When Jason Isbell first dreamed up the idea for the ShoalsFest, a full day of music on two stages on the banks of the Tennessee River in Florence, Alabama, he says he figured he’d ask the people wanted to play. Then when they said no, he’d ask some more people.
“I never got to that part,” he told the crowd at McFarland Park on Saturday, October 5.
Between acts on the main ShoalsFest stage, where the bigger names appeared, the Single Lock Stage gave the crowds a closer look at some of the up-and-coming talent from John Paul White’s record company at home in the Shoals—The Kernal, Caleb Elliot and his band, The Prescriptions, and Rob Aldridge and the Proponents.
The opening act on the ShoalsFest stag, Isbell’s wife Amanda Shires, an Americana artist in her own rights and member of the newly formed Highwomen, didn’t take any arm twisting. Mavis Staples, recently named as a 2019 Americana Awards Lifetime Achievement Awards recipient, returned to the Shoals for the first time since she recorded with the iconic Staples Singers during the infancy of the Muscle Shoals Sound.
Isbell and Shires’ fellow Nashvillian Sheryl Crow also said yes, adding to the crowd appeal following the August release of her latest album Threads, recorded with some of her friends and heroes in the industry—an album she suggests may be her last.
Isbell and his band the 400 Unit closed out the evening with a long set of songs from throughout his career, including some crowd favorites from his days with the Drive-By Truckers. Isbell, and his band not only gave the crowd the high energy performance fans have come to expect, but his obvious joy at seeing this dream become reality was infectious. Isbell and Shires even brought out their young daughter Mercy, who gave the crowd a soft rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and then returned to the stage to dance during the band’s cover of the rock classic “Oh Well.”
Kept just off the shore, boaters floated near enough to enjoy the performance without buying tickets or hauling in chairs. Crow gave a shout out to the residents across the river on the bluff who enjoyed the show with their own bird’s eye view. When she told the crowd she planned to be back next year, Isbell said, “That’s binding.” Even the crowds in long lines for the shuttle back to their cars said they’d be back next year too.