Mumford & Sons at Kentucky Exposition Center

Mumford & Sons are an English folk rock band formed in London, United Kingdom in 2007. The band consists of Marcus Mumford (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, piano), and Ted Dwane (vocals, bass guitar, double bass). Banjo player Winston Marshall left the band in 2021. Mumford & Sons have released four studio albums: Sigh No More (2009), Babel (2012), Wilder Mind (2015), and Delta (2018). Sigh No More peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US, with Babel and Wilder Mind both debuting at number one in the UK and US, the former becoming the fastest-selling rock album of the decade and leading to a headline performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2013. The band have also issued two live albums: Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire (2011) and The Road to Red Rocks (2012). Mumford & Sons were formed in December 2007 by multi-instrumentalists Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane. Band members play acoustic guitar, drums, keyboard instruments, bass guitar, and traditional folk instruments such as banjo, mandolin and resonator guitar. The band name originates from the fact that Marcus Mumford was the most visible member, organising the band and their performances. Lovett indicated that the name was meant to invoke the sense of an "antiquated family business name". A handful of similar bands were increasing their visibility in West London around the same time, giving rise to the label "West London folk scene". Mumford downplays that characterise as an exaggeration - Mumford & Sons and a few other folk acts just happened to be operating in the same general area at the time. In an interview with the Herald Sun, Marcus Mumford said, "It's not folk really. Well, some of it is, and it's certainly not a scene. Someone got over-excited about a few bands who live in a hundred-mile radius and put it in a box to sell it as a package. It's a community, not a scene. It's not exclusive." Having developed in the same musical and cultural environment, Mumford & Sons' sound has been compared to that of artists such as Noah and the Whale, Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling, whose backing band had included Marshall, Mumford, and Dwane. In early 2008 the band began working with manager Adam Tudhope, who, as part of management company Everybody's, also represents Keane and Laura Marling. It was through Tudhope's connection that Mumford & Sons were exposed to their future A&R at Island, Louis Bloom, who began monitoring the band. Bloom told HitQuarters that they were still at a fledgling state and not yet ready for a label deal: "There was no one there for it, just a few friends, and they needed time to develop. Over the next six months I kept going to see them and they were literally picking up fans every time." In February 2008, the band completed an extensive UK tour with support from Alessi's Ark, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Peggy Sue and others. June 2008 marked the band's first appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. They also toured Australia with Laura Marling, whose disinclination to interact with audiences encouraged Mumford into the spotlight. The experience helped inform his attitude towards Mumford & Sons audiences, which is to interact frequently and to try to create a comfortable, casual atmosphere. Mumford & Sons' first project was an EP entitled Love Your Ground which took a year to complete and was released in November 2008 on Chess Club Records. The band began by using bluegrass and folk instrumentation, with the core instruments of acoustic guitar, banjo, piano and a double bass, played with a rhythmic style based in alternative rock and folk. In the documentary Big Easy Express, Marcus Mumford recognises the Old Crow Medicine Show influence: "I first heard Old Crow’s music when I was, like, 16, 17, and that really got me into, like, folk music, bluegrass. I mean, I’d listened to a lot of Dylan, but I hadn’t really ventured into the country world so much. So Old Crow were the band that made me fall in love with country music." Mumford acknowledges that "the band inspired them to pick up the banjo and start their now famous country nights in London." Ketch Secor, Old Crow front-man, concurs: "Those boys took the message and ran with it. Much of Mumford & Sons' lyrical content has a strong literary influence, their debut album's name deriving from William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The track "Sigh No More" includes lines from the play such as Serve God love me and mend, For man is a giddy thing, and One foot in sea and one on shore. The title of the song "Roll Away Your Stone" is an allusion to Macbeth; the song includes the line Stars hide your fires/ And these here are my desires which borrows and pares down Macbeth's line in act 1, scene 4: Stars, hide your fires,/ Let not light see my black and deep desires. Additionally, "The Cave" includes several references to The Odyssey, in particular the sirens that Odysseus encounters on his journey home. The song also contains many references to G.K. Chesterton's book, St. Francis of Assisi, in which Chesterton uses Plato's Cave as a way of explaining how St. Francis views the world from God's perspective. "Little Lion Man" appears to be a retelling in dramatic monologue form of Chretien de Troyes' Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, which is the story of a knight who goes mad after betraying a promise to his wife to return to her. Both "Timshel" and "Dust Bowl Dance" draw heavily from the John Steinbeck novels Of Mice and Men, East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. The band's change in sound on their third album was described by Lovett as a "natural departure." At the end of the Babel tour Winston Marshall traded his banjo for electric guitar in sound checks and Mumford started playing more drums as the band jammed on heavy instrumentals and even some Radiohead tunes. Banjo does not feature on the record, an instrument that had become synonymous with the band. NME reported that the band's sound is "More expansive than ever and decidedly heavier, thanks to the shift in instrumentation." The group also employed a full drumkit instead of kick drum. "We've had our standard line-up of instruments for the last six years and we felt like that was our palette, [but] we started picking up other stuff," said Lovett. "It's a very natural departure from some of that rootsier stuff." Lovett told NME that working with James Ford for Wilder Mind was part of trying something new. "We felt a need for change. Not from Markus [Dravs], but he was so closely attached to those first two records that as we had taken that time off, we wanted to try doing something new. It felt like, if we do our third record with Markus, does that mean we do our ninth and 10th records with Markus? At some point you have to try different things, as we collectively felt like it was time to try other stuff. Markus knows that we might well make the next record with him. We definitely haven't broken up [with Dravs], we're just playing the field!". The band have won a number of music awards throughout their career, with Sigh No More earning the band the Brit Award for Best British Album in 2011 and six overall Grammy Award nominations. The live performance at the 2011 Grammy ceremony with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers led to a surge in popularity for the band in the US. The band received eight total Grammy nominations for Babel and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The band also won the Brit Award for Best British Group in 2013.

