Savannah Music Festival leaders: 2023 festival allows us to 'celebrate music and be together'

On Thursday, tickets for the 2023 Savannah Music Festival (SMF) went on sale as Lowcountry residents anticipate one of the premier music events in the region.

Next year's line-up includes a special performance from "King of the Blues" Buddy Guy, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Patty Griffin, Terence Blanchard and a wide variety of different dance parties.

SMF executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford and artistic director Ryan McMaken sat down with the Savannah Morning News for an episode of The Commute podcast to talk about crafting the 2023 line-up, the acts they're most excited for and the expansion into Trustees' Garden again for a family-focused day of music.

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DO: The line-up is out now for the 2023 festival. What is the general feeling between the both of you to finally have this out in the world?

Gene Dobbs Bradford: "Oh, man, tell you what this lineup was fantastic. My hat's off to to Ryan (McMaken) for putting it together, he makes it a very collaborative process. But at the end of the day, he's the one that really has the knowledge and the excellent taste to put this together.

"And what we have, I think, is something that builds on what we've done before, but really opens up some new avenues for some new audiences to come into the Savannah Music Festival, mostly with our outdoor shows that we're having a Trustees' Garden."

DO: One of the big shows at Trustees' Garden is going to be the Buddy Guy Damn Right Farewell Concert. That show is kind of the cover for this entire festival because it seems like such an exciting event. What's your feelings about having Buddy Guy at SMF 2023?

Bradford: "Oh, Buddy Guy is the king of the blues, right? He's like the one of the last of the great blues men and folks that connect us all the way to Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, and all the other blues musicians that have come before.

"I used to think that Buddy Guy was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, because sometimes I felt like he was channeling Jimi Hendrix. But no, no, it was quite the opposite. Jimi Hendrix was influenced by Buddy Guy, and to have somebody who's so influential on his final tour. This was really one of the grand men of the blues. Two nights was something that we couldn't pass up."

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Ryan McMaken: "It was early this year because Gene started in February. I think it was before the festival even started. I said, I think we can get this Buddy Guy tour and it was just an automatic.

"But if we were able to change it up a little bit to and have different support artists from Saturday to Sunday, people who he's influenced like Eric Gales and definitely 'Kingfish' Grimm has played with Buddy a ton, so we're hoping to also have some special guesting on stage those days, but just the entire environment.

"We're going to have a family zone up on the hill, you know, obviously, food and beverage throughout, just hoping people will come out for the full day."

Bradford: "That's the thing is you know that you'd be able to hear some great music, you're gonna have the food trucks out there. So people have a wonderful selection of things to choose from, there'd be plenty of beverages for sale, kids can have fun (and) be dancing. We have in the program, we have the dancing icon, so people know because this is a show that people want to get up and move, and groove to this and it's to celebrate music and be together. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. All the shows that we have, even the ones that we have that are gonna be the non-dancing shows are gonna be a lot of fun. These are great artists and they really connect with audiences."

DO: That's what's interesting to me about utilizing the Trustees' Garden as a venue. It allows the concert to be a more hybrid experience so that the audience can kind of choose how they want to interact with what's happening.

Bradford: "I think some people when they think of a festival, they think about being outside with their lawn chair and having a beer, and listening to music and getting up and walking down to the front to dance in front of the stage or whatever. For some people, that's what it is. And you know, it's something that we didn't really have; the festival didn't have that component. But in 2018, they ran an experiment with some shows that Trustees' Garden that were very successful. So we say well, you know, let's build on that strength.

"We got these four nights here and there; four distinct evenings too, because we have Buddy Guy but then we also have Tedeschi Trucks Band with Eddie 9V, and then the last night we're gonna have a sort of a funk jam, you know, evening with Galactic and Cory Wong and Nate Smith and Kinfolk. So, it's really sort of three different outdoor festivals if you will, one's more blues-centered, one's a little bit more on the rock and roll side and the last one was more of a funk jam."

DO: One thing that families should take note of with the 2023 festival is the Explorer Pass program that y'all are doing with the school system to get children and their families into shows.

Bradford: "Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, the Explorer pass is something we're launching this year and it's going to allow any student in the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System to come to any one of our general admission shows for free. They were also going to provide a free ticket for the chaperone that would come along with them. And you won't be able to get these tickets in advance, it's going to be day of at the venue. But having said that, this is going to give an opportunity if the issue has been the cost of the ticket.

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"This is going to provide a way for for students and people in our community to enjoy the Savannah Music Festival. The other thing that I think is really neat about it is that it's sort of a natural progression of our Musical Explorers program, where we bring K through 2nd grade students here, and we teach them about three different styles of music.

"Now, they can experience the world of music right here for themselves, not just at our concert, but they can get out with their parents and enjoy."

Tickets for the 2023 Savannah Music Festival are currently available for purchase at savannahmusicfestival.org.

Zach Dennis is the editor of the arts and culture section, and weekly Do Savannah alt-weekly publication at the Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at zdennis@savannahnow.com or 912-239-7706.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Music Festival 2023 line-up and performances: Full list