Macon Magazine, June 2015

By Leila Regan-Porter

Last year’s Bragg Jam was nothing if not epic. Folks lined up around the block to see legendary Grammy Award-winning gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama, who sang happy birthday to Macon’s own legend, Mama Louise, famous for feeding those skinny southern boys of The Allman Brothers at her restaurant, H&H Soul Food. We finished that night on a wonderful high, celebrating 15 years of bringing music to the city of Macon and raising money for so many great community causes.

This year the Bragg Jam board is determined to one-up itself. The lineup, booked by co-chairs Sean Pritchard and Brandon Bish, ranges from the latest country hot-shot (Drake White & The Big Fire) to a new southern soul gem cut from the same cloth as Otis Redding (Curtis Harding) to a mind-blowing genre-mixing DJ (Wick-It the Instigator). Not to mention new-to-Macon acts who are making waves, like Sumilan, Stokeswood, and Family & Friends. There will be over 80 bands at this year’s Concert Crawl, on Saturday, July 25, spanning 20 venues, more than we have ever had at Bragg Jam.

These new venues include early-start spots like Coleman Hill Park, Taste & See and Mount de Sales Academy, which has allowed us to bring some more intimate, acoustic and family-friendly artists that would not always have had a conducive stage to be heard in previous years. There will also be additional stages at Twang Southern Tastes & Sounds and Crazy Bull, and a new stage at Macon’s new widely popular beer spot, Just Tap’d.

Bragg Jam will, as always, be highlighting some of the amazing talent coming out of our city, like the infectious indie psych folk of Dalmatian, indie rockers Good Night Alive, legendary soul session musician Robert Lee Coleman, Otis Music Camp graduate and coach Thomas Young, country favorite Travis Denning, singer-songwriter Louise Warren and rapper Floco Torres. Floco will be once again showing his colors as the hardest working musician in Macon by putting together his “Big Band,” featuring the best and brightest Macon has to offer for one hell of a gig, for “one night early.” If you love the magic that happens when Macon musicians collaborate and jive together in the most unexpected of ways (Macon Pops anyone? Or the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings playing The Allman Brothers?), then we highly recommend you catch this full set. More than likely it will be the epitome of what Macon represents: All kinds of music, all kinds of people, all coming together to make a beautiful sound. Which is what Bragg Jam is all about.

Of course, Bragg Jam isn’t just about bringing the music (though we do so in spades). We will also still be bringing back our popular nighttime run, Moonlight Miles 5K, on July 11. The family-friendly Arts & Kids Fest have more entertainment than ever before (we hear talk of a fire breather) at Cherry Street Plaza and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And of course we will all be kicking off the big weekend on Friday, July 24 with the Patron Party at the beautiful historic Terminal Station. Curtis Harding will be providing the entertainment, with his own stunning originals, plus some groove-inducing covers of our favorite soul and funk classics. We’re pretty sure you will want to bring your boogie shoes for this one.

Tickets are already on sale for this year’s events. The best deal is the Patron Pass, (which will be sold as individual tickets this year, not a pair). For $75, you get a pass to our Friday Night (July 24) Patron Party including live music, free food, one hour open bar, a ticket to the Concert Crawl (July 25), and a Bragg Jam 2015 Concert Crawl T-shirt, designed by Macon’s own brilliant talent, Jason Frost of Modern Giant.

We can’t wait to see you all there, to rock out at another amazing Bragg Jam!

For more information check out www.braggjam.org