Percussionist Nail, bassist Steve Washburn, drummer Eric Groves, guitarist Mike Hulsey and rapper Aaron “I-Ron” Berger– didn’t miss a step after the break up of Jah Roots in 2009. They have been writing and rehearsing with their new group, featuring Shawn Eckels (Speakeasy) and rapper, Sincerely Yours. They are reinvigorated and excited to come back to the Cannabis Revival for the 4th time to debut new songs and revisit Jah Roots classics for a memorable set.

Formed in Kansas City in late 2008 by guitarist Jeremy Anderson, bassist Zach Rizer and drummer Stephen Gunn, Mouth plays original dance/funk music that incorporates a wide variety of influences: the harmonies of jazz, the improvisational approach of jam bands, and the irresistible dance rhythms of electronica, hip hop and reggae.

Having quickly established a name for themselves in their hometown with their exhilarating live shows, Mouth is now branching out, with tour dates and festival performances throughout the Midwest.

Released in October of 2009, Mouth’s debut album, “Word of Mouth, Volume 1″, includes 11 live recordings made between January and April of 2009 at venues around Kansas City and Lawrence, Kansas. Tracks from “Word of Mouth, Volume 1″ are regularly played on Kansas City’s community radio station 90.1 KKFI.

The Floozies are the live beat production duo of brothers Matt and Mark Hill from Lawrence, KS. Together, these two skilled musicians compose and produce groove-driven musical landscapes that are as dynamic, beautiful, and lush as they are funky, fly, and dance-party inducing. And they do it all on stage, on the fly, via live looping and modern production techniques. Hundreds of shows, some of them alongside their musical heroes, have propelled the duo into 2011 with tour dates at venues and festivals all over the country and a musical vision that is stronger than ever.

The Ben Miller Band is made up of three very different musicians. Ben Miller(slide guitar, lead vocals) began his musical career on the streets of northern europe playing his distinctive delta-blues slide guitar for passers-by. He built an impressive collection of folk songs and original material as well as honing his distinctive performance style. Combine that with the home grown musical mad scientist Scott Leeper(washtub bass, backing vocals). He began his musical career at the age of ten, wowing audiences playing pop music in his family’s band “The Leepers”. Later he toured with delta-blues hero Lightnin’ Boy Malcom, and also made a name for himself as a truly astounding one man band. To complete this trio of musicians comes Doug “Cap’t Washboard” Dicharry(washboard, drums, trombone, backing vocals). As a air force brat growing up he assimilated an array of musical styles and attidudes. Moving every 4 years throughout the globe his one constant was music, from playing with punk, ska, and progressive noise bands to school marching bands. The three met in Joplin Missouri at open mic nights that Ben was running. The three naturally gravitated towards each other feeding off of their shared interests as well as their different influences. They have been relentlessly gigging 5 nights a week for over 3 years crafting a tight, dynamic yet amazingly original sound.

Over the past year, Denton-based band Fatty Lumpkin has quickly climbed the ranks in the DFW music scene by sharing bills with notable artists like The Skatalites, EOTO and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk.
Drawing their musical influences from a multitude of genres such as funk, blues, rock, jazz and hip-hop, the young trio has crafted a sound that is gaining notice by enthusiastic audiences throughout the midwest.

Fatty Lumpkin consists of talented and accomplished musicians Kelyn Crapp (guitar), Seth Myers (bass/vocals) and Matt Dixon (drums/percussion), who met while attending high school in Grapevine, Texas.

Soon after, the group relocated to Denton while Kelyn and Matt studied music at the University of North Texas and Seth pursued a sound engineering degree at the Dallas Sound Lab.

Upon graduation, the band started production on their first album and began touring regionally to create awareness of the music with their soulful and energizing performance style.

Recently, Fatty released their full length, self-titled LP, “Fatty Lumpkin”, which is available on iTunes and CD baby. 3 of the songs from the album will be featured in the upcoming film “Forgetting The Girl”

Over the years Fatty Lumpkin has played multiple festivals across the country including Wakarusa (2008, 2010), Big and Hearty Festival, River Jam, Deep Elm Arts Festival, Denton Harvest Festival, and more…

The WRECKARDS dropped in the fall of 2010 after living in the same Hollywood apartment building for the previous two years. Frontman, Joel Eckels and bassist/apartment manager, Babyhead parted ways with their old drummer and neighbor in 2009 to discover that the drummer down the hall, Tamir Barzilay, would be the perfect replacement and missing link to the band’s sound and personality.

