Friday’s lineup is strong and starts with a group from the Prattville, Alabama area – the Blackbird Pickers! This band – loaded with stand-up bass, mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar, and keys for good measure – has played around the Lake Martin area for several years and carries a strong book of your favorite covers, plus a number of Blackbird originals! These guys will take the Strand Park stage at 6:00 pm.

At 7:30 from the Boston area is the Adam Ezra Group! Adam and his bandmates – Corinna Smith (fiddle), Alex Martin (drums), Poche Ponce (bass) –  have built a community of fans through sheer grit and determination, regularly performing hundreds of shows a year for the past two decades without any major label or mainstream radio support. Fusing folk intimacy and rock energy with soul power and pop charm, the band emerged in the early 2000s and quickly garnered widespread acclaim for their bold, insightful songwriting and interactive, euphoric performances.

Then at 9pm to close out the first night of the Alex City Jazz Fest is Eddie 9V! All his life, Eddie 9V (9-volt) has acted on instinct. Born in June 1996, to a non-musical family ten miles south of Atlanta, Eddie still remembers his fateful first guitar. “I was six and it was one of those with the speaker in it.” While manufactured pop dominated the airwaves, Eddie took a hard left, along with his brother Lane and his friends, began digging into the catalogs of blues giants Al Green, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King, and Percy Sledge.  Before he was old enough to drive, this old-soul artist turned away from the path of college and jobs to burst all guns blazing onto the roots and blues club circuit of his native Atlanta, Georgia. For his debut album, Left My Soul In Memphis, in 2019 the multi-instrumentalist simply powered up his amps in his mobile trailer and with his brother now co-writer and producer, Lane Kelly, laid down one of the year’s breakout releases, acclaimed as “fresh and life-affirming” by Rock & Blues Muse. “Memphis was a total side project,” shrugs Eddie, “that ended up taking off.”  As for his freewheeling style and lyrics, Eddie credits his home life: “I’ve been making words up on the spot for years – my  Uncle Brian taught me how to do that at our family fish fries. How to make people laugh and hold an audience’s  attention.” Let Eddie 9V grab your attention as he closes the night on Friday!

We’ll kick off Saturday night at The AMP with Certainly So at 6:00pm! Certainly So, with members originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi is now based in Nashville! This indie-rock band is sure to make you feel good. Boasting blood harmony and invoking lyrics, the group will catch your ear with the variety of flavors in their music.

Then at 7:30 from Charlotte, North Carolina Of Good Nature will take the AMP Stage. Of Good Nature’s (OGN) highly accessible sound concentrates on feel-good lyrics and technical musicianship that’s packed into a potent blend of rock, soul, alternative, reggae, and pop. In November 2022, OGN released the first of its double-EP concept, Input, containing the hit singles “Open Your Mind”, “I’ll Fly”, “Save the World”, and “Don’t Give Up” featuring Mihali of Twiddle and “Looking For It” featuring Little Stranger and Tropidelic. The band was selected by Sierra Nevada as a featured artist for its ‘Doing Big Things’ promotion, partnering with RoofAbove Charity to raise donations through live-stream performances to help those in need in the band’s hometown.

Then to close Jazz Fest weekend, from the “Middle of Nowhere,” Big Something. Actually from the North Carolina countryside near Burlington, or as they call it, “The Middle of Nowhere,” the 6-headed musical monster known as “Big Something” has steadily become one of the most unique and exciting rock bands to emerge from the Southeast. Huge rhythms paired with soaring guitars, E.W.I (electronic wind instrument), synths, horns, and soulful vocals rise to the top of their signature sound taking listeners on a journey of musical styles. With a diverse and growing catalog of timeless songs that tell stories, and a high-energy live show fusing improvisational alternative rock with funk, reggae, jazz, electronica, heavy metal, and more – it’s no secret why their fun-loving grassroots community of fans is so enamored with the band. After over a decade together with 6 full-length studio albums produced by Grammy-nominee John Custer and even their own Summer music festival The Big What? Big Something has carved out its own niche in the live music community and continues to grow nationally landing marquee appearances at Bonnaroo, Peach Music Festival, Lock’n, Summer Camp, and Electric Forest as well as critical acclaim from the likes of Billboard, Guitar World, Glide Magazine and Jambase.

Big Something will take the stage at 9pm!

Make sure you join the fun both nights at this year’s Alex City Jazz Fest!