KC Johns on Only Vans with Bri Bagwell

KC Johns is an incredible singer-songwriter and artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. We had an excellent Only Vans conversation live from the mountain at Steamboat MusicFest 2025! In this episode we get into old fashioneds, cruise ship jobs, Nashville, singing in the mountains, touring overseas, and more.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

KC Johns and I met over social media and we became fast friends. She is a whiskey girl like me and has her own mesquite-smoked Thunder Whiskey. This was a live-audience episode recorded and filmed at MusicFest in Steamboat, Colorado. The audio for her live acoustic performances ended up being unusable, totally on our end, and I am so sorry about that. KC is such a great live singer, but unfortunately the recording was too distorted to use. Please go see her sing live if you can, or check her out on Instagram.

During this episode, I jump into talking about her life as a cruise ship performer, and also provide no context when I bring up her super clever song, “I Wanna Rock for Christmas.” Sorry gal, I just love that tune!

Anyway, this is KC Johns. Check out her new single, “Break From the Heart,” and KC, I will come find your next Key West show at Hogs Breath and crash your stage!

And, happy birthday to Only Vans producer Kyle! You rock.


Photo Credit: Bob Pierce

Max & Heather Stalling on Only Vans with Bri Bagwell

Welcome to the first of four live episodes of Only Vans from the MusicFest at Steamboat 2025. Two of my inspirations and great friends, Max & Heather Stalling, helped us kick things off. We get into many topics such as ex-husbands, cassette collections, mortal vs. immortal musicians, skinny dipping – and they even perform a few live songs.

LISTEN: APPLE • SPOTIFY • AMAZON • MP3

Max and Heather Stalling are a staple of our music scene and these lovebirds are my favorite, you can tell. Heather is an accomplished singer-songwriter, incredible fiddle player, and I love that we had the opportunity for them to play three songs together live at our very first hour-long Musicfest podcast taping up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in front of a live (and rather large) audience!

Max is a Texas A&M Aggie graduate, but we don’t hold that against him, because he has multiple amazing records out. Heather’s project, Blacktop Gypsy, is awesome and also available wherever you get your music. On this Only Vans episode, Heather makes me cry with a lovely impromptu monologue that I will cherish forever and, after joking that I never go to the late night jams in Steamboat at MusicFest, I did in fact attend an epic jam this year with Max, Heather, the Braun Brothers, and many more.

We joke about drinking a lot of wine and I outed Paul on a hangover after our hilarious “marriage” story, sorry! I also talk about the Sequestered Songwriters, which is something that Courtney Patton and Jason Eady started over COVID and that really helped a lot of us get out to a really large audience. If you have not checked out the Sequestered Songwriters videos on Facebook, I think they’re all still up there. A lot of people have told me [those videos] really got them through COVID and that was a way for us all to keep in touch with one another and learn some new tunes.

Thanks again to Dirt Trail Entertainment for sponsoring our MusicFest episodes. And thanks to our show sponsors, Hand Drawn Pressing & CH Lonestar Promo!


Photo Credit: Allison V Smith

Find our Only Vans episode archive here.

ANNOUNCING: WinterWonderGrass Releases Daily Schedule for Colorado Festival

As February’s kick-off of WinterWonderGrass 2020 grows closer, the festival is excited to share with BGS the official daily schedule for their Colorado edition, taking place February 21-23 in Steamboat Springs. One of the biggest delights includes the announcement of a second headlining performance by Billy Strings, who will now play the main stage on both Friday and Sunday nights.

In conjunction with the daily schedule announcement, WinterWonderGrass plans to release a limited quantity of single-day tickets starting Tuesday, December 3. Weekend general admission passes will move to a new pricing tier starting Tuesday, December 10. Tickets and more info available here.


“We are super pumped to announce that Billy will not only perform his first headlining WinterWonderGrass set on Friday night, but that he and his band really wanted to stick around and enjoy that Steamboat hospitality, so we added him as a co-headliner on Sunday before Margo Price,” festival founder Scotty Stoughton says. “It’s a testament to Billy’s appreciation and gratitude for his fans, the community, and the WinterWonderGrass family.”

