Jason Isbell’s ShoalsFest Returns In October

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Jason Isbell and Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood

Jason Isbell‘s ShoalsFest returns to McFarland Park in Florence, Alabama on Oct. 3-4.

The fifth edition of the festival features a two-day lineup that includes Isbell and the 400 Unit, Jeff Tweedy, S.G. Goodman, Willow Avalon and Steve Trash. Isbell will also perform with the Drive-By Truckers and perform their 2003 album Decoration Day in its entirety. Tickets for ShoalsFest will go on sale this Friday, (May 8) at shoalsfest.net.

This year’s ShoalsFest supports the local effort to bring Nuçi’s Space to the Shoals. Nuçi’s Space is a suicide prevention nonprofit based in Athens, Georgia. With a focus on musicians, Nuçi’s Space advocates for and helps to alleviate the suffering of those living with a brain illness and fights to end the stigma of mental illness. The nonprofit maintains a health and resource center for musicians and offers programs and services including access to low-cost professional counseling, suicide prevention training, and various support groups. Their facility provides affordable rehearsal space, a recording studio, gear rental and sales, and a music venue to showcase local talent and support all musicians.

Muscle Shoals and the surrounding towns of Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Florence (collectively referred to as “The Shoals”) had an immeasurable impact on popular music with what was dubbed the “Muscle Shoals Sound.” Isbell developed his guitar playing and his deep reverence for music history as a teenager working at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and playing with local musicians and members of the studio’s revered house band, The Swampers.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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