Peacemaker Music and Arts Festival in Fort Smith

(Ft. Smith, AR) The inaugural Peacemaker Music and Arts Festival will take place at River Park Amphitheater along the banks of the Arkansas River in Fort Smith, Arkansas, July 31 through August 2. This three-day festival includes a diverse music lineup featuring acclaimed local, regional and national artists. Headlining the festival will be the Chris Robinson Brotherhood on Saturday night and Jason Isbell on Friday night.

The event is expected to draw thousands of music and art lovers from all over the region. Organizers say their goal is to educate the public and expand people’s cultural knowledge by offering a wide variety of music genres, which will include gospel, blues, rock, country, bluegrass and jam. Art exhibitions will also be set up around the festival grounds to visually enrich and educate the public.

On Friday, the gates open at 4pm. In addition to Jason Isbell, Friday night’s other major acts include The Cate Brothers and Lucero. The Cate Brothers are the singer-songwriter-musician duo of Earl and Ernie Cate, twin brothers from Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Cates, formed in the mid-1960s, became performers of southern soul music at clubs and dances throughout the regional South of the United States. Both brothers are singers, with Earl on guitar and Ernie on piano.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Saturday night’s headliner, is touring in support of their latest release, Phosphorescent Harvest. Praised by Rolling Stone as “once quirky, trippy, soulful and downright magnetic,” it’s the band’s third full-length for Silver Arrow Records. Robinson declares: “We’ve created a piece of rock ‘n’ roll here. People can look to us and rest assured the genre is alive and well.

The CRB (as they are affectionately known by fans) made an immediate impact upon their boldly unconventional debut in early 2011. They waited until 2012 to truly introduce themselves nationally with the release of two sprawling studio albums: Big Moon Ritual (June 2012) and The Magic Door (September 2012), which showcase a freewheeling improvisational chemistry. The band would further develop their identity as a self-defined “farm to table psychedelic rock band” over a 118-show stretch.

Saturday, August 1st, is also jam-packed full of talent, including Brownout, Red Wanting Blue, Anders Osborne and Corey Smith. CRB is the featured band of the night. Brownout is an eight-piece, Austin-based Latin psych-funk collective who delve deep into reinterpreting the catalog of metal godfathers, Black Sabbath. Joined by “The Mexican Ozzy” Alex Marrero on vocals, the band is currently touring the world in support of their debut full-length album, Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath. Even legendary Black Sabbath front man Ozzy Osbourne weighed in, stating, “I was shown a video of them performing The Wizard and it was a lot of fun hearing it with a horn section. It was great!”

On Sunday, August 2, get ready to “praise God and pass the biscuits!” Beginning at 10am, area churches and community leaders will feed the hungry and the hung over for free at the River Front Pavilion. This gospel style brunch will also include live gospel choirs and bluegrass musicians.

Tickets for single days are $15 at the early bird rate. A three-day pass is available for $25. Prices are higher on-site during the festival. For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.peacemakerfest.com.

The Gayly - July 25, 2015 @ 3:20pm.