Show Review

Approximately 5,000 fans attended the Wanee Music Festival held Friday and Saturday, April 14 and 15, in Live Oak, Florida at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. Headline performances each night by the Allman Brothers Band included many fan-favorite tunes, especially “Melissa,” “Aint Wastin’ Time No More,” “Midnight Rider” and “Hot ‘Lanta” and featured many special guests. The opening night, the Allmans shared the stage with Susan Tedeschi, Devon Allman, Mike Mattison (from The Derek Trucks Band), Floyd Miles, Luther Dickson (from the North Mississippi Allstars), Elizabeth Pearson, Danny Louis and Andy Hess (from Gov’t Mule), Hal Thomas, Vaylor Trucks (from Bonobos Convergence) and Dr. Roosevelt Collier (from the Lee Boys). If that wasn’t enough, Saturday night’s performance featured Jack Pearson on guitar in Derek Truck’s place, as Trucks had flown to Europe to begin touring with Eric Clapton.

Gov’t Mule played sets each night as well (the first shows of their “Still Raging” tour) and delighted Mule fans with “She Said, She Said,” “Mule,” “Soulshine,” “Thorazine Shuffle” and “Who Do You Love?” Haynes and co even threw in a couple of Grateful Dead covers, namely “Loser” and “Terrapin Station.” But a most poignant moment happened on Saturday evening when the band dedicated their set to the great blues artist R. L. Burnside, who died last fall.

Those sets were certainly hot, though a highlight of the weekend was the Special Midnight Jam with The Derek Trucks Band on Friday night, which ended well after 2:00 AM. And the guests poured on stage for this performance as well, including Tedeschi, Pearson, Dickson, Collier and Miles. “Greensleeves” and many tracks from Derek’s newly released Songlines, including “Chevrolet,” decorated the set.

Other memorable sets came from Ivan Neville’s new creation Dumptaphunk - a traditional gumbo-styling band which performed several Meters originals - and the New Mississippi All-Stars, who performed both nights and honored the location of the festival, near the banks of the Suwannee River, with an amped up version of “Down By the Riverside.” The Wailers' Saturday night set, dedicated to former bandmate Carlton Barrett, on the anniversary of his death twenty years ago was a shining set as well, featuring “Lively Up Yourself” and “Stand Up into One Love”.

The heavy hitters take the glory, but many smaller acts lit up the festival, namely New Monsoon, with their unique ethnic mix of rocking rhythms, Bonobos Convergence, the Jack Pearson Band, Oteil and the Peacemakers, Medeski, Martin &Wood, Railroad Earth, Of A Revolution, Honeytribe featuring Devon Allman and unscheduled late night campground performances by Shak Nasti, an Orlando-based garage style band all made it a worthwhile weekend.

Photos by George Weiss

For more info see: waneefestival.com