Field Report: The Moonshiner's Ball
One of Kentucky's most iconic festivals celebrates a decade with reunion shows, fiery new faces, and a whole lotta 'shine
Before I knew that I wanted to write about music for a living, I was attending the Moonshiner’s Ball. Over the past decade the gathering has been a source of inspiration for me in more ways than one, with it’s music lifting me up and the community surrounding it being a source of comfort and confidence at a time when I struggled mightily for the latter.
In total I’ve only missed two Ball’s since the festival launched in Berea, Ky. in 2014 — it’s maiden gathering and again in 2022, when I instead flew out to cover the inaugural Rebels & Renegades in Monterey, Ca. for Wide Open Country. Each time back is like a reunion, not only for the bands who’ve become mainstays at it through the years (more on that later) but also for the regular festival goers that give the event its signature sense of community that shows — despite what’s going on in the world around us — that we can all unite behind the universal language of music.
So from old favorites to new faces and all kinds of other magical moments, here’s what I saw and heard at the 10th annual Moonshiner’s Ball, which took place at Rockcastle Riverside in Livingston, Ky. from Oct. 10-13.
Reunions from Early Moonshiner’s Alumni
The Moonshiner’s Ball is known for mixing old, familiar faces with lesser known ones across its two stages, but there were a couple of moments this past weekend where those two worlds collided as festival favorites of old returned to the celebration for the first time in a long time. Among those were Johnny Conqueroo and Vandaveer, two bands that together exemplified the Ball’s “folk by day, funk by night” mantra better than any other pairing the entire weekend.
After last playing Moonshiner’s in 2019 as teenagers, power rock trio Johnny Conqueroo completed their boys to men journey by sipping moonshine from the stage — a festival tradition — between high-strung hits like “Calculations,” “Rhododendrons,” and “Downtown Boy” as the crowd fawned over them like the British Invasion-era Beatles from start to finish. The return to the stage was a long time coming for the group comprised of Grant Curless (guitar), Wils Quinn (drums), and Shawn Reynolds (bass), who amicably went their seperate ways in the late 2010’s to pursue college and other career opportunities.
“Moonshiner’s was one of the first places that gave us the opportunity to play and grow as a band,” Curless told me just prior to taking the stage on Saturday prior to Quinn interjecting, adding that “It really has been like a reunion for us returning here, not just because we’re playing together again but because of all the faces in the crowd here who’ve been coming to our shows here and around the area for years.”
For Vandaveer, their Moonshiner’s reunion was sparked by the death of their longtime drummer and a staple of Lexington’s music scene, Robby Cosenza, earlier this year following a two-year battle with cancer. The band’s vocalists Mark Charles Heidinger and Rose Guerin wound up side-by-side at a memorial service for him in the spring that concluded with them singing songs on stage together for the first time in years as the night wound down at The Green Lantern Bar. Soon after when they were asked by the festival about coming together once again to perform there in the fall, it was a no brainer to accept.
Rather than a one-off, the Moonshiner’s appearance was sandwiched between gigs in Louisville and Lexington for a three night run of reminiscing and remembering their fallen bandmate, which came even more full circle with them officially burying Cosenza last Friday. Even with the drumkit noticeably absent during their set, the trio rounded out by J. Tom Hnatow on guitar and pedal steel hit their stride like seasoned pros on gothic-leaning folks songs like “Marianne, You’ve Done It Now” and “However Many Takes It Takes.”
“We headlined the first ever Moonshiner’s and several others in those early years, and in that time it’s become my favorite festival,” says Guerin. “Given the circumstances that led us back here, I can’t help but feel like [Robby] was up there hitting the snare and pulling strings for us.”
New Favorites Take Maiden Moonshiner’s Voyage
Moonshiner’s Ball board member (and Blind Corn Liquor Pickers banjo player) Travis Young has told me for years that one of his biggest goals with the festival is to see people leaving the weekend with a new favorite act whom they discovered there. While there weren’t any “new” bands that jumped out to myself this past weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed watching others in the Moonshiner’s family blissfully engaging in their first experiences with Low Water Bridge Band, Gabe Lee, Big Richard, John Craigie, and Daniel Donato.
I first saw Low Water two years ago at the Fallsburg Summer Stage in Louisa, Ky., where they performed a rousing set of twangy country rock right before a surprise set from Tyler Childers sent the night into overdrive. The band’s 2023 album Back To The Valley was one of my favorite records of the year, and their Thursday night appearance at Moonshiner’s presented by first opportunity to hear many of its songs live.
Despite the chill in the air, Low Water’s mix of Appalachian hymns and bangers brought a warmth over the crowd that led to one of the most jubilant first nights of the festival to date (or maybe that was just due to the abundance of ‘shine being passed around). Either way, the band and the audience both found instant comfort amongst one another through songs like “Whiskey Dark” and “600 Reasons” that mix hard-driving country soundscapes with high and lonesome harmonies.
