Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan to Headline Two Step Inn Festival
Independent country music has yet another major festival on the calendar, speaking to the rising popularity of the music, and the amount of support it’s receiving from the industry. Announced on Tuesday (11-1), the inaugural Two Step Inn festival will be happening in Georgetown, TX at the massive San Gabriel Park April 15th and 16th, 2023. Georgetown is the northernmost suburb of Austin, and the festival is being promoted by Austin-based company C3 Presents.
With Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers headlining Saturday and Sunday respectively, 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.
But that doesn’t mean that the mainstream isn’t involved either. Music Row names like Midland, Niko Moon, Priscilla Block, and Elvie Shane are all playing as well. But similar to the Under The Big Sky Fest each year in Montana and other such festivals, it’s non radio-supported artists in the headlining positions.
Two Step Inn also has a ton of country legends on the lineup as well, including Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd, and Pam Tillis. This is not your average independently-headlined festival. It is quite omnivorous with the country influences and eras they’re pulling from. Even Charlie Robison is confirmed, who recently started book shows as part of his unretirement, and Americana great Mavis Staples also makes the lineup.
But there are a few screwballs in the lineup too. It will be interesting to see how receptive Travis Tritt, Tracy Byrd, and Shenandoah fans are to the stylings of T-Pain, or to watch John Michael Montgomery and Lonestar fans do “The Git Up” with Blanco Brown. There are actually lots of Black artists who play actual country music that could have satisfied the diversity requirements and fit in with this festival significantly better instead of straight up hip-hop artists. Diplo is also an unfortunate booking for the festival.
Nonetheless, when taken as a whole, the lineup of Two Step Inn is pretty damn stellar, and will not only serve the Texas market with a proper independent country festival beyond the Texas music genre (something it’s been lacking), it will also make for a good destination festival for fans from around the country.
Two Step Inn will feature talent on three stages over the two days. Presale tickets start on Friday, November 4th at 10 am Central at twostepinn.com .
November 1, 2022 @ 11:58 am
Is that poster the evidence we need to declare country music has been saved? Two of the three most important figures in country music right now (Billy Strings the other) headlining separate nights of a 2-day festival pushing mainstream acts to lesser fonts. It feels satisfying.
November 2, 2022 @ 7:19 am
Maybe take T-Pain out before we start claiming country music officially “saved”
November 2, 2022 @ 2:21 pm
BMFS is on the rise. Two back to back nights at Nashville Bridgestone arena just announced. Holy Moly along with a Ryman show. Can only get a Ryman ticket though if you have a ticket for one of the arena shows.
November 1, 2022 @ 12:01 pm
Clay Walker must be having some kind of resurgence. The “T” in T-Pain must stand for “token” here.
November 1, 2022 @ 1:10 pm
do you always have to go full bigot? going for another closed thread today?
November 1, 2022 @ 1:25 pm
In this instance, I think Strait86 is probably right. I think this festival probably did book T-Pain as a token. What he’s doing these days is not exactly the Auto-tune stuff he was doing back when he was popular, but ironically, that nostalgia factor is probably the only appeal this crowd would find in him. No offense to T-Pain, but this is just a bad booking, and it won’t be fair to him when he gets booed or has nobody there for his set.
I’m all for diversity in festival lineups, but it’s like the promoters have no clue there are great country/Americana artists out there like Chapel Hart, Allison Russell, War & Treaty, and others that would have worked so much better. Mickey Guyton would be better than T-Pain. Maybe they weren’t available, but don’t book T-Pain. This is a first year festival. They’ll figure it out.
November 1, 2022 @ 1:36 pm
broken clock and all that?
it’s not like the rest of the acts are pulling their weight. he’s not calling out uncle kracker ffs. we know why. backwards bigot.
November 2, 2022 @ 4:31 am
What is one bigoted thing that I have said? That seems to be the only criticism left leaning folks know how to throw around. Life becomes a little fuller when you broaden the information you take in.
November 2, 2022 @ 7:28 am
EDITOR’s note: this comment was made by Strait86, not thegentile.
I do love that Trigger keeps deleting the comments of these bigots and doesn’t allow them to respond. Censoring speech IS free speech
November 2, 2022 @ 7:54 am
For the record, I have deleted very few comments and always see it as a last resort. What I am doing is shutting comments sections down so I don’t have to delete comments. Commenting is a privilege, and if people start abusing that privilege, it gets taken away. Most of the comments I’ve deleted are folks taking the acrimony from one comments section that has been shut down, and trying to start it in another.
November 2, 2022 @ 8:13 am
Or maybe just be OK with people disagreeing with you.
November 2, 2022 @ 12:12 pm
I am okay with people disagreeing with me and encourage it.
What I’m not okay with is impersonating other commenters, which will get you immediately blacklisted from commenting entirely. Only and final warning, Strait86. I’m done with you being disruptive to these comments sections.
November 2, 2022 @ 12:01 pm
thegentile did not make this comment – some stupid fucking bigot did
November 2, 2022 @ 12:46 pm
You use the name-calling of ‘bigot’ like it’s punctuation. I mean that is one option rather than being able to understand discussions on a deeper level.
November 2, 2022 @ 1:20 pm
wait, you can call yourself a bigot but i can’t?
(pls see above where you tried to use my handle and called yourself a bigot)
November 2, 2022 @ 1:22 pm
Any further comments on this thread will be deleted.
November 4, 2022 @ 7:28 am
As a private business, the website has every right to censor comments but censoring speech isn’t free speech.
