02 May Saturday: Elliot Root, Letts, and Edward Sharpe
It’s finally the weekend! Saturday and Sunday are always my favorite days of the week, and my favorite days of SunFest. There are a LOT of bands playing today, starting with some reggae music on the Ford Stage, rock in the grassy Tire Kingdom area, and an exciting mix of hip-hop, rap, and R&B on the FPL stage!
Here are a few more acts you can’t miss:
Visiting from Nashville, Tennessee is the alternative soul group Elliot Root.
Elliot Root’s music would sit well with fans of William Fitzsimmons, City and Colour, and Young the Giant. I’d also fold their songs into a playlist with Bon Iver. There is not much online about the budding band, but I plan to change that later.
My introduction to the band was through their own cramped version of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. Stuck in a too-small area, the boys played “Chemical Sweat.” The video left me with chills and tingly toes.
The band has released two EPs to date, and I hope has big plans for the future. They’ll be opening up for Hozier tonight! Don’t miss them on the Ford Stage at 7 p.m.!
Former Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros guitarist Christian Letts will transition fans from Elliot Root to Hozier later today.
The London-born artist has been described as a songwriter, singer, painter and sculptor. Edward Sharpe (who I have more on below) surrounds himself with a party of talented musicians on stage, Letts is the first to cross my radar going solo.
“So many stories come from all the time I have been a part of [Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros] and have led me to writing a lot of these songs for my album,” Letts recently told LiveForLiveMusic.com.
If you like Hozier and Bon Iver, get to the Ford stage early to grab a spot for his set. His handsome, smokey voice lingers in the air, and begs for a background of early morning haze. I’m excited to see this eccentric artist on his own.
I also have to mention that Letts has a lengthy list of “band interests” on his Facebook including: dead artists journals, lost treasures, found treasures for that matter, crashing waves, old ships, French, great stories, black holes, holographic less dimensioned universes, Navajo first phase chief blankets, whales, calligraphy, sushi, whiskey, the angels share, trying to connect the dots, and bees wax.
Speaking of Edward Sharpe, he is also playing tonight with his fantastical troupe of barefoot musicians and noise makers. I have seen lead singer Alex Ebert and his folky family more times than I can count, and each time is better than the last.
The unkempt mastermind/madman and his Zeros played SunFest in 2013 and put on a magnificent show. I’m still talking about it. If you missed them then, now is your chance to throw that regret in the trash.
The whimsical act is known for their contagious hits “40 Day Dream,” “Om Nashi Me,” and “Home.” (Home is whenever I’m with [SunFest].) They are also revered for juggling more than a dozen people on a single stage and making sure everyone in the crowd before them is moving their feet.
They will play the FPL Stage today at 4:15 p.m.!