Red Ants returns to White Sulphur for down-home music fest
The highly anticipated Red Ants Pants Music Festival has arrived, but there’s still time to secure your passes! The annual festival is held in a working cow pasture on the Jackson Ranch just outside of White Sulphur Springs, set this year for July 25th–28th. Here’s a closer look at the 2019 lineup.
Headlining this year is GRAMMY-winner Patty Griffin. The acclaimed artist’s tenth studio recording and first-ever eponymous LP released in March. Patty Griffin represents an extraordinary new chapter for the famed singer/songwriter and immediately stands among the most deeply personal recordings of her remarkable two-decade career. The album collects songs written during and in the aftermath of profound personal crisis, several years in which she battled – and ultimately defeated – cancer just as a similar and equally insidious disease metastasized into the American body politic. Yet as always, like very few others, Griffin’s power lies in how she can express the strikingly intimate while never making it about herself, all wrapped in sparse arrangements that breathe an incomparable force and import into her songcraft.
Texas songwriter Alejandro Rose-Garcia, most affectionately known as Shakey Graves, is also set for a Red Ants performance. After getting his start as a one-man band, he went on to win an Americana Music Awards for “Emerging Artist of the Year” following his breakout full-length album, And the War Came. Now armed with a full band, Rose-Garcia leaves behind much of that stripped-down, folk-y sound. His latest release, Can’t Wake Up, takes his songwriting in a “decidedly bigger direction” full of “lush indie compositions” (Consequence of Sound), drawing on another set of his musical influences, ranging from the Beatles and Harry Nilsson to Elliott Smith, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill and other ’90s indie rock bands. With a road-tested group of musicians and a hand-built stage set up complete with psychedelic lighting and props, Shakey Graves’ live show is something to behold.
Canadian artist Colter Wall will also visit the White Sulphur stage. Drawing on the stories of Saskatchewan, the young songwriter’s corner of the world takes shape throughout his second full-length album, Songs of the Plains. The project combines striking original folk songs, well-chosen outside cuts, and a couple of traditional songs that reflect his roots growing up in the small city of Swift Current. Wall captures the spaciousness of the Canadian plains by relying on minimal production and his resonant baritone, which he’s strengthened into a mighty instrument in its own right. It’s a deep and knowing voice you wouldn’t expect of a man in only his mid-twenties.
This year’s main stage lineup will also feature performances by Valerie June, Suzy Bogguss, The White Buffalo, Darrell Scott, Mipso, The Steel Wheels, The Waifs, Dustbowl Revival, The East Pointers, William Prince, Lilly Hiatt, Bo DePeña, and Tris Munsick & the Innocents, who will lend their talents for the FREE kick-off street dance in downtown White Sulphur. Red Ants Pants also includes a fantastic Side Stage lineup of rising stars, Beard & Moustache Competition, Yodeling Contest with Suzy Bogguss, and Cowboy Church with TJ Casey.
In its ninth year, the music festival benefits the Red Ants Pants Foundation, a nonprofit organization in support of women’s leadership, working farms and ranches, and rural communities. Red Ants Pants weekend passes are $145 in advance and $160 at the gate, while single day passes are $55 in advance and $60 at the gate. A limited number of VIP weekend passes are available for $500 – shaded seating with a great view and complimentary refreshments! Kids 12 and under are FREE for the music and camping, when accompanied by an adult. Camping passes and gear packages also available.
Avoid credit card fees and support rural and small businesses by visiting Red Ants Pants hard ticket outlets, which will also be selling camping passes this year. Visit www.redantspantsmusicfestival.com for further details about the 2019 performers, ticketing and camping, and more. •