Free speech is defined in terms of the endpoints (speakers and receivers of information) and censorship by a private entity such as this website is control over the medium of expression. You should not conflate the two just because you happen to agree with the censor in this case
November 1, 2022 @ 1:51 pm
Overall great lineup, minus the few oddballs. I guess Nelly wasn’t available for this one.
November 1, 2022 @ 2:32 pm
Glad to see Hailey Whitters on this list
November 1, 2022 @ 2:38 pm
Sorry but hardly a stellar lineup. Very few acts I’d even want to see besides Tyler, Nikki Lane and Charles Wesley Godwin. Compare this lineup to Willie’s Picnic. No comparison although even there they had some lame acts like Bros Osborne and Midland.
November 1, 2022 @ 6:06 pm
Seriously. Even day 3 of Stagecoach ’23 looks like it will be better than this. Other than the headliners of Zach & Tyler, the rest of the lineup consists of mostly 90’s-00’s pop country, county fair acts (nothing wrong with them, but it’s the truth here), odd choices like Diplo, Uncle Kracker, and T-Pain, and some up-and-coming talent with decently wide variety.
I just can’t think of who the intended audience is here; I can’t really picture who a hypothetical T-Pain/Diamond Rio/Zach Bryan listener would be, I’d imagine there are not many out there, but I guess I could be wrong.
November 1, 2022 @ 7:18 pm
Willie’s Picnic is sort of a different animal. That was a one day, one stage festival. This is a two-day, three stage festival.
As an Austinite, this lineup to me looks very Austin. Some folks in a boardroom at C3 headquarters brainstormed they would put together this unique fusion of roots-oriented country bands and oldtimers with a handful of turntablists, and started patting themselves on the back for reinventing the wheel. My guess is Diplo, T-Pain, Blanco Brown, and Uncle Cracker will all be on the same stage, and it will mostly go ignored, because the people who these acts may appeal to will never pay to see them at a festival with Tracy Byrd and a bunch of other rednecks. If they try to intersperse the DJs throughout the stages, it could be a disaster.
That said, I do think this festival is significant because of who they put as headliners. Stagecoach tries to do something similar, but they still booking Luke Bryan and Kane Brown as their headliners. Stagecoach also has also tried to find some non-existent synergetic tie between traditional country and DJs that has never caught on. Like soccer, people always think it’s going to be the next big thing, when the next big thing is actually Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan.
There is enough talent at this festival where if you want to avoid the weird DJ additions, you have other options. This will also be a much more intimate festival than Stagecoach, or ACL Fest, which C3 also promotes. I think it will be fine, and the promoters will learn from their mistakes, and book a more intuitive lineup the next year.
November 2, 2022 @ 6:20 am
some old and new should be a fun weekend.
November 2, 2022 @ 9:59 am
Some great names on both bills, though i agree there are definitely some odd choices in the line up, maybe next year the Two Step Inn Festival can add the likes of Colter Wall, Ben Jarrell , David Quinn, Bo DePeña ,Vincent Neil Emerson, Corb Lund etc, either way it is great to see independent country artists headlining events like this
November 4, 2022 @ 10:30 am
LiveNation/Ticketmaster is a fucking monopoly and fuck every one who profits from it. This is yet another “festival” without enough female representation and overpriced tickets for mostly mediocre talent. So, is there an ass out there you won’t kiss Trigger? A majority of your writing is puff pieces and selling corporate stooges to sheeple. You don’t have everyone fooled, some of us are well aware of how big a corporate bootlicker you are.
November 4, 2022 @ 11:02 am
Um, what?
This smacks of some Twitter/Facebook bullshit.
First off, anyone who actually reads Saving Country Music will attest that I ONLY cover independently-owned festivals in person. ACL Fest happens 20 minutes from headquarters. Willie’s 4th of July Picnics happen literally right down the road from me. I don’t go to them because I do not cover LiveNation / C3 Presents events. Instead, I drive from Texas to Telluride, CO, Whitefish, Montana, Portland, Oregon, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, and cover independently-owned festivals. The one exception is Born & Raised Fest, which is partially owned by AEG, and frankly, I’d be surprised if I ever go back after last year.
This is a beyond irresponsible and uninformed comment. The only reason I chose to cover the announcement of this festival is because it had two non Music Row artists headlining above Music Row artists, which symbolizes a significant moment. And if you think I’m bootlicking, why did I criticize the bad curation of this event when it came to the undercard? You’re also uniformed if I haven’t not only been vocal calling out festivals for the lack of female representation, but that I’ve taken the lead on this over the years? Truth is though, this festival has pretty good representation of women.
Your comment is so indicative of the canards that fester on social media about Saving Country Music, perpetrated by people who are incensed and jealous at the platform I have created to push important causes as opposed to actually understanding what’s going on here. If you knew anything about Saving Country Music, you would know that LiveNation and Tickebastard are seen as nothing short of the enemy.
Get informed, or fuck off.
November 4, 2022 @ 11:48 am
I’ll say this also: I very well may go to this festival and cover it, just because it’s in my home market, and because the curation points have national implications. But if I do, I will cover it objectively like I cover all festivals, and it won’t be some ringing endorsement of C3 Presents or LiveNation. If you want to know how I feel about what they’ve done to Austin music, feel free to go read my recent screed about moving the CMT Awards to the LiveNation/C3-owned Moody Center:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/moving-the-cmt-awards-from-nashville-to-austin-is-stupid/