Bristol, Tenn.-Va. (July 22, 2021) – The stellar, genre-bending grooves of Twisted Pine tie in exquisitely with the “Cosmic Americana” of North Carolina duo Blue Cactus on the next Farm and Fun Time, WBCM Radio Bristol’s live variety show that broadcasts before a studio audience from the performance theater in the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The show is slated for Thursday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m. EST. Very few tickets remain to part of the studio audience, so fans are urged to purchase quickly if they want to attend the show. Tickets are $35 plus tax/service fee.
“We’re really excited to introduce both of these great bands to Bristol for their first public performances here in town,” said Radio Bristol producer and Farm and Fun Time host Kris Truelsen. “I had Twisted Pine on my morning show (On the Sunny Side, weekdays 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. EDT) a few years back and knew instantly they needed to come back for Farm and Fun Time. Our audience is going to love their unique sound! They’ll be a perfect pairing with cosmic country rising act Blue Cactus!”
Twisted Pine, the Boston-based spacecraft of a band that was once bluegrass but is now what The Boston Globe describes as “something else, a wider version of a stringband, boundary jumpers akin to outfits like Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek, and Crooked Still.” The band’s latest release Right Now has all the sass of zero-gravity pop, the grooves of funk jams, and the astral flute and shoobedoos of 1970s radio. Twisted Pine plays under the influence of explorers Jerry Douglas (with whom the band occasionally tours), Bela Fleck, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, the Wood Brothers, and Lake Street Dive and Crooked Still (label mates at Signature Sounds Recordings).
Blue Cactus’ sound is a blend of grit, glitz, groove, and twang that evokes a celestial soundscape of mid-century heartbreak. The duo’s critically acclaimed LP Stranger Again takes their sound into ambitious new planes, where country-rock meets light psychedelia as the soaring vocals meet twangy slide guitars and propulsive bass lines. The otherworldliness of the music is a perfect contrast to the band’s distinctly grounded, human storytelling lyrics. Blue Cactus resuscitates a fleeting style of honest-to-goodness country music and exercises honky-tonk muscles to firmly bear the flag for a new generation of classic country practitioners.
Host Kris Truelsen’s house band Bill and the Belles lead the evening’s full night of entertainment with musical seques and old-time jingles, a throwback to the program’s beginnings on WCYB radio in the 1940s and 1950s.
Can’t make the performance in person? Farm and Fun Time also streams live on Radio Bristol’s Facebook and YouTube channels, and will broadcast on the air at 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, online at ListenRadioBristol.org and on the station’s free mobile app.
In September Farm and Fun Time will broadcast live from the Paramount during Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion on Friday, September 10 at 7:00 p.m. EST with musical guests Madison Cunningham, Sierra Hull, and Nora Brown. You must have a festival ticket to attend. Visit BristolRhythm.com for single day or weekend wristbands to the festival and for more information.
Encore episodes of Farm and Fun Time, edited for television, are now syndicated on Blue Ridge PBS, East Tennessee PBS, and PBS North Carolina. For tickets and more information about Radio Bristol programming, visit ListenRadioBristol.org.