable moment by performing with Billy Strings on “The Bells of Every Chapel.”
When the broadcast schedule for Sunday was revealed, Morgan Wallen fans quickly noticed that his name was curiously absent, including some fans who claimed they signed up for the Amazon service solely to see Wallen.
When Maren Morris chose to collaborate with Diplo on the new song “42,” she chose to look the other way from Diplo’s extremely checkered past when it comes to his treatment of women leading up to the present tense.
Now there are multiple country music megafests planned for the spring of 2024, and all within a few hours of each other, all catering more to independent fans than mainstream ones, three of which that are on consecutive weekends.
After 2023 sold out, you knew Two Step Inn would be returning for 2024. Returning it is, and with just as mouthwatering of a lineup as it had in 2023, but sans as many of the hip-hop wild cards.
The horror on this poor woman’s face says it all. What could cause this reaction? Let’s look at some of the worst case scenarios in country music.
What Two Step Inn got right was that you can mix today’s independent country with country legends from the 80s and 90s, and even some of the cool up-and-comers in the mainstream, and have an event that breaks down barriers and cross-pollinates fans bases because it’s all great country music.
I would be lying if I said that Sturgill Simpson’s first emergence out of supposed retirement wasn’t a little disappointing, since in comes in the form of a dance track with the pretty scuzzy country music carpetbagger Diplo. That’s not a commentary on the track itself called “Use Me (Brutal Hearts)”…
It’s so often embarrassing as a country music fan when some mainstream “country” (in quotations) performer gets presented on a national stage. The most recent example was Blanco Brown singing the National Anthem ahead of the NASCAR race on Sunday (3-19) at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
With Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers headlining Saturday and Sunday, and other names from the independent country world like Charles Wesley Godwin, Kaitlin Butts, Paul Cauthen, and Austin’s Kathryn Legendre playing, it speaks to the independent aspect the festival organizers want the festival to take on.
Hip-hop artist Nelly has been accused by three separate women of rape and sexual assault, including by one woman who accused Nelly of rape while he was on a country music tour with Florida Georgia Line. Diplo has also faced accusations of rape, and grooming underage girls.
Diplo played the same role at the 2019 Stagecoach Festival, which was the last time the event was held, and right before a rash of women came out making numerous accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior against the DJ, resulting in restraining orders and criminal investigations.
Not to spend too much time on the country music washout that is Zac Brown in 2019, but just to wrap a bow around the weird situation surrounding his recent solo pop album called The Controversy, we finally have an explanation of why the surprise album was pulled from multiple outlets and retailers after its release on September 27th.
As the alternative to the bigger, two-weekend all-genre gathering called Coachella, The Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California every April is supposed to give country music its turn on the famous Empire Polo Club grounds so as not be shaded out by the massive names of the pop, EDM, and hip-hop world.