The wonderful setting of Stanford Hall in the Leicestershire countryside is set to be our August Bank Holiday destination for the fifth time where once again The Long Road Festival have assembled an all-star cast to perform across a number of perfectly themed stages at one of the most anticipated events on the country and Americana calendar in the UK.
This year’s event sees Songwriters Hall of Fame member, known as the “King of the Trail” bring a big slice of American Pie to Lutterworth as Don McLean is the star attraction of the Saturday whilst multi-platinum selling Russell Dickerson will close the festival on the Sunday night with a string of number one hits and what as always promises to be one hell of a party. Whilst our Rhinestone Stage headliners are likely very familiar names to the majority of the audience, we head through the rest of this years diverse and exciting line-up to share our recommendations on some of the other acts on the bill that you really won’t want to miss out on.
Kyle Daniel
Bowling Green, Kentucky native Kyle Daniel is no stranger to the UK to the Long Road Festival having previously played in 2022. When we caught up with Kyle a few weeks back, he told us - "Oh, man. It's killer. I love the Long Road. The vibe there just spoke to me. It feels like one of the local festivals here in and around our area! It felt like Bonnaroo meets CMA Fest put together in Leicester, so it was like man, this is my vibe; I'm looking forward to some barbecue, some beers and a bunch of hugs."
With influences including The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kyle Daniel’s music pays homage to the rich tradition of Southern rock while carving out a fresh, modern sound. Kyle will be armed with plenty of new music few his Long Road set, having recently released his debut album Knetucky Gold.
You will be able to catch Kyle twice on Saturday, as he plays the Rhinestone Stage (14:45-15:30) and also takes over The Interstate Afterparty on Saturday night (22:45-23:15).
Dan Davidson
With 13 CCMA nominations, 10 ACMA awards, a platinum record and a number 1 selling Canadian song and record, Dan Davidson is set to make his Long Road debut at this years festival. Festival goes though may have seen the Edmonton, Alberta native before having previously played at both Buckle and Boots and on the Festival Stages at London's C2C Festival.
Long Road will be a first opportunity for UK fans to hear his latest single, We Won't Forget, which featured fellow Canadian artist Tim Hicks and Australia's Max Jackson and no doubt many will be listening out for his platinum single, Found, which has over 9 million streams on Spotify alone. Dan will be closing out The Front Porch on Friday night with an acoustic set (23:00-23:45) before playing the same stage on Saturday morning (11:30-12:15).
Southall
The big hard-rocking southern sound of the Oklahoma six piece are sure to bow the roof off The Interstate stage (13:45-14:45) and will really set the tone to kickstart Saturday afternoon. The band headed up by lead singer Read Southall along with Reid Barber, Jeremee Knipp, Braxton Curliss, John Tyler Perry and Ryan Wellman made their first trip to the UK opening up for Blackberry Smoke and now return to Europe with the festival performance being part of their first headline tour over here.
Full of ‘70s Soul, Country-inspired lyricism and Rock and Roll heart, Southall’s music draws packed crowds and evokes old-school Country and early Grunge all at once. The band has tallied over 467 MILLION total streams and 1.5 MILLION cumulative monthly listeners. This will be the first chance to play songs live in Europe from their self-titled fourth studio album which dropped last fall via Smoklahoma Records and includes fan favourites like the road-weary romantic rocker “When You’re Around,” the soul-searching psychedelic anthem “By Surprise” and the swampy juke-joint dancer “Scared Money,” plus the rootsy Alt-Rock throwback “All I Have.”
Dasha
Since releasing Austin (alternatively titled Austin (Boots Stop Workin')) in November 2023, the viral TikTok song has gained over 450 million streams and gone either Gold or Platinum in 8 countries, the California native has become a household name. A late addition to this years line-up having found time to play the festival alongside appearances at Reading and Leeds Festival, her set on The Interstate stage on Sunday (17:30-18:15) is bound to be one of the most popular ones of the weekend. This year, she has already played Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest and in June made her Opry debut.
For her debut UK Country Festival appearance, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter will no doubt share her viral track, along with others from her recently released album What Happens Now?
Kaitlin Butts
A truly one-of-a-kind artist,who hails from Oklahoma with a deep affinity for country music’s more theatrical side: the extravagant storytelling, dazzling showmanship, songs embedded with both unbridled emotion and quick-fire humour.
