Today on High Plains Morning, we had a VERY full house. Tomorrow (September 1st) in Amarillo, the Yellow City Sounds Music Festival will rock Memorial Park on the main campus of Amarillo College from 2:00 to 10:00 p.m., so we welcomed some of the primary players into the HPPR Studio to tell us all about it.
First up, we had “The King of Event Calendars,” Chip Chandler…though his formal title is Digital Content Producer at Panhandle PBS. He gave us the full download on the festival, including the history, the lineup, the food trucks, and all the hot tips for having a great time tomorrow. The headliners will excite and surprise you (especially if you’re an old-school Amarillo rock fan.) I’ve listed the details below, and here’s the full interview:
Next, Broderick Adams of the Amarillo-based, indie folk-rock band Mount Ivy. He represented for his four bandmates with some captivating live, acoustic music. All five dudes will join him on the stage at 4:30pm. Here’s the full interview and performance:
Finally, both members of Amarillo’s Fine & Dandy popped in with their guitars. Thanks to Ben Cargo and Daniel Davis for laying down some tight acoustic bluesy-county-folk, with dueling guitars and inspired croonin’ on top. They go on at 2:30p, so be there early! Here’s our full interview and their songs:
MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL: Three beloved Amarillo bands — including the band that first serenaded audiences with mega-hit “Wide Open Spaces” — will reunite. The festival — featuring The Groobees, among other popular bands from Amarillo’s musical past and some of the brightest stars of its current scene — will run 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, in Memorial Park on the Washington Street Campus of Amarillo College. Admission is free. The daylong concert is part of the ongoing commemoration of Panhandle PBS’s 30th anniversary. Music kicks off at 2:30 p.m.
“Our station motto is ‘We live here,’ and this year’s Yellow City Sounds Music Festival will celebrate Amarillo’s amazing music scene by bringing back together some of this region’s all-time favorite bands and highlighting some of its newest stars,” said Kevin Ball, Panhandle PBS CEO and AC vice president of communications and marketing. About 3,000 people attended the inaugural festival in September 2017.
An All-Star Amarillo Lineup: The Amarillo-born Groobees was one of the hottest acts on the regional Americana scene in the 1990s and the first to record the smash hit “Wide Open Spaces,” written by member Susan Gibson. They broke up in 2001, and this festival will be the first time they share the stage together in 17 years.
Also reforming for Yellow City Sounds are Krakt, an Amarillo rock band that toured the country throughout the late 1980s, and Turbine Toolshed, an Americana band who split in 2014 but whose members are still some of the most prominent musicians on the Amarillo scene.
Also performing are three current bands who are making their own history on the High Plains.
Indie rockers Mount Ivy recently reunited after a year’s hiatus and have already resumed tearing up the town.
Progressive Americana band Comanche Moon released its new, chart-climbing single “The One That You Love” in March and recently signed a distribution deal with Red Music, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, to distribute new album Country Music Deathstar.
And the festival’s musical slate will open with one of Amarillo’s newest bands: Fine & Dandy. The Americana duo features Daniel Davis, formerly of Zac Wilkerson’s band, and Ben Cargo, formerly of Strangetowne.
Beyond the Music: About a dozen of Amarillo’s favorite food trucks will be on hand, including Coast to Coast, Cowboy Gelato Smokehouse, Freshbox, GoldenLight Go, J&L Good Grubs, Marble Slab Creamery, Mitch E's Frozen Lemonade, PaPa's Concessions, Pizza Nomad, Purple Flamingo Pops, Tacos Plaza and Thumper's Grill.
The Chick-Fil-A Kids’ Area will include Amarillo College Teach Club, Amarillo Fire Department Smokehouse, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo Zoo, Don Harrington Discovery Center, Happy Faces by Sheila Howard, Home Depot, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and more.
Vendor and other booths will include Amarillo College, AmaDazzle, Coffee Memorial Blood Center, Fishlady’s Fashion Bowtique, Free Cheese Prints, Henna House, IV Rejuvenation Station, MetroPCS, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Red Cross, S & J Coffee House, Studio3313 and more.
Admission and all children's activities are free at the family-friendly event. For information, call 806-371-5224.
