Hello Ogden Music Festivarians,

We’ve had an unexpected change in our line-up for the festival this weekend. Unfortunately, The Travelin’ McCourys had positive COVID tests in their camp and need to stay home. While they will be missed, we are happy to announce that festival favorites, the Shook Twins will be taking their place Saturday at 6 pm. The Brothers Comatose & Friends will take over the Grateful Ball slot, closing out our Saturday night line-up with a bang.

We are sorry for the shake-up, but this is festival life in these COVID times. Thank you so much for your understanding. You can be certain the joyful celebration of music and community that is The Ogden Music Festival will continue on as always. See you in the dancing area!

Learn more about Shook Twins

Half of all plastics that have ever been created have been produced in just the last 15 years. The working life for plastic cutlery is 15-20 minutes, yet it can sit in a landfill indefinitely. The OFOAM Team strives to make our festival more sustainable year after year. We have partnered with our food vendors to eliminate plastic cutlery, plastic straws and foam plates, replacing them with compostable and reusable birch wood cutlery, paper straws and Chinet® plates. We’re also proud to join #BYOBottle, a music industry campaign to rock reusable water bottles. We provide water refilling stations at the festival. Recent images in the press show the shocking sea of plastic waste left behind after concerts and festivals, but momentum to promote solutions in the music scene is growing! 

Here's what you can do to join us in this effort:

Now that single day tickets are on sale, here's what's happening when. We'll see you at the Fort!

What began as an all-female festival collab quickly morphed into a serious passion project driven by sisterhood, harmony and humor...…along with the shared desire to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy. Big Richard is a neo-acoustic super group made up of well established Colorado musicians: Bonnie Sims on mandolin (Bonnie & Taylor Sims//Everybody Loves An Outlaw//Bonnie & the Clydes), Joy Adams on cello (Nathaniel Rateliff//Darol Anger//Half Pelican), Emma Rose on bass + guitar (Sound of Honey//Daniel Rodriguez//Whippoorwill) and Eve Panning on fiddle (Lonesome Days). The future of this group is big and rising fast.

David Burchfield writes Americana that swaggers wildly through raw emotion within a meticulously written and arranged package. With connections to his indie folk, classic country, and bluegrass roots, Burchfield carves a unique path in the folk rock world with his powerful 5-piece, the Fire Guild. American Songwriter has said: "This type of solid songcraft would make Burchfield fit right in on a bill with the likes of Lucinda Williams or Jason Isbell." Burchfield’s literate lyrics meet emotive grace in nods to Jason Isbell, Watchhouse (Mandolin Orange), and David Ramirez. There is a powerful candor in Burchfield’s writing – raw, emotive, and rich with details that bring the listener right into the scene of his passion. Solo, Burchfield performs with a surprising ferocity and conviction that has silenced even the rowdiest of rooms. Critics have called his 5-piece band, David Burchfield & the Fire Guild, akin to “the Band meets the Stray Birds” – equal parts all out roots rock party and sensitively arranged balladry. Burchfield has opened for Nicki Bluhm, Anders Osborne, Noah Gundersen, David Ramirez, and Joe Pug.

“Mighty and joyous rock-injected blues…luxurious vocals and fine guitar work. Her voice is as muscular as her name is evocative.” – Austin Chronicle

“Carolyn Wonderland is the real deal. She’s an amazing guitar player. And damn, can she sing.” – Los Angeles Times

“With incendiary guitar chops and raw, powerful vocals, fiery Texas blues rocker Carolyn Wonderland draws instant comparisons to fellow Texans Stevie Ray Vaughan and Janis Joplin.” –NPR Music

“Hey, have you heard Carolyn Wonderland? She’s something else. She should be nationwide.” – Bob Dylan, talking to Asleep At The Wheel’s Ray Benson

The depths of the Texas blues tradition with the wit of a poet. She hits the stage with an unmatched presence, a true legend in her time.

She’d grown up the child of a singer in a band and began playing her mother’s vintage Martin guitar when other girls were dressing dolls. She’d gone from being the teenage toast of her hometown Houston to sleeping in her van in Austin amid heaps of critical acclaim for excellent recordings.

Along with the guitar and the multitude of other instruments she learned to play – trumpet, accordion, piano, mandolin, lap steel – Wonderland’s ability to whistle remains most unusual. Whistling is a uniquely vocal art seldom invoked in modern music, yet it’s among the most spectacular talents the human voice possesses.

