Savannah Music Festival adds 6 acts, including Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Drive-By Truckers

The Savannah Music Festival has added six new acts for 2016:

  • Andrew Bird (with full band) – 7:30 p.m., 3/29, Lucas Theatre
  • U.S. Marine Corps All Star Jazz Band – 2 p.m., 4/4, Trustees Theater – FREE
  • Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings – 7:30 p.m., 4/4, Lucas Theatre
  • Dave Rawlings Machine – 7:30 p.m., 4/5, Trustees Theater
  • Drive-By Truckers – 8:30 p.m., 4/6, Trustees Theater
  • My Brightest Diamond – 10:30 p.m., 4/8, & 3 p.m., 4/9, Charles H. Morris Center

Tickets are now on sale. The lineup additions were announced Saturday night at Southbound Brewing Company with a special show by Steep Canyon Rangers and the release of new IPA, Rollin’ & Stumblin’.

These are some major additions, obviously, which bring some high-profile artists to the SMF’s final week. The Festival runs from March 24th to April 9th.

Andrew Bird — formerly a member of Squirrel Nut Zippers and Bowl of Fire and a solo artist since 2003 — has a new album Are You Serious? out on April 1.

Check out Bird’s recent All Songs Considered NPR appearance:


What is left to say about the remarkable Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings? They played the SMF in 2011, which was before Jones’ battle with cancer, throughout which she has continued to do compelling work. The Augusta native was featured in Oxford American’s recent Georgia Music Issue.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at Forecastle Festival 2014

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at Forecastle Festival 2014

I’ve never seen Dave Rawlings Machine but this should be a super show with a stellar band — Rawlings and Gillian Welch on lead vocals and guitar, Willie Watson (Old Crow Medicine Show) on guitar, Brittany Haas (Crooked Still, Abigail Washburn, Haas Kowert Tice) on fiddle and Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers, Haas Kowert Tice) on bass.

If you’re reading this blog, I have to assume that you’re already familiar with the Athens-based Drive-By Truckers. I’d expect a quick sell out on this show, so don’t dawdle getting tickets.

I’m not familiar with My Brightest Diamond, a project of Shara Worden, who has collaborated with David Byrne, Sufjan Stevens, Laurie Anderson, Fat Boy Slim, Bon Iver, and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Of course, if you’re an SMF regular, you already know that there’s a pretty high bar before an artist is even considered. These sets at the Morris Center will definitely be worth checking out.

On 4/5 at 5 p.m., the SMF will also host a poster signing session with artist Alessandro Gottardo at the festival’s pop-up shop at 220 West Broughton St.