Country music sensation Wynonna Judd returns to the Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival this year as the headliner of the annual event that pays homage to the Father of Country Music.

Judd, who first performed at the festival as part of the mother/daughter singing duo The Judds, will be among performers at the 64th installment, scheduled May 5-6 at Meridian City Hall Green, downtown. The event’s lineup was announced Wednesday at city hall to an audience that included music enthusiasts, as well as festival sponsors and city officials.

“The past two years, we have revamped Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival with exciting changes, such as a new festival location, an amazing talent lineup, a new logo and website … all to help produce an event which proved to be widely celebrated as one of the most successful festivals in many years,” Jimmie Rodgers Foundation president Betty Lou Jones said.

“This year, we will continue in this forward direction with a captivating talent lineup and a focus on The Jimmie Rodgers Talent Competition to attract more diverse participation both musically and geographically,” Jones said.

The 2017 festival lineup is as follows: Wynonna & The Big Noise, Reckless Kelly, Brandy Clark, Cowboy Mouth, Hayes Carll, Chris Knight, Lydia Loveless, Charlie Worsham, Cary Hudson, and the 2017 Jimmie Rodgers Talent Competition Winners. Show dates and artist bios follow:

Friday, May 5

• Cowboy Mouth. A collective of ‘80s rock ‘n’ roll survivors – musicians with slight new wave and alternative connections who have aspired to AOR (album-oriented rock) stardom. Formed in the early ‘90s after alternative rock had broken into the mainstream, the group fused AOR with alternative and roots rock influences on a handful of indie releases before signing with MCA Records in 1996. Although Cowboy Mouth had trouble remaining on a major label’s roster, the band has continued releasing material in the new millennium on a variety of imprints and indie labels.

• Cary Hudson & the Piney Woods Players. Cary Hudson as born in the small church-oriented Mississippi town of Sumrall. It was there the future musician grew to appreciate all styles of music, ranging from church music and gospel to blues and country. In the late ‘80s, Hudson formed the Hilltops, which evolved into Blue Mountain, with partners Laurie Stirratt and John Stirratt.

Saturday, May 6

• Wynonna Judd. As one-half of The Judds, Wynona Judd became one of the most popular and respected female country stars of her time. On her own since the early ‘90s, Judd demonstrated an eclecticism that increasingly confounded hardcore country fans and radio programmers, but also helped her retain a core of admiring followers. Judd’s solo records might stick with Judds-style country-pop or deliver into roots rock, blues, gospel, adult contemporary, pop, folk or Southern R & B.

• Lydia Loveless. Firebrand alt-country singer Lydia Loveless combines the honky tonk sound and style of classic country stars like Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline with the no-quarter attitude and spunk of punk rock divas such as Exene Cervenka and Carla Bozulich. Lydia Loveless was born in Coschocton, Ohio, in 1990. She was raised on a farm, but her father was also a music fan who booked bands at a local bar, and Lydia became accustomed early on to seeing bands play and discovering an out-of-town act asleep on the living room floor in the morning.

By the time Loveless was 13, she had taken up songwriting and was doing shows with local bands, playing a combination of rootsy country and punk-influenced rock & roll.

• Chris Knight. A singer/songwriter from the tiny mining town of Slaughters, Ky., Chris Knight’s self-titled debut album invited comparisons to Steve Earle and John Prine. Knight started on his musical journey at just 3 years old when he requested a plastic guitar for Christmas. At 15, he became more serious when he began teaching himself dozens of John Prine songs on his older brother’s guitar.

After earning an agriculture degree from Western Kentucky University, Knight went to work in land reclamation, but in 1986 he heard Earle on the radio and decided to try his hand at writing songs. After six years of perfecting his story songs about the downtrodden of small-town America, Knight came to Nashville and won a coveted spot on a Songwriters’ Night at the Bluebird Cafe.

• Brandi Clark. As a singer/songwriter, Brandy Clark racked up several significant hits in the early years of the 2010s: Miranda Lambert brought “Mama’s Broken Heart” to No. 2 in 2013, the Band Perry had a No. 1 single with “Better Dig Two” – which was the background to her acclaimed 2013 solo debut, “12 Stories.”

Together, the hits and the debut album presented Clark as a formidable contemporary country talent, one rooted in classic country, but with a keen eye for the present, telling modern stories that are placed within a timeless tradition. The four-time Grammy Award nominee has been nominated for two 2017 Grammys, “Best Country Album” “Big Day in a Small Town” and Best Country Solo Performance for “Love Can Go to Hell.”

• Hayes Carll. Born Joshua Hayes Carll, Texas singer and songwriter Hayes Carll received his first guitar at the age of 15 and almost immediately began writing songs influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Dead Poets Society and the Beat novels and writings of Jack Kerouac, all of which continued to reverberate in his mature songwriting style. Four of Carll’s songs appeared in the 2010 film “Country Strong” with Gwyneth Paltrow in the starring role.

• Charlie Worsham. Country singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Worsham was born in 1985 in Jackson, and music became his main interest at a young age. He started on the banjo, and was good enough on the instrument by age 10 to play onstage at the Ryman Auditorium with bluegrass great Jimmy Martin. At age 12, after winning a Junior National Banjo Championship, Worsham played on stage at the Grand Ole Opry, an accomplishment for a musician at any age.

Worsham consequently learned to play fiddle, mandolin and guitar. And while living and working as a musician in Nashville was always his goal, Worsham opted to attend the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, following his graduation from high school. A single from the project “Could It Be,” which Worsham co-wrote, was released early in 2013 and quickly climbed into the Top 40 country charts.

• Reckless Kelly. Understanding the virtuosity of Reckless Kelly requires the perspective of where the band has been. Cody and Willy Braun grew up in the White Cloud Mountains of Idaho. They moved to Bend, Ore., and then migrated to that great musical fountainhead, Austin, Texas.

The band’s co-founders and frontmen toured the country as part of their father’s band, Muzzle Braun and the Boys, as children. They performed on “The Tonight Show” twice. Their father taught his four sons a professional ethic – integrity, persistence, hard work and professionalism – honed over three generations. They overcame hardships, struggled for recognition and learned the lessons of the trial and error that defined them.

 

Festival producer Arden Barnett said the music lineup will not be this year’s only “wow” factor.

“We’re going to make some changes to the site this year; it’s going to blow your mind,” Barnett of ardenland entertainment said. “The look and the feel of the festival will be infinitely better than in previous years.”

Another highlight of the festival is the Jimmie Rodgers Talent Competition, which, according to Jones, only has been integral to the festival for decades, but also has severed as a platform for showcasing a countless array of singers, songwriters and musicians.

The competition features two categories: youth (ages 17 and under) and adult (ages 18 and older). First, second and third place winners will be selected in each category. Additionally, the overall winner will receive a Peavey guitar and will perform on stage at the Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival on May 6.

Video entries are currently being accepted online at wwwjimmierodgers.com

Tickets for the Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available at www.jimmierodgers.com, charge by phone at 877-987-6487, and locally at Citizens National Bank’s Downtown Banking Center or Meridian Underground Music (MUM).

For more information regarding the festival, please visit the official website at www.jimmierodgers.com. Also, stay connected with us at https://www.facebook.com/Jimmie-Rodgers-Festival-and-Museum.