Bonnaroo 2018 Artist Spotlight: The Brummies

As we’ve been doing for the past several years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorites acts from from Bonnaroo‘s impressive 2018 lineup. As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, or most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. Though we’ll be jumping around, we’re loosely working our way through by day, and we’ll also be bringing you some special features and longer guides along the way, to help you plan your weekend before the fest. While these previews won’t span every performer, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend on the farm!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and keep reading to learn more in our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight…

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You may remember us raving about a promising duo called John & Jacob in recent years, who, after relocating from Alabama, found quick success as songwriters in the Nashville country scene, and leveraged that to craft their own eponymous full-length in 2014, which led to considerable acclaim and world tours as headliners, as well as with the likes of Kacey Musgraves. While not exactly the same band (think of it more as a 2.0, or spiritual successor), John Davidson and Jacob Bryant, along with longtime drummer Trevor Davis switched gears and became The Brummies (British slang for a resident of Birmingham, England- a clever nod to their home of Birmingham, Alabama) early last year, adopting a pretty stellar sonic shift and more focused image ahead of the project’s debut, Eternal Reach, earlier this year.

While John & Jacob had country ties, they never cleanly fit under than genre label, and as The Brummies, the talented artists eschew that connotation even further, tapping into an affinity for retro, psychedelic rock and soft indie folk. The group’s bread and butter has always been their incredible songwriting chops, and with Eternal Reach, they make an incredibly strong and confident debut, crafting lush, dense, breezy and melodic arrangements and dense, lovely harmonies, both tapping into a style of golden eras of music past, while still finding a worthy place in the contemporary landscape. More or less plugging into where John & Jacob left off (they even tapped Kacey Musgraves for an inspired duet), The Brummies have already been touring at a steady clip, and when they make festival rounds this summer, including at Bonnaroo’s New Music On Tap club stage, they’re primed for a quick ascent.

LISTEN | “Drive Away” ft. Lacey Musgraves