Heavy hitting honky tonk was also a mainstay for Gabe Lee during his Friday performance, during which I heard several people in the crowd referring to him as “An Asian John Prine.” With songs like “Rusty,” “Buffalo Road,” and “Honky Tonk Hell” — the latter of which sees him proclaim “Now Honky Tonk Hell is a hell of a place they got a big old dance room hall / Seats reserved for all the folks down in Nashville writing phony ass country songs” — it was easy to see why as he drew heaps of praise (and a few laughs) from the early afternoon crowd.
However, Lee was far from the only newcomer to wow the Moonshiner’s crowd on Saturday. Big Richard, an all-women bluegrass supergroup from Colorado that initially formed for a one-off festival gig in 2021, was making only their second-ever appearance in Kentucky after a show at Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville a few weeks prior, but judging by the crowd’s positive response we can expect more from them here in the future. The group has a new album set for release in 2025, from which songs like “Town Line” and “The Missing Stair” were offered up as nibbles of during their Moonshiner’s set.
Another west coaster that brought their talents to the Ball was John Craigie. An expert songsmith as illustrated by his ballads “Part Wolf” and “Damn My Love,” Craigie also proved to be an expert at controlling the crowd with his comedy. Wielding a dry humor with a *hint of sarcasm that would make S.G. Goodman nod in approval, Craigie had the crowd practically rolling in the dirt laughing with his tales of folk artists playing EDM festivals, what not to talk about as an American in Australia, lost babies named Arlo, and more.
Through a weekend full of non-stop stellar performances, by many accounts it was Daniel Donato whose headlining set on Saturday — the first of his career — was the most grand. After performing along newly minted Bluegrass Hall of Famer and dobro/lap steel legend Jerry Douglas earlier in the evening, it was Donato’s own set after sundown featuring his backing band of cosmic country cowboys that saw the main stage crowd swell to its biggest of the entire weekend, no doubt drawn in by his sound that incorporates heady Grateful Dead-esque jams with country instrumentation similar to bands like Leftover Salmon and Widespread Panic, the full spectrum of which was on display on performances of songs like bluegrass standard “Why You Been Gone So Long” and “Dance In The Desert.”
Like with many jam bands, a staple of Donato’s set were cover songs that felt like anything but covers, which included everything from the Merle Haggard penned “Honky Tonk Night Time Man” and '“Workin’ Man Blues” to John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery.” Speaking of…
Covers And Other Magical Moonshiner’s Moments
As a fan, one of the things I love most about music is hearing old songs performed in new ways. Festivals are an excellent environment for cultivating those moments, and this year’s Moonshiner’s Ball was no exception. From the get-go reinterpretations were the flavor of the day with Louisville bluegrassers and festival regulars Mama Said String Band firing up a string-fueled rendition of Sturgill Simpson’s “Brace For Impact (Live A Little)”) followed Low Water Bridge Band diving into Gary Stewart’s “Draggin’ Shackles” on day one. The covers of both were both appropriate for the location and timely, with Simpson and Stewart both set to be inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Renfro Valley Entertainment Center in Mount Vernon on Oct. 26.
Equally appropriate were the flurry of John Prine covers heard during the weekend. The late singer perhaps best known for his Western Kentucky working class anthem “Paradise” would’ve turned 78 on Oct. 10 and was memorialized by everyone from native Nashvillian Gabe Lee, served up a touching take of “Spanish Pipedream” on Friday afternoon to go along with S.G. Goodman taking on a solo expedition on “All The Best” — a song she performed earlier in the week at the Ryman Auditorium at the behest of John’s widow, Fiona Prine, as part of the week-long “You Got Gold” celebration commemorating the singer-songwriter. The song proved to be one of the festival’s most magical moments, with the crowd so quiet during it that you could hear a pin drop, a testament to their respect not only for Prine, but for Goodman as well.
Aside from Prine, another popular catalog of covers came from bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe, who saw Paducah, Ky.’s Solid Rock’It Boosters welcome fellow Western Kentuckian Goodman to the stage to tackle his song “Pig In A Pen” on Friday followed by festival newcomers Big Richard jumping into “The One I Love Is Gone” on Saturday.
But despite all of the great music at this year’s (and every) Moonshiner’s Ball, it would be nothing without the people and setting that tie it all together. While the festival certainly has grown and evolved in its 10 years, it’s always kept that yearning for musical discovery and community as its foundation whether it’s at Homegrown Hideaways, Jenkins’s Farm, or now, Rockcastle Riverside.
This confluence poured over me like a tidal wave on the Ball’s opening night as I observed the Northern Lights, a rarity in the Commonwealth, that casted a canvas of purple and pink-ish hues over the fall sky. It was in that moment I knew, as if I needed any reinforcing, that I was exactly where I needed to be. I don’t remember when exactly, but at some point later on in the weekend I got to talking with Mama Said guitarist Kaitlen Farmer about the festival — which they’ve been performing at and attending as fans for years — and she captured my thoughts perfectly. “This festival is so special that we block off the entire weekend each year for it. We could fill out our schedule with more shows around it but we don’t because we love the people and the vibe of the Moonshiner’s Ball so much,” she asserted.
