You probably haven’t heard of something called Backwoods Music and Camping Festival. And I don’t mean that in a holier-than-thou-hipster kind of way. I mean this weekend’s three-day bacchanal has received hardly any press in the metro media.
NewsOK ran a press release on Backwoods fest back in June. If you live around Tulsa, you may have seen coverage Monday on Fox 23 or Wednesday in the Tulsa World’s Weekend section. The Gazette doesn’t mention it at all in this week’s issue. This dearth of coverage is a shame because several Oklahoma acts are slated to perform next to national (and international) names.
Basically, Backwoods fest is a three-day debauch at the Tatanka Ranch near Stroud. There’s really nothing that separates it from any other 21st century multi-day multi-stage music festival, except for the fact that this year’s musical lineup is maybe THE CRAZIEST LINEUP EVER.
EVER!
With a name like “Backwoods,” one might anticipate a performance offering akin to the Woody Guthrie Fest. One would be wrong.
“This year took a more electronic route,” said Tulsa World Scene writer Jerry Wofford, who wrote TW’s only coverage of the event, linked above. “It’s going to be really weird.”
The three headliners include 2015 MTVu Artist of the Year Porter Robinson, the inexplicably enduring Israeli duo known as Infected Mushroom, and Odesza, consisting of two DJs from Seattle.
But other notable acts from the national circuit include guitar looper Keller Williams, modern bluegrass boys Split Lip Rayfield, ’80s-style synth master Com Truise, dreamy beats from Washed Out, and Cambodian throwback jams from Dengue Fever.
Perhaps the weirdest act on the bill, however, is Illinois-based Bone Jugs N Harmony, who, as you may have guessed, performs Bone-Thugs covers in a bluegrass style.
Oklahoma represents
Luckily, a slew of Oklahoma acts will surely pick up the slack if the big names fall flat. Performers include:
- Red Dirt Rangers
- Carter Sampson
- Helen Kelter Skelter
- Bowlsey
- Dustin Prinz
- Blake O the DJ
- Oklahoma Cloud Factory
- Nicnos
- Jumpship Astronaut
- Space 4 Lease
- Willow Way
- Regg
- Aluma
- Allie Lauren
- Em and the MotherSuperiors
- Ed Crunk
- Dead Armadillos
- Red Wood Rising
- Dirty Creek Bandits
- Steve Liddell
- Morgan Ganem
This is by far not an all-inclusive list of the Oklahoma acts playing this weekend’s festival. Feel free to flesh it out in the comments if you know of others.
Still, beyond the broad and somewhat incongruent range of acts slated to perform, I find myself most surprised by the lack of local discussion about Backwoods fest. Maybe if Oxford Karma were still around, they could have done the local musicians more justice in the online alternative press.