The Tulsa native arrives at the festival to perform in the UK for the first time off the back of opening up a number of dates in the United States for Dierks Bentley on his ‘Gravel & Gold Tour’ in addition to being nominated for “Emerging Act of the Year” at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards (with fellow debutants at this year’s festival The Red Clay Strays and Wyatt Flores also amongst the nominees) taking place in September. Her eclectic influences ranging from outlaw country, strong-minded country-pop, timeless rock-and-roll and musical theatre (as highlighted by her latest album ‘Roadrunner!’ being heavily inspired by the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ‘Oklahoma!’ based on her home state) come out so strongly in her songs and live performances which we cannot wait to experience come Sunday on The Interstate stage (12:30-13:15) and at Buddy’s Good Time Bar (16:45-17:30).
Brooke Eden
After her first introduction to the UK audience at C2C: Country to Country back in 2016, we had a seven and a half year wait for the return of this Floridan ray of sunshine to return to our shores. In the three quarters of the decade before her shows last October with Song Suffragettes, we had waited a long time before new music came in early 2021 during a period of her embracing who she was and not just being proud of it but expressing to the world the joys of freedom and being true to yourself. Brooke’s performances on the Sunday at the festival will be her second UK appearance this year following a trip over to London in March and will not only present an opportunity for fans see songs from last year’s ‘Outlaw Love’ EP performed on a bigger stage but also the hope of a teaser of some new songs and fans over here being able to celebrate the big change in her life that is on the horizon as Brooke and pregnant wife, Hilary are soon to be new moms for the first time. Expect a fun, joyous and uplifting set filled on the Rhinestone stage (16:00-16:45) with positive vibes and infectious melodies which is sure to be one of the highlights of the whole festival and then she will ensure that she keeps the party going by closing the whole festival at Sunday nights After Party in The Interstate (22:30-23:00.)
Toby Sebastian
Whilst there is plenty of homegrown talent on show across the festival, the slick and suave charisma delivering a really exciting blend of rootsy blues combined with indie rock-and-roll by this former child of Dorne is one of the coolest sounds around and will be the perfect soundtrack to your Sunday evening on The Front Porch stage (19:45-20:30)
Just in case the little Game of Thrones reference went over your head, you may be familiar with him on the screen as well as singing on stage having played a number of high profile acting roles including Trystane Martell in the acclaimed HBO fantasy drama and also portraying Andrea Bocelli in the biopic The Music Of Silence. Following his first headline tour earlier this year, there is plenty of music on the way starting with new single ‘Something Romantic’ next month, as he builds towards the release of his sophomore album sometime in the new year.
Red Stray Clays
Hailing from the red dirt clay of Mobile, Alabama, The Red Stray Clays released their latest album (produced by Dave Cobb) Made By These Moments via RCA Records just last month. One of music’s fastest rising bands, The Red Clay Strays are Coleman (lead vocals, guitar), Drew Nix (electric guitar, vocals, harmonica), Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums).
The band are riding high on the massive success of their single Wondering Why (from their 2022 album Moment of Truth), which has over 100 million streams to date, the track spent a week at No.1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 USA Playlist and six consecutive weeks at No.1 on the Americana Singles chart.
Their set at The Long Road is part of their first visit to the UK and you can catch The Red Stray Clays close out their UK tour on Saturday night as they headline The Interstate (19:45-21:00)
Redferrin
Warner Music Nashville’s rising artist, Redferrin, makes a quick return to our shores to make his Long Road debut having previously appeared at this years C2C Festival. If he is a new name for visitors to the festival, you will certainly know several of his cuts as he has co-written tracks for Florida Georgia Line such as 'Lil Bit' (featuring Nelly), 'New Truck', 'Countryside' and more, plus a record-breaking Canadian number 1, 'Can’t Help Myself' by Dean Brody & The Reklaws.
Prior to his last visit, Redferrin released his debut EP, Old No. 7, which features the Spotify’s Viral 50 (US) track Jack and Diet Coke. The track has now surpassed over 40 million streams on Spotify alone.
Born Blake Redferrin, the Tennessee native will be playing Friday nights After Party on The Interstate (23:30-00:15)
Angie K
Whilst being named in this year’s CMT ‘Listen Up’ intake and last year’s ‘Next Women of Country’ class, her voice may be more recognisable to anyone that has visited the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida where you would hear her duet with Jordan Fisher played nightly during the ‘Happily Ever After’ fireworks and projection show. However, raw and honest country music is her passion, where she will bring the Hispanic flair from her native El Salvador combined with a fresh blend of hard hitting country music to The Front Porch on Saturday afternoon (17:30-18:15) as part of Rissi Palmer’s “Color Me Country” stage takeover.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire on the weekend of August 23rd to 27th with full event details and last remaining ticket information available on their WEBSITE and be sure to check out all of the updates on INSTGRAM or FACEBOOK in the runup to the event including the all-important stage times for the weekend.