Jason Wilber reports on being at Bonnaroo

We Had An Absolute Blast At Bonnaroo!

I played the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this past weekend with John Prine. What a fun festival! I ran into my old friends Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who were there to perform on the same stage as us with David Rawlings Machine. I hadn’t seen Gil and Dave since the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco last year. So it was fun catching up with them.

Before we went on, I saw a great band I hadn’t heard before called Mumford and Sons. They played a rockin’ set right before us. If you haven’t heard them yet, check them out!

We (John Prine and co) had a great set. The crowd was fantastic and really pumped. The fabulous Ketch Secor and Willie Watson from Old Crow Medicine Show came out and played a couple of songs with us. Those guys rock! You can check out this video of them playing Lake Marie with us on YouTube.

Then for our encore, Kris Kristofferson came out and sang with us. Ketch, Willie, and Morgan from Old Crow came out too. The applause from the audience as we walked on stage for the encore was deafening! We played John’s classic “Paradise”. Kris sang a verse and I think Ketch and Willie split one. A fantastic way to end the set! As we were walking off stage afterwards, Kris said to me “Man, you’re a hell of a guitar picker!”. That made me feel pretty good. Kris and his wife Lisa are wonderful people, very kind and down to earth. We’ve had the pleasure of doing a few shows with them here and there over the years. It was great to see the Old Crow Medicine Show guys again too. One of the best things about festivals like this is getting to hang with friends and fellow artists who we don’t get to see very often.

After our performance, I just had enough time to grab a quick dinner (a big “thank you” to Bonnaroo’s awesome backstage hospitality staff!) and then catch one of my all time favorites, Stevie Wonder, on the main stage. Stevie and his band were in top form. Smokin’! I had high expectations and was not disappointed one bit. I only had time to listen to a few songs because we had to hit the road. But I did get to hear “Superstition”! A sweet cherry on top of a wonderful day.

A million thanks to our old friend and promoter Ashley Capps and all of the other people who make Bonnaroo possible. It’s a HUGE undertaking! If you aren’t familiar with it, Bonnaroo is a four-day, multi-stage camping festival held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee every June. The musical artists chosen to perform at the festival represent a wonderful cross-section of styles and genres. There are bands and artists representing just about any contemporary style of music you can think of. There are also visual arts and crafts people, comedy performances, movies, and all kinds of entertainment, including a silent disco (where everyone wears headphones!).

Tags: jason wilber, john prine