With a new song and his Moon River festival, Drew Holcomb wants to 'Dance With Everybody'

Back in the not-too-distant past, when Drew Holcomb (and most other Nashville musicians) were kept off the road thanks to COVID-19, the folk-pop singer-songwriter sat down with another grounded musician — Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show — to write a song.

Holcomb and Secor have known each other for years, as their kids go to the same school in East Nashville. They started talking about what they missed about concerts and live audiences. For Holcomb, it was the sense of "everybody in this thing together."

"You look around the room, and it's strangers everywhere," he explains to The Tennessean. "You don't know everybody's story."

That lit a spark under the two music-makers, and within a couple hours, they'd written "Dance With Everybody."

"When the band strikes, by the end of the night, strangers no more," Holcomb belts over a steadily thumping drum. "I want to dance with everybody who came through that door."

The celebratory, stomp-and-holler single was released Friday, and is the first glimpse at a new round of recordings made by Holcomb and his longtime band, The Neighbors.

It also features Utah band The National Parks, who'll join Holcomb and the Neighbors on a month-long tour starting in September. But just before that run, Holcomb has another piece of business to handle: he's putting on his own music festival.

The Moon River music festival returns to Chattanooga's Coolidge Park on September 10 and 11. Holcomb and The Neighbors will perform along with headliners Leon Bridges and The National, plus Band of Horses, Local Natives and Zach Bryan among 23 acts.

Holcomb founded the festival in 2014, and it was originally held in his hometown of Memphis.

"I just loved that idea of an artist-curated festival. I'd played a lot of first year festivals leading up to (Moon River), and a lot of them had not done well. I think part of that was because the artists had just thrown out their few Instagram posts, and then shut up and play. But when one particular artist takes it upon themselves to really take ownership and promote it to their fans, it’s like a homecoming or pilgrimage of some sort...And then I wanted to see a lot of my friends and bands that that are always ships in the night."

Moon River was an immediate success — one that soon outgrew its venue, as well as Holcomb's abilities. He immediately recalls the time they ran out of change for vendors, and with the banks closed on Sundays, his wife and bandmate Ellie Holcomb had to drive to a nearby casino for stacks of $1 and $5 bills.

"We were kind of a little bit over our skis," he recalls. "My manager and I were co-promoting it together, and we're booking bands with lines of credit based on our homes. And it was like, 'What are we doing? This is crazy!'"

After taking 2017 off, they were approached by concert producers (and Bonnaroo co-founders) AC Entertainment. It was their idea to bring Moon River east to Chattanooga, and let Holcomb remain part of the creative process while "taking a lot of the risk and work."

"I didn't have any business signing contracts with porta potty companies," he adds with a laugh.

Tickets for the first Moon River in Chattanooga sold out in less than a day, and subsequent events in 2019 and 2021 were also sell-outs. Tickets for this year's festival are still available.

"Dance With Everybody" was recorded as part of "a blast" of recording sessions earlier this spring, when Holcomb and his band cut eight songs. They're set to record 14 more between now and the tour. Exactly what shape this group of songs will take is unknown, but the band plans to put out "lots of new music in the next year."

And in case you were wondering, the guy who sings "I want to dance with everybody" can put his money where his mouth is.

"I love dancing — are you kidding me?"

He's busted a move more than once for his music videos, including 2019's "Family" and 2014's "Here We Go." The latter, which featured Holcomb in a banana suit, had a surprising fan in Don Henley. When Holcomb opened on tour for The Eagles member, he was told not to expect to meet him. At the very first soundcheck, however, Holcomb turned around and there was Henley, who told him he was a fan of his moves.

"I'm thinking, 'This is one of the strangest moments of my life,'" Holcomb says. "I'm having a conversation with Don Henley about me dancing in a banana suit."

Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors formally hit the road on September 14. Learn more at drewholcomb.com

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Drew Holcomb: New song 'Dance With Everybody,' Moon River music festival