River City Roots Festival Lineup Set

By Matthew Frank, 5-13-08

The Emmitt-Nershi Band and The Clumsy Lovers will headline this summer’s River City Roots Festival in Missoula, its organizers and sponsors announced Tuesday.

The free downtown festival, in its third year, will take place Saturday and Sunday, August 23-24, the weekend before fall classes begin at the University of Montana. Linda McCarthy, director of the Missoula Downtown Association, called the festival “Missoula’s signature event.”

This year’s schedule will include a juried art show, a four-mile run, a children’s fun fest and tons of music. Here’s the lineup for Music on Main:

Saturday, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

• Tom Catmull and the Clerics (Missoula)
• Mike Bader Blues Band (Missoula)
• Reverend Slanky (Missoula)
• South Austin Jug Band (Austin, Texas)
• Great American Taxi (Nederland, Colorado)
• Emmitt-Nershi Band (of String Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon fame)(Colorado and Tennessee)

Sunday, beginning at 11:15 a.m.

• David Boone (Missoula)
• Broken Valley Road Show (Missoula)
• Wylie and the Wild West (Washington)
• Martha Scanlan (Johnson City, Tennessee)
• The Clumsy Lovers (British Columbia)

“The reason we hatched this festival is to celebrate the depth of culture we have in Missoula,” said Ellen Buchanan, co-chair of the festival and director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency. “We think it’s going to be another fun year.”

For more information, visit www.rivercityrootsfestival.com.