Tag: BGS Presents

BGS Takes Britain with the Long Road Festival

Posted on by Editor

Britons, rejoice. We know it’s not been an easy year for you, what with Brexit, and Prince Harry being taken off the marriage market. But we have good news. The first-ever BGS event hits the UK this summer, and it’s going to be, as they say over there, bloody brilliant.

BGS’s overseas debut follows the launch this week of the Long Road, a major new festival taking place September 7-9, 2018. A celebration of everything Americana, the Long Road is set to bring a slice of the South to the English countryside. For three days, the elegant grounds of Stanford Hall — a 17th-century stately home in Leicestershire — will rock out to the sounds of dozens of country and roots artists, including Lee Ann Womack, the Wood Brothers, Parker Millsap, and the Lone Bellow. And, when it’s not too busy, it’ll be doling out bourbon, moonshine, and Southern cooking, and inviting you to swim in its beautiful lake.

On Sunday, September 9, BGS will takeover the Long Road’s Honky Tonk stage to celebrate some of the fiercest females in modern roots music. The all-female line-up includes artists making waves on both sides of the Atlantic. From the U.S., we’ll be bringing you Ashley Campbell, Angeleena Presley, and Amythyst Kiah, while breakthrough British acts Danni Nicholls, Cardboard Fox, and the Worry Dolls will be flying the home flag. Look out, too, for Australian singer/songwriter Ruby Boots.

This is a thrilling — dare we say, pivotal — time for American music in the UK. The Long Road is one of three brand new festivals celebrating roots music to open this summer, including the Black Deer Festival, headlined by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. In August, Rhiannon Giddens will curate the Cambridge Folk Festival for the first time, and the Guardian recently reported that this year’s Country 2 Country festival, at the O2 arena, has enjoyed a four-fold increase since it began in 2013.

With so much good stuff happening just a plane ride away, BGS has exciting plans to bring you more great music both from and in the UK. Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements.

The Essential Linda Ronstadt Playlist

Posted on by Editor

Linda Ronstadt is one of our most beloved artists here at the BGS, a timeless talent who defied genres and broke barriers throughout her 44-year career. Born in Tucson, Arizona in 1946, Ronstadt came from a long line of prominent Southwestern figures, growing up on a ranch with her parents and three siblings. She began her music career in the mid-1960s, fronting the Stone Poneys before striking out after a solo career of her own.

It didn’t take long for Ronstadt to find fame, earning Rolling Stone covers and Grammy Awards in the mid-’70s following the release of landmark albums like Heart Like a Wheel and Simple Dreams. She would go on to collaborate with a who’s-who of popular music across a number of genres, including Neil Young, Phillip Glass, and, as part of their “Trio” project, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton.

Ronstadt continued touring and releasing new music well into the 2000s, eventually announcing her retirement in 2011. In 2013, Ronstadt shared she had been living with Parkinson’s disease and was no longer able to sing or perform.

In advance of our December 11 BGS Presents show “A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF LINDA RONSTADT,” which features performances from Grace Potter, Dawes, Jackson Browne and more, we’ve put together a playlist of 20 songs from Ronstadt’s catalog we consider to be essential listening. If you haven’t purchased tickets for the show yet, act quickly as tickets — which benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research — are going fast. Get them here, and, in the meantime, enjoy some of our favorite Ronstadt songs below.