That vocal proficiency was well-established in the singer’s midteens, landing her gigs at Fitzgerald’s by age 15. She absorbed Houston influences like Little Screamin’ Kenny, Albert Collins, Lavelle White, Jerry Lightfoot, Joe “Guitar” Hughes, Little Joe Washington, “borrowed” a car to sneak out and jam ended up swapping songs with Townes Van Zandt at Houston’s Local’s on White Oak, got involved in the underground theater scene becoming the first “Photochick” in Jason Nodler’s “In the Under Thunderloo” and soaked up touring bands like the Paladins, Los Lobos, and the Mad Hatter of Texas music, Doug Sahm. Her music played in television series such as “Time of Your Life” and NBC’s “Homicide.” The Lone Star State was as credible a proving ground for blues in the 1980s and 90s as existed, especially in Austin with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Angela Strehli, Omar & the Howlers, and Lou Ann Barton all in their prime. By the following decade, Austin’s blues luster thinned, but Houston, always a bastion of soul and R&B, boasted the Imperial Monkeys with the effervescent Carolyn Wonderland as ruler of the jungle.

In the early 1990s, Wonderland & the Imperial Monkeys were invited to the Guadalupe Street Antone’s in Austin. There, they were treated like royalty with the singer as the queen of hearts in the club’s post-Stevie Ray Vaughan stable, which included Toni Price, Johnny and Jay Moeller, Sue Foley, Mike and Corey Keller, and the Ugly Americans. It was a good bar for the Monkeys to hang, and Austin felt so comfortable that when the band called it quits a few years later, after a run-in with black ice and a semi that wound young Miss Wonderland in the hospital, she set her sights on Austin at the start of the millennium. Besides, Doug Sahm had told Carolyn while they were signing autographs together at the High Sierra Music Festival, she ought to move to Austin, as it was the land of free guitar lessons. She was there in months.

Living in Austin renewed Carolyn Wonderland’s focus on her multiple talents, underlining rich vocals with excellent guitar work, trumpet, and piano, as well as that remarkable ability to whistle on key. Despite spending two years homeless (or as she puts it, “van-full,”) Austin has been fertile ground for Carolyn. A series of each-better-than-the-next discs began with Alcohol & Salvation in 2001 (“songs about booze and God; records are a time capsule of what happened that year”) 2003’s “Bloodless Revolution,” The Bismeaux Releases: 2008’s “Miss Understood,” 2011’s “Peace Meal” (recorded at Bismeaux and Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock,) 2015’s “Live Texas Trio”; and here we are with 2017’s “Moon Goes Missing.”

Carolyn also got to stretch out with other bands and notably appears in Jerry Lightfoot’s Band of Wonder’s 2002 release, “Texistentialism” featuring Jerry Lightfoot, Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead, The Tubes, Todd Rundgren,) Carolyn, Barry “Frosty” Smith (Lee Michaels, Sly & the Family Stone, Rare Earth, Soulhat) and Larry Fulcher (Taj Mahal, Phantom Blues Band). She has released many songs for charity, 2016’s “Room at the Inn” (iTunes) benefits Doctors Without Borders, 2013’s “Money in the Game” (featuring Marcia Ball and Shelley King) benefits Planned Parenthood, “the Farmer Song” from “Miss Understood” benefits Farm AID, “Annie’s Scarlet Letter” from “Bloodless Revolution” benefits NORML, 1997 Justice Records released Carolyn’s version of Little Screamin’ Kenny’s holiday lament, “Blue Lights” (featuring Ian McLagan) benefitting MD Anderson Children’s Art Project.

Carolyn’s first appearance on vinyl? She’s with James Williamson (Stooges) on the April 2014 Record Store Day single, “Open Up & Bleed” AND on the full LP inspired by that fun session, “Re-Licked” featuring Raw Power Era songs with cool and risky guests.

Her circle of musician friends and admirers broadened to include not only Ray [Benson, who produced Miss Understood] but also the late Eddy Shaver, Shelley King, and yes, Bob Dylan, who likened her composition “Bloodless Revolution” to “a mystery movie theme.” She appeared on the same taping with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings when she made her debut on PBS’ “Austin City Limits” (Season 35.) and had the thrill of her life when Bonnie Raitt joined her onstage for “The Road to Austin” concert film featuring Stephen Bruton and all his friends, got to play with James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins, and so many others at Antone’s, she and Erin Jaimes put together a benefit for Uncle John Turner and Johnny Winter insisted on bringing his band by to play, Carolyn’s wedding to A. Whitney Brown was officiated by Mike Nesmith (Monkees,) who serendipitously introduced them on set at VideoRanch in 2010. (there is a video of the two of them on stage together that day!) She began co-writing with locals Sarah Brown, Shelley King, Marcia Ball, Ruthie Foster, Cindy Cashdollar, and Guy Forsyth; sat in with Los Lobos, Levon Helm, Vintage Trouble, Robert Earl Keen, and Ray Wylie Hubbard; and toured relentlessly for the past two decades, sometimes with luminaries like Dave Alvin, Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter, so far spreading her music in US, Europe, South America and Japan. She also claims membership in the all-girl Sis Deville, the gospel-infused Imperial Crown Golden Harmonizers, the Texas Guitar Women, and the Woodstock Lonestars.