And while there’s countless people behind the scenes that contribute to that immaculate vibe, there’s no bigger face for it than the festival’s host band, the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers. Consisting of a list of players longer than a receipt from CVS Pharmacy, I found myself looking up to the rafters of the main stage at several points during their Friday night performance, almost expecting additional members to be hanging from up above due to the lack of real estate down below. Nonetheless, the behemoth collective did what they do best, stirring up big band and bluegrass debauchery with covers of The Chicks “Goodbye Earl",” Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is,” The Band “Ophelia,” and others squeezed between originals like “The Welder” and the Moonshiner’s Ball theme song.
While the BCLP’s own set has become less a focal point of the festival at large as the years have passed by, loyalist to the Ball still pack around the stage whenever they’re on it, proving not only their love for the music but their appreciation for the work year-round that goes into making the entire event possible as well. It’s no small task to put on an event like this once much less for an entire decade, especially taking a pandemic, venue, and seasonal changes into account.
Although words will never fully due it justice, a massive THANK YOU goes out to the entire team that makes these moments and memories possible. They’ve been a massive part of my life that has helped to grow my love for Kentucky music, and I know there’ countless other folks out there who feel the same. Whether in the spring or fall, The Moonshiner’s Ball has long been one of my favorite weekends of the entire year, and one that I hope continues to “Shine On” for years to come.
Kentucky Music News: October 7-13
Last Tuesday, Oct. 8, Tyler Childers performed a concert at Country Boy Brewing in Georgetown, Ky. to promote voter registration on the final day Kentuckians were able to do so prior while still being able to vote in November’s Presidential election. Limited tickets were available to attend the show in-person, which also live-streamed simultaneously on Volume.com.
Less than a week out from the event, Ashland, Ky.’s Foxfire Festival — scheduled for Oct. 11-12 — announced its cancellation, saying in a statement that “after further consideration, we have determined that the festival cannot move forward as planned.” The event was set to include performances from Colter Wall, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ole 60, Jake Kohn, and Maggie Antone, among others.
Somerset, Ky. based singer Hunter Flynn released a music video for his song, “Wilted Flowers,” on Oct. 11. The song is Flynn’s first release since dropping a cover of fellow Pulaski County native Cody Lee Meece’s “Can’t Never Could” in July
Do you have Kentucky music-related concert listings or news to share? Email it to mattwickstrom@wickspicks.com for potential inclusion in this newsletter.
Kentucky Live Music Menu: October 14-20
“Blue Ridge Benefit” w/Abby Hamilton, Bendigo Fletcher, Brother Smith, Candi Jenkins, Justin Wells, Magnolia Boulevard, and more @ The Burl, Lexington. Oct. 15 @ 7:30 p.m. TheBurlKy.com.
Sam Bush @ The Kentucky Theatre, Lexington. Oct. 17 @ 7:30 p.m. KentuckyTheatre.org.
Wayne Graham w/Charlie Overman @ The Southgate House Revival, Covington. Oct. 17 @ 7:30 p.m. SouthgateHouse.com.
Ella Langley w/Maggie Antone @ The Burl, Lexington. Oct. 18 @ 8 p.m. TheBurlKy.com.
Whitey Morgan @ The 78’s w/Erin Viancourt @ Headliners Music Hall, Louisville. Oct. 18 @ 8 p.m. HeadlinersLouisville.com.
Town Mountain w/Hancock & Shouse @ The Whirling Tiger, Louisville. Oct. 18 @ 8 p.m. TheWhirlingTiger.com.
Willy Tea Taylor w/Phill Barnett @ The Pit House, Slade. Oct. 19 @ 7 p.m. Eventbrite.com.
Nick Shoulders & The Okay Crawdad w/ Jack Studer @ The Burl, Lexington. Oct. 20 @ 8 p.m. TheBurlKy.com.
Wick’s Picks on Hound FM
This Wednesday, Oct. 16, I’ll welcome Central/Eastern Kentucky band Wayne Graham to my radio show from 7-8 p.m. ET to talk about their recently released album Bastion, frontman Kenny Miles producer/engineer work with the likes of Tyler Childers and 49 Winchester, and more.
Tune in at 96.1 The Hound (in Central Kentucky), online at HoundFM.com or on The Hound mobile app. You can also listen to an archive of episodes at the previously mentioned website along with Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Until Next Time!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and support this experiment of mine. With this being a new venture, I’m eager to hear any and all feedback, so don’t hesitate on letting me know what you’d like to see more of moving forward in the comments below.
Until next time, y’all take care and long live Kentucky music!
Best,
Matt
Amazing read, Matt. You capture the essence of the Ball particularly well.
Shine on!!!