Kacey Lee Musgraves is an American singer and songwriter. She began her career in the early 2000s, when she self-released three solo albums and recorded another album as a member of the duo Texas Two Bits. In 2007, Musgraves appeared on the fifth season of the USA Network singing competition Nashville Star, where she finished in seventh place. In 2012, she signed with Mercury Nashville and released the hit single "Merry Go 'Round". Her major-label debut studio album, Same Trailer Different Park (2013), won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.

Foster the People is an alternative rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, United States in 2009. The band consists of Mark Foster (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Cubbie Fink (bass, vocals) and Mark Pontius (drums). The band released their debut self-titled EP in January 2011. The band's debut full length album, Torches, was released on May 24, 2011 on Star Time/Columbia. Their first single "Pumped Up Kicks" was a sleeper hit during the summer of 2011 and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #18 on the UK Singles Chart. Initially the solo project of Mark Foster, he later added Fink and Pontius in 2009, forming a full band in the process. Two other musicians, Sean Cimino (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Isom Innis (keyboards, vocals), tour with the band as additional members. Discography: 1. Albums: 2011 - Torches 2014 - Supermodel 2017 - Sacred Hearts Club 2024 - Paradise State of Mind 2. EPs: 2019 - Pick U Up 2020- In The Darkest Of Nights, Let The Birds Sing 3. Singles: 2011 - Pumped Up Kicks 2011 - Call It What You Want 2012 - Don't Stop (Color on the Walls) (Remixes) - EP 2014 - Coming Of Age 2014 - Pseudologia Fantastica Official website: http://www.fosterthepeople.com/ twitter: @fosterthepeople facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Foster-The-People Go to www.fosterthepeople.com and join their email list if you want to get involved or just want a free download of "Pumped Up Kicks"!

