Rooster Walk Announces More Headliners

Well slap my mama and bury me under the grit tree. Music icon Emmylou Harris, rock/funk guitar wizard Cory Wong top the Rooster Walk 14 band lineup with some new additions like Couch, Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast, Arkansauce, Sneezy, Sticks N Thorns, Travis Book & Friends, The Jared Stout Band, TC Carter Band, Lua Flora, Big Fat Gap, Jules & The Agreeables, DJ What, Magician Hunter Rhodes and Pirates of the Piedmont. Rooster Walk announces more headliners. The mountain festival season will be here before you know it. Start planning now grasshopper. 

Emmylou Harris, a 2018 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, will bring her band to headline the 14th annual Rooster Walk Music & Arts Festival. Joining her at the top of the band lineup will be celebrated guitarist Cory Wong, an exploding star on the international music scene.

Harris has been estimated to have sold more than 15 million records worldwide. She has also earned 13 Grammy Awards and placed 27 singles into the top 10 US country chart. She will make her Rooster Walk debut with a Saturday evening set at the festival, which will take place May 23-26, 2024 at Pop’s Farm in Martinsville, Va.

Wong will also make his RW debut when his band performs a Friday night headlining set. A former member of Vulfpeck, Wong’s live shows are lauded for their instrumental wizardry, incredible cohesiveness and their sheer, energetic fun.

Other bands getting added to the lineup include: Couch (Boston, Mass. – funk/rock/soul); Catilin Krisko & The Broadcast (Asheville, N.C. – rock); Arkansauce (progressive bluegrass from northwest Arkansas); Sneezy (high-energy party music from Chicago, Ill.); Sticks N Thorns (bluegrass duo featuring Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon and Jon Stickley); Travis Book & Friends (Asheville, N.C., Americana/rock band led by The Infamous Stringdusters’ Travis Book); The Jared Stout Band (southern rock from the New River Valley of Virginia); T.C. Carter Band (blues from Martinsville, Va.); Lua Flora (Asheville, N.C. – beach folk); Big Fat Gap (Chapel Hill, N.C. – bluegrass); Jules & The Agreeables (Key West, Fla. – rock); DJ What (Martinsville, Va. – DJ); and Pirates of the Piedmont (Martinsville, Va. – pirate shanties).

Bands that had been previously announced to the RW14 lineup were: Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band

(Colorado supergroup featuring members of Greensky Bluegrass, Leftover Salmon, the Infamous Stringdusters, Jon Stickley Trio and more); Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country (Nashville, Tenn., jam twang); TAUK Moore (funk collaboration between Doom Flamingo’s Kanika Moore and TAUK);  Dogs in a Pile (a New Jersey-based funk/jazz/rock jamband); Yarn (NC/NY roots rockers who will once again perform an original set and a festival-finishing tribute set); The Mountain Grass Unit (up-and-coming bluegrass shredders from Alabama); Isaac Hadden Organ Trio (masterful musicianship from a North Carolina power trio); Sol Driven Train (upbeat, horn-driven rock’n’roll beach vibes from Charleston, SC); J & The Causeways (New Orleans-based soul powerhouse reminiscent of St. Paul & The Broken Bones); Colby T. Helms & The Virginia Creepers (bluegrass from nearby Franklin County, Va.); Clay Street Unit (Colorado-based honky tonk/roots rock); and Mighty Joshua (authentic reggae from central Virginia).

The final batch of RW14 band additions will be announced by February 2024.

Tickets for Rooster Walk 14 are now on sale at www.roosterwalk.com, which also features all the information needed to plan for an amazing experience. 

The festival will take place Thursday-Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in the rolling foothills surrounding Martinsville, Va. Rooster Walk is a 4-day festival celebrating music, art, and the great outdoors at the idyllic Pop’s Farm venue. With 40+ bands performing on 6 different stages, an amazing roster of stellar music steers the Rooster Walk experience. 

In addition to approximately 80 sets of live music, the family-friendly Rooster Walk will offer a wide variety of kids’ programming, family fun, craft beer, great food, arts and numerous opportunities to enjoy Virginia’s great outdoors with kayak river floats, pedal boats, bike rides, yoga, a disc golf course and beautiful on-site camping.

Rooster Walk has been named one of the Top 5 festivals in the state by the Richmond-Times Dispatch. It also was voted the region’s Most Creative Charitable Event by readers of Virginia Living Magazine for three consecutive years. The festival was created in memory of late Martinsville natives Edwin “The Rooster” Penn and Walker Shank, who graduated from Martinsville High School in 2000.

A portion of proceeds from the festival will be donated to local and regional charities, including Rooster Walk’s own Penn-Shank Memorial Endowment Scholarship Fund for students at Martinsville High School, and the Rooster Walk Music Instrument Program for public band programs in the local city and county school systems.

The festival is produced by Rooster Walk Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to promoting music, arts and education in its home of Martinsville-Henry County. Since 2009, Rooster Walk Inc. has donated more than $320,000 to local and regional charities.