The lineup of bands taking the stage for the eighth annual Bluegrass Battles Hunger concert to support the Second Harvest Community Food Bank have been announced.
The two-day event will be held on Friday, September 22nd, and Saturday, September 23rd, at Coleman Hawkins Park, located at 7th Felix St., in downtown St. Joseph, Mo.
The event is free and open to the public. Patrons are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items or cash donations for Second Harvest Community Food Bank, which supports hunger relief efforts in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas. The food bank is a member of Feeding America, and is the area’s link between an abundant food supply and people in need.
Donations from last year’s event totaled 653 pounds of food, and $3,000, all of which were donated to Second Harvest.
This year’s headliner is The Creek Rocks. The Creek Rocks are a bluegrass inspired duo from Springfield, Missouri, with a classic, down-home sound, and a fun musical sense of humor. “Wolf Hunter” is the debut CD by The Creek Rocks from Springfield, Missouri. The title is an amalgam of the names of the two folklorists whose collections provided the raw materials for the songs on the album — John Quincy Wolf of Batesville, Arkansas and Max Hunter of Springfield, Missouri. Cindy Woolf was raised in Batesville, along the southern foothills of the Ozarks Mountain region, and Mark Bilyeu hails from Springfield, located atop the Ozarks Plateau.
They began their musical collaboration in 2003 with Mark at the helm for Woolf’s debut CD “Simple and Few.” They married each other in 2013, shortly after the release of Cindy’s third solo CD, “May.” Joining them on Wolf Hunter are bassist Jason Chapman, also known from The Chapmans, the award-winning family bluegrass band; and percussionist Jay Williamson, who is a sixteen-year veteran of another family band, Big Smith, of which Mark was a founding member as well. Big Smith released seven CDs during their tenure, and Mark has a solo album to his credit, 2005’s “First One Free.”
The 2017 Artist Lineup is the following:
Friday, September 22
6:00 p.m. Shapiro Bros.
7:00 p.m. Grassfed
8:30 p.m. Old Sound
Saturday, September 23
3:00 p.m. Trolley Dodgers
4:00 p.m. Whiskey for the Lady
5:00 p.m. No Mountain String Band
6:00 p.m. The Matchsellers
7:15 p.m. Steamboat Bandits
8:30 p.m. The Creek Rocks
*Saturday between artists, Julie Bennett Hume will be performing.
Food and concessions will be available for purchase throughout the two-day event. More information can be found at Bluegrass Battles Hunger’s website, www.bluegrassbattleshunger.com