The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne, Derek Brown, Matt Duckworth Kirksey, AJ Slaughter and Tommy McKenzie (bass). Coyne is the only remaining founding member following the departure of bassist and keyboardist Michael Ivins in 2021. From 1991 to 2024, Steven Drozd played a crucial role in the band as co-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

Violent Femmes are an American folk punk band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The band consists of founding members Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie, joined by multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza, and drummer John Sparrow. Former members of the band include drummers Victor DeLorenzo, Guy Hoffman (1993–2002), and Brian Viglione (2013–2016). Violent Femmes are considered to be an integral part of the then-underground folk punk and alternative rock scenes of the 1980s, and remain influential or inspirational to the subsequent movements, particularly on folk rock, indie rock, grunge, pop punk, emo, and the late 1980s and 1990s alternative rock scene.

St. Paul and The Broken Bones is a six-piece soul band based in Birmingham, Alabama, United States that formed in 2012. The band is composed of Paul Janeway (vocals), Browan Lollar (guitar), Jesse Phillips (bass), Andrew Lee (drums), Al Gamble (keys), and Allen Branstetter (trumpet). The band tours with both trombone and baritone saxophone as well. Janeway is a young man who began wailing straight out of the womb, and most folks would agree that he hasn’t stopped since. “Oh what a set of lungs that child has,” they’d say, “he must be destined for something special.” Not wishing to disappoint, and being a good southern boy, Paul began singing in church, stretching his vocal cords with an eye toward becoming a man of the cloth. The cloth, however, didn’t appreciate young Paul’s affinity for dirty jokes, Prince, and Tom Waits, and he was inclined to search elsewhere for co-conspirators. He began plying his trade with whomever would have him. With a wholly re-imagined take on the sounds he’d grown up singing and seeking, Paul recruited a rag-tag band of like-minded weirdoes, visionaries, and hacks to help him harness the power he now knew he possessed. Under the nom du guerre St. Paul and the Broken Bones, the motley crew roams the countryside looking to get cabooses shakin’, faces meltin’, and brothers and sisters everywhere testifyin’

The Devil Makes Three is an Americana band from Santa Cruz, California, United States. The group blends bluegrass, old time, country, folk, blues, jazz, and ragtime music. The group's members are guitarist Pete Bernhard, upright bassist Lucia Turino, and guitarist and tenor banjo player Cooper McBean. “The rhythm is what our band is about." Says Pete Bernhard: Guitarist, Front Man. The Devil Makes Three are quite possibly the best band that you have never heard of. They have been constantly on tour, selling out dates across the country and in their neck of the woods on the West Coast drawing near capacity crowds nightly. This is all word of mouth. Over the years, the Devil Makes Three have garnered fans the old school way, playing a city, making friends, conquering fans and moving on. Laced with elements of ragtime, blues, country, folk and rockabilly, the critically praised, drummer-less trio - consisting of Vermont native, guitarist/front man Pete Bernhard, stand-up bassist Lucia Turino and guitarist Cooper McBean, also of rural Vermont - brings forth a genuine approach to acoustic music. The sound is deeply steeped in rhythm and alive with three part harmonies, while keeping a slightly punk aesthetic to their music and especially their live shows. Note: the following songs belong to a different band with the same name, a small local metal band from Northern Ireland: A Lesson Unlearnt Dead Feed the Greed Heaven Descent

The early beginnings of Maoli, started in Maui with Glenn Awong, a 14 year old with a passion for music. In his sophomore year, the aspiring vocalist and guitarist began writing original music at the encouragement of a high school teacher. It was also during this time that Glenn started recording demos of his songs. By the time he reached his senior year, Glenn was ready to share his music to a greater audience. In 2005, Glenn and the band he formed won a Battle Of The Bands competition on the island of Maui. With numerous performances already under his belt, Glenn formed Maoli in early 2008 with a new lineup of talented musicians. This Fall marks the release of Maoli's full-length debut album entitled, Groovin, on Pacific Island Records. The album's lead single, No One, is already receiving airplay statewide and is gaining popularity on island music airwaves. Other standout tracks from Maoli include the heartfelt Write Me A Letter, a song about missing a loved one, featuring Malino’s Braddah Vince and the uptempo, Groovin’, featuring the sweet vocal sounds of Piilani Arias.

