Ryan Adams and Ghostface Killah lead Gasparilla Music Festival's latest round of lineup announcements as the festival — set for March 11 and 12 in downtown Tampa's Curtis Hixon Park — inches closer.
UPDATE: GMF has released its daily lineup. See when each of the announced bands is playing by clicking here.
The news comes less than two months after the non-profit, Tampa-born music festival revealed that Cage the Elephant would headline day one as part of an initial lineup announcement that included Nashville indie-prog outfit Moon Taxi, jazz fusion figureheads The New Mastersounds, plus New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Shamarr Allen & the Underdawgs.
Other new additions include budding Jamaican roots reggae star Chronixx, southern psych rock & soul outfit Marcus King Band and Jacksonville bluegrass trio Grandpa's Cough Medicine.
A total of 21 new acts were added in this latest announcement, and Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) executive director David Cox told CL that the festival still has about 18 bands left to announce.
Early bird tickets for the festival have sold out, but general admission and VIP tickets are still available starting at $30. Kids under 12 years of age get in free.
Adams, 42, is a founding member of Whiskeytown and one of America's most revered active songwriters. He's been exciting fans lately thanks in part to "Do You Still Love Me" and "To Be Without You" — two songs from his forthcoming 16th studio LP, Prisoner (due February 17 via PaxAm/Blue Note). Adams, who'll headline Sunday's lineup, also released 1989, a Taylor Swift cover album, in 2015.
[Full disclosure: this writer assisted GMF with social media until August 2016. He is also a huge Ryan Adams fan and sort of a Taylor Swift apologist.]
Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah is no stranger to these parts (his 2013 set with GMF alum Adrian Younge/Venice Dawn at Orpheum was epic), and spent his holiday slinging ugly sweaters while also reigniting rumors of another new album from the Wu. The 46-year-old who broke out on the heels of a 1996 solo LP, Iron Man, is apparently also prone to giving things to homeless people (and we know how that's been working out around downtown Tampa lately).
Much like the 2016 edition, the Bay area hip-hop and beat culture is well represented in 2017 with the addition of Jinx, QueenofEx, Pajamas, Bangarang and Rogerthomas to the bill.
Other homegrown talent added to GMF's lineup today includes Have Gun, Will Travel, The Sh-Booms (they're from Orlando, but they play here so much...), Veiny Hands, Miroux, Parrotfish, Band of Sorrows, and Ari Chi.
See the lineup so far, and see what the new acts are below, and get more information on the festival via gasparillamusic.com.