The North Mississippi Allstars will headline Federales Fest, a new fall music festival taking place Saturday at Live Oak Arabians Horse Farm at Cedar Lodge, 6300 Jefferson Highway, Baton Rouge.
The six-band lineup offers Americana, rock and country music.
Texas Gentlemen
The festival also includes national acts Duane Betts & Palmetto Hotel and the Texas Gentlemen as well as the Baton Rouge bands Elsah, Hitchhiker and, performing only their fourth reunion show since 1994, Thoughts of Mary.
Festival organizers will cap ticket sales at 1,000. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the music begins with Thoughts of Mary at 2 p.m.
J. Hover and Chris Brooks, two veterans of the local music scene, are co-producing Federales Fest. Hover is music promoter at Beauvoir Park and director of entertainment for Red Stick Social. Brooks’ credits include the Baton Rouge Blues Festival and Bandito Fest.
“Baton Rouge needs events of the caliber Federales Fest hopes to be,” Hover said. “It’s kind of the second rendition of the Bandito Fest that took place downtown, but we’ve got a great new host venue.”
Rain or shine, bands will perform on a stage in the site’s covered horse arena. There’s no general admission seating, but festgoers may bring folding chairs. On-site parking is available.
Hover anticipates Federales Fest will be an annual event.
“We hope to build it into something bigger next year, maybe a two-day event,” he said.
In addition to music, the festival features cuisine from a variety of local restaurants. General admission is $75. VIP admission is $200, offering a reserved section featuring food and drink. Children under 12 are admitted free, excluding VIP. A portion of the festival proceeds will benefit Behind the Line Baton Rouge, a nonprofit that supports first responders and their families.
Federales Fest’s draws include a reunion by Thoughts of Mary, a twangy, popular Baton Rouge indie-rock band from the early 1990s. All five original members — Marc Daigle, guitar and vocals; Gabe Daigle, vocals; Bill Rhodes, guitar and vocals; Joel Dicharry, bass; and Keith Simoneaux, drums — will perform.
North Mississippi Allstars
Thoughts of Mary was part of a lively musical era in Louisiana that included Better than Ezra, Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock and the Bluerunners. The band’s Federales Fest appearance follows the 2021 re-release of Thoughts of Mary’s remixed and remastered 1993 album, “Paper, Rock, Scissors.”
Wendell Tilley, the original producer of “Paper, Rock, Scissors,” remixed the album at his studio in Nashville for its digital-only re-release. Tilley’s former band, Func Haus, was another of Thoughts of Mary’s contemporaries in Baton Rouge.
“During the pandemic,” Marc Daigle said, “Wendell reached out to us on Facebook. He said, ‘Hey, would you guys be interested in having me remix the record?’ We said, ‘That sounds fantastic. We were all about it.’ ”
“It was a Saturday night at my house,” Tilley said of his inspiration for doing the remix, “and my wife played the Thoughts of Mary record from their YouTube channel. She was a fan.”
Thoughts of Mary recorded “Paper, Rock, Scissors” at the late Harold Cowart’s Bluff Road Recording Studio. Tilley subsequently tweaked the recording at Nelson Blanchard’s Techno Sound Studio in Baton Rouge. Because of the decades of studio experience Tilley gained since he first worked with “Paper, Rock, Scissors,” as well as advances in recording technology, he was sure he could improve the Thoughts of Mary album. Luckily, Blanchard had stored the album’s original two-inch tapes at his home.
“Wendell didn’t add anything or change anything,” Marc Daigle said of Tilley’s remix. “But he enhanced the drums and bass, making them fuller sounding. If you listen to the original and to the new one, it’s not a subtle change. It’s now a much more natural, punchy record.”
Thoughts of Mary also released two previously unissued songs from the “Paper, Rock, Scissors” sessions.
“Marc and I laugh about that,” said Gabe Daigle, who’s no relation to his bandmate, Marc Daigle. “When we released the album, we thought those two songs shouldn’t make the cut. Now, looking back, we think they’re better than a lot of what we released. It just goes to show that time tells different stories.”