The Church is an alternative rock band which formed in Sydney, Australia in 1980. Initially linked in with neo-psychedelia acts of the period, their music later became largely defined by the interplay of guitarists Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes coupled with the abstract lyrics of bassist/singer Steve Kilbey. Their debut album, Of Skins and Heart (1981), earned them their first radio hit "The Unguarded Moment". They were originally signed to EMI's Parlophone label, but record company dissatisfaction led to them being dropped overseas, which limited their exposure early on. After signing to Arista in 1988, they saw their largest international success with the album Starfish and the American Top 40 hit "Under The Milky Way" which resurfaced on the soundtrack of the cult movie "Donnie Darko". Whilst the band remain feted by their peers, subsequent commercial success proved elusive: 1990s follow-up album "Gold Afternoon Fix" failed to capitalise on their success, and the band weathered several line-up changes after its release, first losing long-term drummer Richard Ploog, then Peter Koppes following 1992s "Priest = Aura". That album baffled and confused many fans upon its release as to what band The Church was considered to be, but is now considered a seminal album and one of the most revered by Church connoisseurs. The vacant drum-stool on Priest=Aura being occupied by Jay Dee Daugherty of Arista labelmate Patti Smiths group, and it was produced by Gavin MacKillop of Moose. Reduced to a two-piece, Kilbey & Willson-Piper re-grouped with the assistance of drummer/producer Tim Powles to record 1994's "Sometime Anywhere", concluding their obligations to the Arista and Mushroom labels. The commercial decline, combined with the Church being ignored again by a music press more focused on the Nineties' music trends, could have brought about the demise of the band, had it not coincided with the breakthrough of the internet, thus enabling direct communication from the band to its passionate cult fanbase. This brought about a new beginning for The Church, with Peter Koppes rejoining the band for recording 1996s "Magician Among The Spirits". The band (with Koppes back into the fold, and Powles now as the permanent drummer ), hit a re-newed creative surge and with regained selfconfidence, released "Hologram Of Baal" 2 years later, and toured Australia, the USA and Europe. The first decade of the 21st century found the band releasing severeal highly critically acclaimed albums, like 2002's aptly named "After Everything Now this" and 2003's "Forget Yourself", the latter breaking new ground with bandmembers swapping instruments in the recording process. Live performances stray from high profile events like the 03 concerts at Sydney Opera House and the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, to low-profile gigs for smaller audiences, often confusing old 80s fans, surprised to find the band still playing, wrongly assuming the band just being one in the never-ending string of reunion acts. 2009's album "Untitled#23" marked yet another highlight.. its essence represented in just 10 songs, and with a strong less-is-more approach, the albums core identity being on par with Starfish, it also finds Steve Kilbey breaking new ground as a vocalist. 2010 saw their 30th anniversary, with extensive touring in the US and Australia. Their unique position and importance in the australian music scene was recognized with an ARIA award. Their album, "Further Deeper", was released in 2014, and "man woman life death infinity" in 2017.

Jet are an Australian rock band, formed in 2001 in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded by brothers Nic and Chris Cester together with Cameron Muncey, they were joined the following year by Mark Wilson on bass guitar. The quartet released three studio albums – Get Born (2003), Shine On (2006) and Shaka Rock (2009) – before disbanding in 2012. They reformed in 2016 for a series of shows and reunion tours. They reunited for a second time in 2023, and were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in November that year.

