Troubadours and Allstars part of fifth annual Peacemaker Festival

Veteran Americana bands Turnpike Troubadours and the North Mississippi Allstars are part of the lineup for the 2019 Peacemaker Festival set for July 26-27 at the Riverfront Amphitheater in downtown Fort Smith.

The Peacemaker website on Wednesday (April 17) posted the lineup but did not include dates and times for performances. Talk Business & Politics will update this story with that information becomes available.

Now in its fifth year, the event began in 2014 with a Facebook conversation and resulted in acts like Grammy winner Jason Isbell, Leon Russell, Jamey Johnson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hayes Carl, and the Old 97‘s playing Fort Smith.

The 2019 lineup has Turnpike Troubadours returning – played in 2016 – and the North Mississippi Allstars returning – played in 2017 – to Fort Smith.

Peacemaker Lineup

• Turnpike Troubadours
The band was formed in 2007 in Tahlequah, Okla., and has made five albums, with the recent being “A Long Way From Your Heart” that was out in October 2017. All Music has said the band often captures “the populist, political folk of Woody Guthrie and the outlaw-styled honky tonk of Waylon Jennings with doses of bluegrass, Cajun, and straight-out rock dynamics.”

• Ryan Bingham
Raised in rural Texas, Bingham has recorded seven albums, with his latest, “American Love Song,” released this year. Before he began his professional music career he was a ranch hand and traveled the country to participate in rodeo competitions.

• North Mississippi Allstars
All Music says the Allstars is a “greasy, bluesy jam band, and is fronted by brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, sons of Memphis studio legend Jim Dickinson. They’ve recorded 12 albums since 2000, with the latest “Prayer for Peace” released in 2017.

• Josh Abbott Band
The band was formed in 2004 by Texas Tech frat brothers Josh Abbott, Austin Davis, Neel Huey and Andrew Hurt, and has since released five albums, with the 2017 “Until My Voice Goes Out” being the most recent.

• Lucero
This Memphis-based Americana-rock band has been around for more than 20 years, and has released nine studio albums. “Among the Ghosts,” is the most recent and was released in 2018. “Among the Ghosts eschews the Stax-inspired horns and Jerry Lee Lewis-style boogie piano featured on some of the band’s past recordings for a streamlined rock & roll sound that pays homage to their seminal influences as it seeks to push that legacy into the future,” the band notes on its website.

• Samantha Fish
Known more as a blues guitarist and singer, The Kansas City native began her recording career in 2009. Her most recent album, “Belle of the West,” was released in November 2017.

• William Clark Green
Also a Texas Tech graduate, Green is known for his Texas blend of country music. The Texas native has recorded five studio albums, with “Hebert Island,” released in August 2016, the most recent.

• Dylan Earl
Earl was born in Lake Charles, La., but moved to Arkansas in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. He launched his solo career in 2014, with his first album, “New Country To Be,” recorded in Fayetteville. “You can often find Dylan and his boys out on the road anywhere between honky-tonks to opera houses to dingy basements. There is no improper place for his music,” notes Earl’s website.

• JD Clayton
Clayton is based in Fort Smith and performs with a mix of Americana, folk-rock and rhythm and blues. His debut album, “Smoke Out The Fire,” was released in late 2018.

The Peacemaker Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to providing a portion of its proceeds directly back to the community through local charities. Some of the organizations receiving assistance from Peacemaker in the previous three years have included Girls Inc., The Children’s Emergency Shelter, and Developmental Wings.