Gates open at 1:45 p.m. each day and music kicks off at 2 p.m. during the three-day music festival, with Friday and Saturday night’s programming lasting until 10:30 p.m. All attendees 21+ are invited to take part in the complementary beer sampling from 2:00-5:00 p.m. each day during the event.

Performances across the Soapbox, Pickin’ Perch, and Jamboree stages will see many artists perform two consecutive sets, and each night, performances on the Close Pick stage will close the festival.

Tickets for all three stops are now on sale and moving fast: Colorado | California | Vermont.

VIP tickets to Steamboat’s stop are already sold out, but fans are encouraged to check out the official fan-to-fan ticketing exchange powered by Lyte if they’re in search of tickets as more of the dates and tiers sell out.

Stay tuned for more information on Grass After Dark programming and beer partners for the 2020 season.

Check out the full, announced schedule:

Twisted Pine kicks off the music for the weekend on the Soapbox stage from 2:00-2:30 p.m. and 3:40 – 4:20 p.m., followed by Molly Tuttle at 5:35-6:15 p.m. and 7:45-8:25 p.m. Steamboat locals Buffalo Commons open the Pickin’ Perch stage with performances at 2:00-2:40 p.m. and 3:40-4:20 p.m., followed by the Jon Stickley Trio at 5:35-6:15 p.m. and 7:45-8:25 p.m. The Jamboree stage opens on Friday at 2:00 p.m. with performances from Meadow Mountain at 2:00-2:40 p.m. and 3:40-4:20 p.m., with two sets from Jeremy Garrett (the Infamous Stringdusters) + Friends at 5:35-6:15 p.m. and 7:45-8:25 p.m.

The Bluegrass Generals (ft. Andy Hall & Chris Pandolfi of the Infamous Stringdusters) will open the Main stage on Friday from 2:30-3:40 p.m., followed by Della Mae’s headlining performance from 4:20-5:35 p.m. From 6:15-7:45 p.m., Keller and the Keels will take over the main stage and Billy Strings’ headlining debut at the festival will take place from 8:25-10:00 p.m.

Saturday welcomes local Steamboat pickers Jay Roemer Band from 2:00-2:30 p.m. and 3:40-4:20 p.m. on the Soapbox stage, followed by two additional performances from Della Mae at 5:35-6:15 p.m. and 7:45-8:25 p.m. Twisted Pine returns, as well, for performances from 2:00-2:40 p.m. and 3:40-4:20 p.m. on the Pickn’ Perch stage, and the collaborative WinterWonderWomen follow with performances at 5:35-6:15 p.m. and 7:45-8:25 p.m. Telluride Bluegrass winners Bowregard takes the Jamboree stage from 2:00-2:40 p.m. and 3:40-4:20 p.m., with Cris Jacobs Band to follow at 5:35-6:15 p.m. and 7:45-8:25 p.m.

Saturday’s Main stage opens with Horseshoes and Handgrenades from 2:30-3:40 p.m., followed by a headlining performance from Molly Tuttle at 4:20-5:35 p.m. Nikki Lane follows, with a set from 6:15-7:45 p.m. and Greensky Bluegrass takes the stage for their headlining performance from 8:25-10:00 p.m.

The Battle Of The Bands winner from the January 11th competition will open Sunday’s Soapbox stage from 3:15-3:55 p.m. Two sets from Che Apalache follow, with sets at 5:10-5:50 p.m. and 7:20-8:00 p.m. Cris Jacobs Band returns on Sunday for three sets on the Pickn’ Perch stage at 3:15-3:55 p.m., 5:10-5:50 p.m., and 7:20-8:00 p.m. The Jamboree stage closes out with three sets from Pickin’ On The Dead at 3:15-3:55 p.m., 5:10-5:50 p.m. and 7:20-8:00 p.m.

ALO opens the Main stage on Sunday, with a performance from 2:00-3:15 p.m. and Travelin’ McCourys follows from 3:55-5:10 p.m. At 5:50 p.m., Billy Strings returns for his second headlining performance, and Margo Price closes out the festival’s Main stage from 8:00-9:30 p.m.


Photo credit: Tobin Voggesser