On Saturday, April 25, at Jordan Valley Park, the Springfield Earth Day Festival will host nine musical acts across two stages, along with live painting, a kids tent, aerial silks and festival puppets.
“We're very excited this year to welcome Shovels & Rope as our headliner. It's so exciting. I've been listening to them for a long time now, played them on repeat many, many times in my car,” said event founder Molly Healey.
In addition to Shovels & Rope, there will also be performances by The Burney Sisters, Isaac Kenneth, Little Jones, Riley Brecker, Ashtyn Barbaree, Johnny Mullenax, One More Dollar and the Molly Healey String Project, which Healey leads.
Shovels & Rope, made up of married couple Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, originate from Charleston, South Carolina. The band started its tour at the Barrel House in Chattanooga and will reach Springfield for the festival.
In regard to their musical style, Hearst said it has connections to folk music. “Folk music has always had a job to kind of carry old songs. Even songs that I write today, sometimes they're based on melodies from fiddle tunes that I know that are 200 years old, but I think at its core, it's a story.”
“But we’re by no means folk purists or anything like that. We definitely play a lot of rock and roll in our band, but I think that a lot of our songs are story-based songwriting, where you inhabit the skin of somebody else and walk them around and experience their experiences,” said Trent.
As the two have been performing for more than a decade, they have seen changes in their methods of songwriting and touring lifestyle.
“The way that we have processed all these years is that we're just artists who are writing songs and making music all the time. I'm not happy unless I'm singing on a stage, and Michael is not happy unless he's got a project going in the recording studio. I think those things propel us because we love our work,” Hearst added. “The number one thing that's made it possible for us to do it is that we've surrounded ourselves with really good human beings that we work with, and those people have helped raise our kids.”
Hearst and Trent’s children are often found on the tour bus with their parents, “riding around, seeing the beauty of America.”
“No doubt, it’s exhausting at times, but I do feel like it’s kind of magical,” said Trent. “On our best days, we feel like we're giving them a pretty exciting childhood with a really wide lens to see all kinds of people and different types of cultures.”
Springfield Earth Day Festival tickets will be available on the event’s website, as well as in person. The family-friendly festival invites children 12 and under to attend for free and offers discounts for students. Doors open at 11 a.m., and music starts at 12 p.m.
For a full schedule of the festival lineup, or to find more information on the fest, visit their website, Instagram and Facebook pages.