Danny Kiranos, known professionally as Amigo the Devil, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and banjo player. His music is influenced by American folk, country, rock, and heavy metal, with themes of murder, death, and other dark subject matters which has led to his music being called "Dark Folk" or "Murderfolk". Kiranos created the record label Liars Club Records with the label Regime Music Group.

Rainbow Girls is an American eclectic folk trio of Vanessa May, Erin Chapin, and Caitlin Gowdey. They write and perform original material with roots in folk, americana, gypsy, funk, soul, and rock n'roll. In addition to their soaring four-part harmonies, the band members switch back and forth amongst a multitude of instruments including, but not limited to: guitar, ukelele, accordion, harmonica, banjolele, mandolin, dulcimer, bass, cello, piano, melodica, recorder, kazoo, washboard, djembe, drum kit, and stomp-tap percussion. Born in an underground open mic night in Isla Vista, CA, called "Bean Night," they began as an acoustic act, busking around the farmers markets of California before they hit the streets of Europe for a summer of couch surfing and busking. Since their return, they have evolved into an electric gypsy-americana-stomp-folk band, complete with drums, bass, and a whole lotta stompin'. They are known to put on one hell of a show. Don't miss Rainbow Girls, acoustic or electric. Adding colors to the duo Red & Yellow (Caitlin Gowdey & Erin Chapin), Rainbow Girls loosely formed in 2010, playing at a weekly, underground open-mic in Isla Vista. In December 2010, they set off for a week long self-recording trip to Joshua Tree and Big Bear Mountain, where they made their very own 5 song demo. At the end of January, after only a few shows, Rainbow Girls was put on hold while one of the gals skipped town to study abroad in Roma, Italia. Impatient, the three remaining members (at the time there were only 4 colors) followed suit in June, and the group of four spent the summer of 2011 busking and couch surfing their way around Europe, playing gigs and spreading music throughout Switzerland, Germany, England, Italy, the Netherlands, and France. Fifteen cities, six countries, four self-recorded audio tapes, two French recording studios, and 1 deportation later, they are now back at their ranch outside of Santa Barbara, playing gigs around California, and embarking on a series of tours to other states. In Spring of 2012, they toured to Seattle and back for 3 weeks, and again to southern Oregon to play a handful of music festivals. The following summer, Rainbow Girls toured the southwest, adding Arizona, Colorado, and Utah to their list of states. They traveled again to Seattle and back for their (End Of The) WORLD Tour in December of 2012. They recorded and released their first studio EP "Stomp Folk" in the beginning of September 2013, and their first official studio album in Spring 2013.

A quintet who cheerfully disregard every kind of one-dimensional label that might be attached to their music, Fireside Collective has been on a roll since emerging seven years ago from the fertile roots music scene of Asheville, North Carolina. In quick order, the progressive bluegrass group released its debut album, won the 2016 Band Contest at MerleFest, earned an International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Band of the Year nomination and embarked on an ambitious touring schedule that’s earned an enthusiastic reception from traditional bluegrass to wide-ranging, eclectic music festival audiences alike. ​Blending the characteristic interplay of bluegrass instrumentation and harmonies with strong original material and exuberant energy, Fireside Collective has drawn on folk, blues, funk and a wide variety of bluegrass sounds to create a distinctive body of work that’s all their own. Each member. Joe Cicero (guitar); Jesse Iaquinto (mandolin); Tommy Maher (resonator guitar), Carson White (upright bass), and the newest addition Mike Tillis (drums). Brings a strong, original voice to his instrument, and the unique contributions of different lead and harmony vocalists complement the variety in the group’s many original songs. “Depending on where you come from and your experience with folk music, you may think we’re very traditional, or on the other hand, consider us a progressive act,” says Iaquinto. “We appreciate both ends of the spectrum and may lie on a different end on any given night.” But whether they’re bringing the classic sound of bluegrass or exploring new musical territory, Fireside Collective delivers a fresh, energetic approach and a blast of enthusiastic creativity that’s electrifying audiences across the country.