The Big Fresno Fair drops first list of 2024 performers. So, who's playing?
Plus, new musics from Jonathan Lo-Fi, Green Giant, No/And.
It’s not quite clear whether The Big Fresno Fair teases out its concerts lineup each year as a way to build excitement, or if it simply reports things out as the slots gets filled.
Either way, for the past few years, the fair has announced the performers in waves, three or four at a time, spaced out over however many months.
The first wave of 2024 performers was announced last week.
Country singer Walker Hayes (famous for that time he inadvertently created an Applebee’s theme song) will kick off the fair Wednesday, Oct. 2.
The Righteous Brothers (or technically Righteous Brother Bill Medley with Bucky Heard standing in for the late Bobby Hatfield) perform Monday, Oct. 7.
Bay-area rapper G-Eazy (who has ties to Fresno and headlined the Grizzly Fest in 2019) plays Saturday, Oct. 12 that the fair is billing as a pre-tour exclusive.
Country legend (and fair favorite) Dwight Yoakam gives the final performance of the season, Monday, Oct. 14.
Tickets will be available to Big Fair Fan (BFF) Club members in an online-only pre-sale 10 a.m. Monday, April 15 to 11:59 p.m. April 21, with general public sales opening 10 a.m. April 22.
G-Eazy is the news here. The rapper is heading into a full publicity cycle, having just debuted new music on Jimmy Fallon, and it feels like a big pull for the fair.
Otherwise, the lineup so far checks off much of the fair is looking for every year.
There is the young country performer, the “classic” country performer and the nostalgia act. If history holds we can expect the next round of announcements to include: one punk(ish)/metal(ish) or classic rock band, a Christian performer of some kind, and at least two regional Mexican or Latin acts.
Any guesses on who else we might be seeing at the Paul Paul in 2024?
Listen up: New music from Green Giant, Jonathan Lo-Fi and No/And
First off, everyone should be following Spanspekfestival if only for its #spanspekspotlight series, which chronicles new music from area artists.
This week, that included DJ/beatmaker Green Giant.
Aside from being a great dude to hang out with at shows, Green Giant is a wonderful curator of sounds who has released a number of albums over the years. The latest, Metaphors dropped on streaming platforms in late March and features 24 “beats circa 2021-2023.”
Other new music to check out this week:
No/And is the collaborative project from Matt Orme, Jeff Martin and Ronald Dzerigian.
Reasons to be excited: Dzerigian is an author/artist who played bass and sang in a number of Fresno bands in the late ’90s and early 2000s, including IG-88 and American Sloth.
Martin also played in American Sloth and the first incarnations of Milk for the Morning Cake.
Orme is a sound engineer/producer who was responsible for much of the output at Gardenside Studios, including Rademacher’s 2005 EP “Ice Age.” Here is plays drums and makes other sounds (likely, samples and synths and the like).
The trio has released two singles with more in the hopper.
The latest, Fake AF, which dropped April 1.
The song is no joke. It’s a herky-jerky piece of post-punk noise that is both anchored to and moved forward by Dzerigian’s vocals and lyrics. If this is a tease of what’s to come …
We’ve talked before about the transformation of Jonathan Lo-Fi, from a punk-rock frontman guitar slinger to an Americana folk singer.
That’s all flushed out on his self-titled full-length album, released across platforms on Friday. These are stripped-down guitar and and vocal tunes, that show Jonathan’s study and appreciation of the craft of this kind of traditional songwriting.
The album was recorded by Eric Peters and is slightly more produced than the songwriter’s previous releases.
Here, we get the occasional guitar lead, some tambourine percussion and, most notability, additional vocals (and harmonies) from Zoe Smurr.
That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. Follow my other writing at The Fresno Bee. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com