The first rehearsals with the new group began at Bill Withers house in the Hollywood Hills. Eckels had become friends with the legendary singer/songwriter when he began playing guitar for Withers’ daughter Kori. Bill Withers expressed an interest in Eckels songs and agreed to work with the band as a mentor in late 2009.

The band spent the next year writing, arranging and recording material for an EP and full length album.

Now, after a lengthy search for a band name and the completion of their debut album, THE WRECKARDS are here!!

In 2011, the WRECKARDS will be busy making their presence known. Expect the debut album this Spring and look for tour dates in the southwest, northwest and midwest regions. You will also be able to catch them as the backing band for KORI WITHERS throughout the year. Stay tuned…

The Blue Martian Tribe, or BMT as they’ve become known, is blazing a path to the forefront of the midwest’s jam music scene. Blending many styles of not only the jam scene, but music in general. BMT has developed a sound and style that while influenced by many others, has become all their own. Dancing electronic grooves, trancy rock and roll, funky beats, and just about everything in between have had audiences all across the midwest moving to BMT’s hypnotic sounds. Delivering heartfelt, soulful, performances with ever-changing setlists and cover tunes have kept lots of loyal fans coming back for more, while gaining new ones by the day. Since winning the 2008 10,000Lakes Festival Cosmic Break Contest the band has performed at music festivals such as 10klf, Wakarusa, Festy fest, Love Fest in the Mid west, Mokan Music Festival, HLN6, Gaea Retreat, Spring For Green and many others. BMT has also shared the stage in support of National and Regional touring acts such as Wookiefoot, EOTO, Family Groove Company, Tea Leaf Green, Toubab Krewe, Heatbox, Cornmeal, That One Guy, YAMN, The Station, Jah Roots, Somasphere, The Kris Lager Band, and many, many more. They are veterans of nearly 150 shows in venues all across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado, and Arkansas. The Blue Martian Tribe is a fresh, inspired take on a familiar sound with innovative complex songwriting, and highly danceable beats.

The Bootheel is loud. The Bootheel is from Missouri. The Bootheel likes classic rock radio stations, barbecues, bulldogs, and fishing trips.

The Bootheel plays regionally and nationally. To contact about booking, hit them up here: missouribootheel@gmail.com

Great duet of original musicians from SWMO…don’t miss this set.

Jonathan Balfour-Piano/Singer/Songwriter
Zach Waggoner-Drums/Beats

At a Frogs Gone Fishin’ show, fans are treated to heavy-hitting rock with the Frog’s signature improvisational twist. In an age of auto-tuned vocals and laptop superstars, it’s great to find a band who relies on harmonies, strong melody, and dynamic rhythms to keep their fans coming back. On any given night, the Frogs cut across genres and material from their two albums and never, ever, play the same set-list twice. This diversity in song choice and explosive improvisational energy has earned the band enthusiastic and devoted fans from places as far apart as Denver and New Orleans, Chicago and Austin, New York and San Francisco.

In 2009, Frogs Gone Fishin’ signed with Colorado-based Mountain Size Records and went into the studio to record Actual Natural, produced and engineered by Brad Smalling. Tracking was completed at Evergroove Studio, a solar-powered studio in the mountains near Evergreen, CO. The album was mastered by Grammy Award-winning producer David Glasser and in 2010, “Actual Natural” was released for the world’s listening pleasure.

Frogs have been playing festivals and writing new music this summer and are excited to tour during the fall and winter months. Playing over 160 shows every year, the Frogs are coming to a town near you soon. A crowd of FGF fans is as diverse as the set list, where hippies and hipsters, heads and first-timers groove together in one sweaty dance party.

“Radical” Russ Belville is the Outreach Coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He is the host of NORML SHOW LIVE, the organization’s daily one-hour talk radio program at http://live.norml.org and blogs at http://stash.norml.org. He was also the winner of The Search for the Next Great Progressive Talk Radio Star, a guest host on The Bill Press Show, and hosted his own political talk radio show, The Russ Belville Show for two years on XM Satellite.

