Bottle & Cork's super-sized 80th
Dover's loss is Dewey Beach's gain.
Four months after the Big Barrel Country Music Festival was canceled, several of of the acts that were initially slated to play the Dover festival in June have found a new home: the Bottle & Cork.
And the timing couldn't be better.
This summer is the 80th for the landmark rock club, which is home to both national, original touring acts as well as action-packed cover bands on weekends for the venue's traditional Jam Sessions.
The corner of Del. 1 and Bellevue Street will host more shows than ever before this summer, anchored by an already sold-out 80th anniversary concert Aug. 26, says Vikki Walls, entertainment and original music booker for Highway One Group. (More than 60 shows are expected to be on the schedule when the bookings stop.)
The anniversary concert, which sold out in less than a week, will feature a trio of longtime favorite cover acts headlined by Mr. Greengenes, which retired in 2013. Also on the bill: Love Seed Mama Jump, who are celebrating their 25th year this summer, and Jefe, former lead singer of Burnt Sienna.
With a new wave of cover bands dominating the Cork's stage in recent years, it will be a blast-from-the-past-type show for fans like Hockessin's Dane Ciarlo.
When he heard about the anniversary show, he went online the moment the $40 tickets went on sale and bought 20, knowing that a ton of friends would want to go.
"I only have one left," says Ciarlo, 45, who estimates he's seen Mr. Greengenes about 50 times over the years.
But for country fans, it's the cherry-picking of would-be Big Barrel acts like Clare Dunn (Aug. 11), the Eli Young Band (July 6), A Thousand Horses (June 16) and The Lacs (June 15) that helps soften the blow of the state losing both Big Barrel and the Delaware Junction Country Music Festival since last summer.
Cork owner Highway One Group along with Live Nation co-produced Delaware Junction, which debuted in Harrington last summer and is also not coming back. Even so, Cole Swindell and The Cadillac Three, both of whom played Delaware Junction last year, will be at the Cork this summer. Swindell is July 8 and The Cadillac Three is June 22.
Pair those country acts with the fast-selling country singer Kane Brown's show June 26 and the already sold-out Old Dominion concert June 24 and country will undoubtedly be alive and well in Dewey this summer.
Walls has successfully booked up-and-coming country acts for years, having had everyone from Miranda Lambert and Eric Church to Jason Aldean and Ryan Bingham.
Old Dominion's show might fall into that category since the Nashville country rock five-piece is touring stadiums this summer with Kenny Chesney, Lambert and more. Old Dominion's Dewey show is squeezed between Chesney tour stops in Virginia Beach and Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field on June 25.
Tickets for all shows are on sale now at deweybeachlife.com, except for Swindell, whose on-sale is expected to be sometime next week.
In addition to country radio favorites, Walls has also lined up several acts that she has been trying to book for years, including a trio of singer/songwriters: Lucinda Williams (Aug. 31), Alejandro Escovedo (July 20) and Anders Osbourne (Aug. 16).
Other first-time Cork acts this summer include rockers Buckcherry, whose "Crazy Bitch" dominated Dewey cover band setlists in 2006.
Among the returning favorites is 79-year-old blue dynamo Buddy Guy (July 25), who is making his third appearance, and funk/soul act Robert Randolph & the Family Band (July 27), who will get the crowd dancing for the eighth time in Dewey.
The Cork also regularly hosts a few tribute acts each summer and some familiar names are on the bill this year, including a pair of Grateful Dead-filled shows by Dark Star Orchestra (Aug. 8, 9), Badfish doing the songs of Sublime (June 29) and Who's Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience (July 14).
But it's the wave of country music at the Cork that will give Big Barrel and Delaware Junction fans some solace.
Walls knew the acts that were announced for this year's Big Barrel would be traveling through the area and jumped on the opportunity.
Los Angeles-based Goldenvoice, which puts on Dover's Firefly Music Festival with Chicago's Red Frog Events and founded Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, told The Desert Sun in April that Big Barrel was not canceled because it didn't do well financially.
It simply didn't have "magic."
“If they don’t work, you should get rid of them,” Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett told the Palm Springs, California-based newspaper. “Almost every single festival we’ve had has lost money in the beginning – for two, three, five years. But, sometimes you start a festival and it just doesn’t have any magic. So it needs to go away.”
Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).
BOTTLE & CORK SCHEDULE
June 3, Get the Led Out
June 12, Tuckert Beathard (The Rusty Rudder)
June 15, Gaelic Storm
June 15, The Lacs (The Rusty Rudder)
June 16, A Thousand Horses
June 22, The Cadillac Three
June 22, Jonathan Jackson (The Rusty Rudder)
June 24, Old Dominion (Sold out)
June 24, The Legwarmers (The Rusty Rudder)
June 26, Kane Brown
June 29, Badfish
June 30, The Clarks
June 30, Ryan Kinder (The Rusty Rudder)
July 6, Eli Young Band
July 8, Cole Swindell
July 11, Fuel
July 14, Who's Bad
July 20, Alejandro Escovedo
July 21, The Bacon Brothers
July 22, Buckcherry
July 25, Buddy Guy
July 27, Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Aug. 3, Dylan Scott
Aug. 4, Shooter Jennings (The Rusty Rudder)
Aug. 7, London Souls
Aug. 8 and 9, Dark Star Orchestra
Aug. 11, Clare Dunn
Aug. 14, LeAnn Rimes
Aug. 16, Anders Osborne
Aug. 17, Donavon Frankenreiter
Aug. 17, Chris Lane (The Rusty Rudder)
Aug. 21, Kix
Aug. 23, Johnny Lang
Aug. 26, 80th anniversary party with Mr. Greengenes, Love Seed Mama Jump and Jefe and friends (Sold out)
Aug. 31, Lucinda Williams
TICKETS
Go to deweybeachlife.com or call 227-3888 for tickets.