headliners announced for Southern Fried Festival 2018

The first acts have been revealed for Southern Fried Festival, the American roots music festival that takes place at various venues in Perth, this year held from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th July 2018.

The opening headliner at the Perth Concert Hall will be Steve Earle & The Dukes, the 11-time Grammy nominee with twenty albums to his name.

Friday will see Grammy award winner and recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting Rodney Crowell supported by Iris DeMent, who returns after an impressive performance at Southern Fried Festival in 2011.

Saturday welcomes Graham Nash, who has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Another previous fan favourite Gretchen Peters (pictured above) will close the festival on Sunday accompanied by Southern Fried String Quartet in a special performance inviting audience requests.

Gretchen Peters commented on the unique show planned for the festival:

“It’s a very special and rare thing for me to play my songs with a string section - there’s a magic that happens with strings that elevates the music like nothing else. And I’m so looking forward to playing fan favourites by request - no doubt it will involve dipping into my back catalogue, which spans thirteen albums and twenty-two years now. It’s going to be a really incredible evening!”

 

 

This follows an afternoon show by Darrell Scott and Amythyst Kiah.

Other acts confirmed to be performing around the city across the weekend are:-Whiskey Shivers, Longstay, Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys, Yola Carter, Dean Owens, The Whisky Hearts, Meaghan Blanchard, Eli West, Worry Dolls, The Wandering Hearts, Red Pine Timber Co., Blue Rose Code, The Bevvy Sisters, Southern Fried Voices, and The Mastersons.

Festival director Andy Shearer commented on the announcement:

“I’ve said many times before that the song is the currency of the music that we present at Southern Fried, and this year’s line-up of incredible songwriting talent is without question our best to date, and that’s really saying something! Our headline sextet Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Iris DeMent, Graham Nash, Darrell Scott and Gretchen Peters - would all figure in any comprehensive list of the greatest songwriters alive and we’re very proud to host them in Perth this summer. We always try to ensure our headline shows at Southern Fried are Scottish exclusives and that’s the case once again this year but we’ve gone one better in several cases with our Rodney Crowell/Iris DeMent double bill, Darrell Scott’s afternoon concert at Perth Theatre and Gretchen Peter’s closing show of two halves all being one-off European shows. Elsewhere, our line-up of ticketed shows highlights the current strength of the UK's Americana music scene with Yola Carter, The Wandering Hearts, Worry Dolls and Dean Owens all featuring alongside Perth’s own Red Pine Timber Co. and Longstay, who launch their debut album at the festival. As always, there’s an opportunity for local people to perform with Southern Fried Voices open to all-comers (over 18) to join Blue Rose Code and The Bevvy Sisters in a performance at Perth Theatre.”

 

 

Tickets go on sale on Monday 16th April at 10am. We'll have links to buy when on sale.

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