Carolyn recently joined John Mayall’s Band as his guitarist and is balancing life on the road with writing time at home and on the way. She’s been touring for over 25 years and ain’t done yet. Come and see it at a show! (seriously, she’s perpetually on tour.)

AJ Lee and Blue Summit, a bluegrass band led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, has been the darling of the North Bay, California bluegrass scene since their first appearance in Santa Cruz. Drawing from influences such as swing, folk, blues, jazz, country, soul, and rock, their undeniable talent and insatiable passion for bluegrass harks back to traditional classics while remaining uniquely modern. Over the years, Blue Summit's performed all around the country as well as in the UK, Ireland, and France. They've accrued many devout followers and distinctions including the Freshgrass 2019 Band Contest Winner, IBMA 2019 Momentum Vocalist of the Year, 2nd Place at the 2019 Winfield Guitar Competition, and numerous awards in Northern California. In 2019, AJ Lee and Blue Summit came out with their debut album, "Like I Used To," which consists entirely of AJ's original songs. Equipped with these new songs and their archive of nostalgic tunes, they'll continue playing to both familiar and new audiences, endearing themselves to the country and the world. 

 “Could This Kid Be the Next Allison Krauss?” Mother Jones magazine asked about AJ Lee — and for good reason. She has won the Northern California Bluegrass Society’s (NCBS) Best Female Vocalist award nine times - and she’s only twenty-one! Popular Webzine Californiality called AJ "California's Hottest Singer" because of her jaw-droppingly beautiful voice. AJ began singing and performing on stage at the astonishing age of five. By twelve, she began writing her own songs and showcasing them nation-wide. She has traveled with many bands, including “The Tuttles with AJ Lee,” which was featured at numerous festivals across the U.S. and beyond. She is a fantastic mandolinist and songwriter with a gorgeous voice. Ms. Lee is excited to share Blue Summit’s latest album consisting of all original material.

Jesse Fichman started playing guitar at the age of ten when he and his friends decided to form a bluegrass band. Since then, he has played in multiple bluegrass bands, multiple jazz combos, and a country band. When Jesse lends his rich voice to old, classic country songs audiences burst into applause. Jesse graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in biology, and took a majority of the music classes offered there. He is a full time and original member of Blue Summit, and is studying and writing music on the side. 

Sullivan Tuttle began playing guitar at age seven, learning quickly from his music teacher father, Jack Tuttle, with nightly home lessons and practice in the family band, the award-winning Tuttles with AJ Lee.  By age ten Sullivan started to have an international following with a YouTube video of El Cumbanchero, which he played with his brother and sister (Michael and Molly Tuttle) - their video now has over 1.7 million views. Sullivan has developed a reputation for his rich, deep singing voice and astonishingly skillful guitar solos.       

Chad Bowen was born and raised in Northwest Ohio and has been with Blue Summit since May 2018. A hardworking musician, Chad has been playing bass with numerous bands in the Bay area for almost 10 years. Music has always been a huge part of his life. Growing up he played piano, guitar, and sang in choirs. Eventually he gravitated to the double bass where he finds himself today smiling big, holding down the low end, singing sweet harmonies and sometimes singing lead on popular Grateful Dead tunes. 

"At first glance, everything about Jerron Paxton looks and feels like a journey back in time to the early days of roots music, blues, and American folk. His effortless juggling of instruments — from harmonica to fretless banjo, to guitar, to fiddle — his humorous banter, his rustic stage wear, even his on-stage moniker, “Blind Boy” Paxton, all conjure past musical eras. The songs and stories Paxton presents don’t come from dusty songbooks, obscure recordings, or forgotten archives, though. They were each a part of the soundtrack of his childhood growing up in South Central Los Angeles. In an area most famous for hip hop and R&B, a vibrant musical tradition flourished, starting from the deep southern U.S. and traveling along Interstate-10 all the way to L.A.