Amber Langston is a Missouri native and outspoken advocate for social, economic and environmental justice. Ms. Langston served as the campaign manager for Columbia’s two successful municipal cannabis initiatives in 2004 while studying rural sociology at the University of Missouri. Amber has served as an outreach director and international liaison for Students for Sensible Drug Policy in Washington, DC, as field support for Americans for Safe Access in Oakland, CA, and as media liaison for California’s Proposition 19 to tax and regulate cannabis in November 2010. She now serves as Campaign Director for Show-Me Cannabis Regulation, a campaign to regulate cannabis like alcohol in Missouri in 2012. (http://show-mecannabis.com)

Doug Burlison was elected as an at-large Councilman in April 2007 and again in 2011. He currently serves as Chair of the Plans and Policies Committee and is a member of the Finance and Administration Committee.

Doug is also a staunch advocate for the reform of our marijuana laws and has been outspoken on this issue by pushing to have a community discussion in Springfield over the failures of marijuana prohibition, the medical benefits of cannabis, and alternatives to incarceration.

Doug studied Public Administration, Economics, and Environmental Sciences at SMSU from 1989-1992. Doug has served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He was honorably discharged as a Sergeant. Doug also volunteered as a Firefighter/EMT for the Battlefield Fire Protection District. Additionally, he attends many community events and meetings as a member of the City Council. Doug was the original Chief Petitioner seeking the first State Audit for the City of Springfield.

Eapen Thampy is a policy analyst with Americans for Forfeiture Reform, a non-profit research organization that works on America’s state and federal civil asset forfeiture laws. He hopes to expose these laws a s a cornerstone of our nation’s failed drug policy. Eapen did his undergraduate coursework at the University of Missouri-Columbia in economics, mathematics, and statistics, and represented Missouri at the national finals of the National Geography Bee twice as a middle-schooler.

Mr. Dan Viets is an attorney in private practice in Columbia, MO, specializing the defense of marijuana cases. He has served for many years as the Missouri State Coordinator for NORML. He is a former president of the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, former chair of the board of the Mid-Missouri ACLU, former president of the University of Missouri student body and former chair of the City of Columbia Human Rights Commission.

Mr. Viets was the recipient of the 1993 Martin Luther King Association’s “Keeping the Dream Alive” award and the 1995 Mid-Missouri “Civil Libertarian of the Year.” Dan was named High Times Freedom Fighter of the Month in March, 2005 for his work helping to pass both a marijuana decriminalization initiative and a medical marijuana initiative in the November, 2004 election in Columbia. He received the 2005 Atticus Finch Outstanding Criminal Defense Lawyer award from the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In January, 2006 he received the Trailblazer award from the Mid-Missouri NAACP. Dan Hosts a weekly radio program on a community station affiliated with National Public Radio. The program is called “Sex, Drugs and Civil Liberties”.

Ryan is the founder of the University of AR NORML chapter in Fayetteville, AR. In 2006 he spearheaded a campaign in Eureka Springs to make marijuana possession the lowest priority for arrest. To many people’s surprise it was adopted. So Ryan decided to try the same thing in Fayetteville, and through the same careful and strategic planning, in 2008 it was successful again. Both measures were passed with 60+% of the vote, ushering in fresh momentum in this area of the country for marijuana reform. Now Ryan is the Campaign Director for Arkansans for Compassionate Care and is focusing on their state’s largest reform effort yet, a statewide campaign to legalize medical marijuana on the 2012 ballot.

Mark Pedersen is the Founder of Cannabis Patient Network, a non-profit media organization and Sensible Missouri, a statewide patient advocacy organization. Mark is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Cannabis Journal and on the Advisory Board for Patients Out of Time.

Mitch Richards is 29 years old and has been a speaker and organizer for the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) since early 2010.

When he is not reaching out to folks about their rights and duties as sovereign jurors, Mitch is an all-around liberty activist. In March and April 2010, he helped form a broad coalition of activist groups which opposed a municipal ballot initiative to install surveillance cameras in the downtown of Columbia, MO. Since April 2010, he has been a co-host of the ‘Mid-MO Freedom Forum,’ a weekly radio show on Columbia’s KOPN 89.5 FM which focuses on civil and constitutional liberties issues from a mainly natural rights-libertarian perspective. In May 2010, he and others formed ‘Keep Columbia Free,’ a political action committee dedicated to opposing the installation and deployment of surveillance technologies and the militarization of the police. He has served intermittently as the PAC’s treasurer. In April 2011, Mitch ran for Columbia’s First Ward City Council seat and received 23% of the vote. Currently, he is involved in promoting a ballot initiative to enact a city-wide ban on red-light cameras in Columbia, MO, where he resides.