Cheat Fest Music Line Up

Friday, May 5th:
6:00pm to 7:00pm – Wildwater Band
7:15pm to 8:45pm – Hackensaw Boys
9:00pm to 10:30 – Stewed Mulligan
Saturday, May 6th:
12:00pm to 1:00pm – Meadow Run
1:15pm to 2:15pm – LocalMotive
2:30pm to 3:30pm – Drymill Rd
3:45pm to 5:00pm – Tom Batchelor Band
5:00pm to 5:30pm – Kid’s Parade
5:30pm to 6:45pm – Megan Jean & the KFB
7:00pm to 8:30pm – Hillbilly Gypsies
8:45pm to 9:45pm – Union Sound Treaty
10:00pm to 11:30pm – Jacob’s Ferry Stragglers

Band Bios

The Hillbilly Gypsiesgypsies

Hailing from the beautiful Mountain State of West Virginia, The Hillbilly Gypsies have been making and performing their own brand of old time bluegrass and original mountain music for well over a decade! Formed in 2001 from a chance meeting at the now infamous Wednesday night old time jam in Morgantown, WV; The Hillbilly Gypsies have been pickin’ n’ grinnin’ and entertaining their loyal fans ever since.

The band is best known for their high-energy live performances and have become a crowd favorite at major festivals, fairs and concert venues all across the mid-Atlantic region and abroad. They perform in the old fashioned style, playing around a single vintage ribbon microphone. This “Old Timey” approach adds an authentic high-energy barn party atmosphere to their show. Watching the whole band work around the mic is like taking a trip back in time. It’ll sure make you want to get up and dance!

Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers JakobsFerry2016_0929_200434-2_DML

The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers draw freely from old-time, bluegrass, country, jazz, rockabilly and swing styles to create their tight, high-energy string band music. Well-crafted original songs with emotional depth, masterful picking, and resonant vocal harmonies combine to forge new territories and a fresh take on Appalachian Americana music. Band members Gary Antol, Libby Eddy, Ed Croft and Joe Dep hail from the mountains and river towns of southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Union Sound Treaty USTPromoPic

If you were to get lost one night and take a few wrong turns, you may find yourself surrounded by steep ridges and dark hollers outstide some small Appalachian saloon.  There’s also a good chance you’ll hear Union Sound Treaty, playing from within. You’d experience the full band breakdowns that empower an entire crowd to produce a resounding bass beat with the heels of their feet, haunting stories, the whine of a pedal steel, or the touching songs that seem shaped by the very landscape and the people who live there.  Made distinctly unique by the powerful, time-weathered voice of singer/songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin, guitar riffs by the classically educated guitarist John Schooley, bass with vintage taste by bassist Shawn Wilhelm, and the steady methodical rhythm provided by drummer Ross Justice, Union Sound Treaty stands apart in a music world saturated by thousands of hopeful artists and bands all trying to “hit it big” someday.

Drymill Road

International touring band, Drymill Road includes: Robert Mabe on Banjo, Sean Loomis on Guitar, Doug Ross on Mandolin, and David Hurt on Bass.  Its high energy and heartfelt original material, with a good mix of traditional music and “not so” traditional takes on Led Zeppelin, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles…to name a few. The band brings a full-blown entertainment experience to the stage with some very different blends of old, new, traditional, surprising twists and turns of musicality and phrasing. The beauty of it is to not expect to hear “NewGrass” or some far-out translation of the basic form. The value is in the entertainment package. They’ll transport you down a road – that’s ‘Older than the Hills.
Tom Batchelor Band TBB
The five-piece band has performed its unique versions of reggae and rock at a variety of venues and festivals around the country, and said it is more than excited to return to the place where it all began. Self-taught frontman and West Virginia University graduate Tom Batchelor said it’s been a long road for him to finally get settled in where he believes he belongs in his music career. Getting his start in island- infused Americana band Rasta Rafiki, Batchelor later became a part of local bluegrass/jam band The Recipe in 1997. Sampling a variety of genres helped Batchelor find the musical confidence to form his own current group, The Tom Batchelor Band. “I feel like I’ve joined forces with some of Morgantown’s most accomplished musicians,” Batchelor said.”
Megan Jean and the KFB
Megan Jean and the KFB, or Klay Family Band, arrange a demented blend of americana, punk, dance, and the avant-garde that they’ve taken to describing as, “a metal band, if it was 1927.”  Inventive percussion, electrified banjo, and a voice like the Devil Herself have earned Megan Jean and the KFB a dedicated following all over the East Coast. Calling the road home on a “never-ending tour,” this transient married duo has taken their nomadic musical lifestyle and transformed it into a kind of Voodoo that unites scenes, fans, and musical styles. This is a band that lives to perform, and is fueled by sheer guts and know how.

Local Motive

Local Motive is a WV based Rockin’ Blues Reggae band. Their sets are replete with original tunes and classic ballads that span many genres.

Meadow Run

This husband and wife duo hail from the cozy hills of West Virginia. They play unique songs that blend the contemporary folk genre with a bluegrass spirit. Lindsey’s voice often carries her own lyrics which collect friendships, mountain scenery, thoughtful reminiscence, and mixes them into a soothing, energetic sound while Ty backs up her sound with his beautiful melodic style of fiddle and vocal harmonies. Their love of music and for each other is evident as these two play from the heart.
Hackensaw Boys
For touring musicians, the road is a harsh mistress. It takes an iron will to survive and a hard-headed love for music so deeply ingrained that the mere thought of a missed gig makes you nauseous. For 17 years, the Hackensaw Boys have plowed the asphalt, bringing their raw, gritty version of American roots music to the venues and streets that originally inspired them. Born in Virginia, along the same routes as fellow road warriors/street buskers Old Crow Medicine Show, the Hackensaw Boys have at times operated more as a collective than a band, sometimes boasting up to twenty members. What’s kept them together is a burning hot vision of American roots music brought kicking and screaming into a new age, fueled as much by a rowdy punk spirit as by the traditional masters that first inspired them. Now with their new album, Charismo (April 15, 2016 on Free Dirt Records)–their first studio album in almost a decade–the Hackensaw Boys have a new lineup and a new lease on life.
Stewed Mulligan stewed 4
Stewed Mulligan blends the old backwoods sound with clever Country Rock to create music that could have been birthed in a basement by the illegitimate sons of The Band. If Fat Albert’s Junkyard band had an Appalachian bizarro group, they would be called Stewed Mulligan.”  25 years sounds like a long time……a lot longer then it actually feels. And when you think about it in terms of over 150 years of combined experience within the current lineup it makes it sound downright respectable (lending more credibility then perhaps may be warranted). But then again, for the most part, these years have been spent with one another fostering a weird type of musical evolution with its genetic roots in bands such as Muddy Holler, Hickory Wind, Ebenezer String Band and others.

Wildwater Band

A SW Ohio favorite, this improvisational band moves through genres and spans musical time periods. It is bluegrass? Swing? Jazz? It IS what it IS.