Paxton’s connection to these songs — to these nuggets of American, African-American, and working-class cultures — shines through his performances and recordings. He is not merely a preservationist mining bygone decades for esoteric material or works that fit a certain aesthetic or brand. He simply takes music that is significant to his identity, his culture, and his experience and showcases it for a broader audience. Its value does not reside solely in its history or in the authentic replication of that history, but also exists in its present, its relevance to modern times, and its future, as well." - Bluegrass Situation

Paxton's style draws from blues and jazz music before World War II and was influenced by Fats Waller and "Blind" Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation — playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements — to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s, the blues of Bessie Smith and Lonnie Johnson."

Originally from the Watts district of Los Angeles, Paxton's grandparents moved from Louisiana to California in 1956.These southern roots would have an influence on Paxton as a young boy. After spending time listening to his hometown blues radio station, as well as the old Cajun and country blues songs his grandmother used to sing, Paxton became interested in these early sounds, developing a breadth of knowledge pertaining to such music along the way. He began playing the fiddle when he was twelve, only to pick up the banjo two years later. As a teenager, he began to go blind, losing most of his eyesight by the age of 16. Since his childhood, he has added piano, harmonica, Cajun accordion, ukulele, guitar, and the bones to his musical arsenal, although the banjo was his first serious instrument. In addition to blues and jazz, he uses these instruments to play ragtime, country blues, and Cajun music. 

Paxton's talent and contributions to acoustic blues have earned him comparisons to contemporary artists such as Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo', and Corey Harris. Similar to groups such as the Carolina Chocolate Drops, he is one of the few contemporary African-American banjo players touring today.

If you'd like to give the gift of music to a child in the form of world class live music free for kids 16 and younger, an instrument to borrow, or free music lessons, now is the time!

OFOAM has been busy this past year building the Weber Instrument Lending Library (WILL) for Weber Acoustic Youth (WAY), presenting free outreach events to the kids at Youth Impact, and to local secondary students and the community as part of Dia de los Muertos at The Monarch, and bringing back the Ogden Music Festival after a year away with a new and improved Instrument Petting Zoo. With your help, next year OFOAM will offer more free outreach events for kids and put more instruments in kids' hands. 

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OFOAM is a 501c3 nonprofit, tax ID: 27-256950.

Stillhouse Junkies is a one-of-a-kind creative project born out of the collective passions of three individuals with very different musical backgrounds. With chops and stylistic leanings ranging from classical to West African, blues, bluegrass, and swing, Fred Kosak, Alissa Wolf, and Cody Tinnin came together around a shared goal of bringing sounds and grooves to their fans that fall outside of easy genre distinctions. With all three band members trading lead vocal, songwriting, and arranging duties, Stillhouse Junkies paint with a rich tonal palette that pays homage to their musical heroes while forging a unique artistic path. Born out of a long-standing weekly residency at a local distillery in Durango, CO, Stillhouse Junkies have quickly become a staple of Colorado and the Four Corners region’s vibrant music scene and a nationally-recognized touring act, establishing a solid fan base through multi-hour performances that feature soaring group improvisations, novel re-imaginings of covers from the likes of Asia, Caleb Klauder, and Bill Withers, and intimate vocal-driven ballads. Through their strong writing and creative, intricate arranging, the Junkies have built up an eclectic multi-set catalogue of original music that reflects their diverse interests and creative inclinations. Their songs run the gamut of human emotion and experience: disenchantment with the pace of modern living, confronting adversity in its many forms, mortality and aging, and story songs that imagine reality from the perspective of a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition; a small-town bartender; a lonely miner; an imperiled cattle driver. They pay tribute to the remarkable diversity of both the Four Corners area of the Southwestern US and the country as a whole, probing below the surface of everyday life to find the themes that unite us all as Americans and citizens of the world. In November 2019, Stillhouse Junkies entered the studio in Austin, TX to record their third album, Calamity, an epic thematic collection of 12 original songs released on March 7th. This effort represented the culmination of over a year of constant writing, gigging, and rehearsing and was to be supported by a dizzying schedule of over 100 planned shows across the US and in the UK. Stillhouse Junkies are proud to be winners of the 2021 IBMA Momentum Band of the Year award, 2018 and 2019 Telluride Band Contest finalists (3rd & 2nd place) Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival Showcase Artists, and Showcase Artists at both the 2020 & 2021 IBMA World of Bluegrass.