Culture
WOUB Culture’s 2023 Nelsonville Music Festival guide: Day 1
By: Emily Votaw
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NELSONVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) – The 2023 Nelsonville Music Festival kicks off today at the Snow Fork Event Center (5685 Happy Hollow Road).
Look for photos and additional coverage of the festival throughout the weekend from WOUB Culture, but for now, let’s go over a brief smattering of highlights from the festival’s Friday lineup.
12 p.m. – Weedghost (Porch Stage)
What is Weedghost?
Well, it’s Andrew Lampela and Kris Poland, plus synthesizer and guitar. The duo have been opening up the Nelsonville Music Festival with their ambient, improvised sets for at least a decade.
Watch their interview with WOUB from 2019 below, plus check out their Sycamore Session from the 2022 Nelsonville Music Festival right here.
1:30 p.m. – Michael Hurley (Porch Stage)
Some artists are born too late, others too soon.
Michael Hurley, on the other hand, seems to have been born on another planet.
His music has been referred to as “proto-freak folk,” he’s the main musician all the other performers I’ve interviewed over the years look forward to seeing at the festival – and believe it or not, he’s pretty funny, to boot.
Watch his 2022 Sycamore Session, below.
2:30 p.m. – Secret Surprise Set (Creekside Stage)
My lips are sealed – just make sure you pop by the Creekside Stage about 2:30 p.m. today.
3 p.m. – Heather Redman & the Reputation (Snow Fork Stage)
Dayton’s Heather Redman & the Reputation released their debut in December, and just a few weeks ago Heather Redman herself let me interview her.
You can read that interview right here, and you can listen to the group’s debut, below.
6 p.m. Shannon & the Clams (Snow Fork Stage)
Oakland’s Shannon & the Clams are one of John Waters’ favorite bands.
Need I say more?
I needn’t.
7:30 p.m. – Sierra Ferrell (Snow Fork Stage)
What kind of music does Sierra Ferrell make?
“Country?”
Kind of – people like to assume that, anyway, presumably because she’s from West Virginia.
“Rock ‘n’ roll?”
In a way – yes – but not in the way you’re probably thinking.
Ferrell’s music is a big, swirling hybrid of many different musical tropes from many different genres from many different eras; all mixed up together in a way that could only be successfully be pulled off by someone who really, really loves music.
What kind of music does Sierra Ferrell make?
Well, I don’t know the technical name for it, but I know one thing for sure: it swings.
Listen to my 2022 interview with Ferrell here, and watch her Gladden House Session below.