Muddy Roots. Pt 1
For those who don’t know, Muddy Roots is a DIY punk, bluegrass, and arts festival at June Bug Ranch near Cookeville, TN. It is one of the largest independent festivals that I know of with dates in Tennessee, England, and Argentina. Many larger music festivals (Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Coachella, etc) will have multiple layers of financial backing from production companies like…well…Live Nation. Because Live Nation owns everything. Seriously. The biggest ticketing company in existence and biggest production company in existence joining forces? What could go wrong? The most recent chapter of the Live Nation - Ticketmaster anti-trust lawsuit unfolded when congressional members were mad that they couldn’t get Taylor Swift tickets, so there was a congressional hearing. For the Taylor Swift “Eras” Tour all tickets were purchased at the moment they went on sale by automated buyers (online digital bots). The folks that created the bots then sold them on 3rd party reseller sites for…5x the price at least? Nothing was done at the congressional hearing outside of posturing and now we get to see where all the additional fees go when buying tickets through the online Ticketmaster platform.
ANYWAY…
Muddy Roots is funded and organized by one guy and his wife - Milton and Delane. Because they don’t have to answer to investors or a bigger parent company, they call the shots on the musical and art vendor lineup. Credit to them - they take chances on smaller bands that they like. They take great pride in picking bands that fit the “Do It Yourself” aesthetic which really embodies the Muddy Roots culture. They have hosted our friends in The Weird Sisters multiple times as well as our friend Tommy who performs as “Satan” in The Pentagram String Band.
We originally reached out to the booking email for Muddy Roots in the winter 2024/early Spring of 2025. This was our 3rd year applying, so I didn’t get my hopes up when we didn’t hear anything for weeks after getting the automated “Thanks for Applying!” email.
While I had originally written us off, I figured that I’d give it one more try by asking around to see if there’s a different approach worth taking. For a band of our size, playing Muddy Roots is really a huge step in the right direction. Having Muddy Roots on a “band resume” is a massive accomplishment due to the reputation, popularity, and cult following that it has gained since its inception in .
In my attempt to use multiple avenues, I first messaged Eli, the entertainment promoter at Roasted Hemp Co in Cookeville, TN. We have a great relationship with them and had the pleasure of playing at Roasted with the legendary band Green Jello last October. We also had an upcoming show with them right around the corner for their annual 4/20 Fest. Roasted Hemp Co had a vendor tent at Muddy Roots ‘24, so I figured they might be able to vouch for us or give us more info on what they are looking for.
His response was honest and straightforward:
“No problem. I’ll definitely mention you guys if it comes up! Not sure you’re the right genre fit though.”
Fair enough. We aren’t bluegrass. We aren’t purely hardcore punk like a lot of bands that play.
I reached out to Tommy, from The Pentagram String Band, who had a supportive response as well.
“Yeah if anything comes up, I’ll let them know. Y'all would be great!”
A week or so goes by and Muddy Roots has announced about 2/3rds of their lineup. They dedicate an Instagram post to each band that they announce, and these posts were occurring daily. I figured that we were out of the race. On April 17th, I took a lunchtime walk around the neighborhood.I remember that day due to the fact that Titans was scheduled to play The Middle Tennessee Anime Convention the next day - the 18th. Right before leaving for my walk, I figured I’d give Muddy Roots one more try, so I messaged the page on Instagram.
These are the actual messages word-for-word:
“Hey yall, we are headlining 4/20 fest at Roasted Hemp Co on Sunday (Easter). We would love to see you there and meet you in person. Muddy Roots means a lot to this band, so we’d love for yall to see us play live.”
Shockingly, I got a response about 5 mins later:
“It’s Easter so don’t know if we can make it out, but thanks for the invite”
Makes sense. Can’t believe I actually got a response.
Me - “No problem at all! Gotta love when Easter falls on 4/20”
5 mins later…
Muddy Roots IG page: “Hey, This is Milt. throw me a text at…”
I immediately followed up via text, and just over ⅓ of the way into my walk, I started heading home with pace. I had a feeling that the next 30 mins would be very crucial for me and the band in general.
Following up to my text introducing myself to Milt, he responded with:
“Give me a call when you get a chance.”
…
Sprinting home now. In jeans and a hoodie. Getting odd looks from the dogs and their owners also on lunchtime walks.
Finally, when I got home, I hopped into my car in the driveway, connected my phone to bluetooth, and called Milt.
Turns out that they needed ONE LAST BAND to finalize the lineup. As I was messaging him on instagram his wife suggested, “Why not ask these guys?”
Yes. Really.
That’s how we were asked to play Muddy Roots 2025.
…
I got the rundown of the general festival schedule and what type of gear we will be able to use. To keep things moving smoothly, the festival provided amps and a drum kit. Guitarists should bring their pedal board. Drummers bring their snare drum and cymbals. Pretty standard. As we were wrapping up the call, we quickly discussed set times.
“So, we are gonna have you guys kick off the big stage at 11am on Saturday. Some bands get annoyed and want to play later, but if you want a good crowd - wake people up. Your job is to get people out of their tents and moving around. You do that? You’ll have an awesome crowd. We also need to get things moving on promo, so I’ll make your lineup announcement tomorrow on social media. Keep an eye out and share it when you see it.”
“No problem at all! I’d never complain about any set time. We’re just happy to be playing. We will be sure to get people up. Our guitarist has a manual airstrike siren that he’ll bring to kick off the set.”
“Awesome! And that’ll be Saturday, so the headliner that night we be…The Eagles of Death Metal”
…
I was vaguely familiar with The Eagles of Death Metal in my high school days. The band gained immense popularity due to the fact that their studio drummer is Josh Homme, the singer and lead guitarist for one of the most well known rock bands in the world - Queens of the Stone Age. I was a huge Queens fan in high school, so I was familiar with the bigger songs that Eagles of Death Metal had released circa 2012. Eagles of Death Metal had also supported Foo Fighters on a few of their tours, so that never slows momentum for a band.
I was attending St. Louis University back in 2015 as a student. That November, the USA men’s soccer team was hosting St Vincent and the Grenadines for a world cup qualifier in St. Louis at Busch Stadium (yes, they had a soccer match at a baseball stadium). I’m a huge soccer fan, and I had never seen team USA play at that point, so I was ecstatic heading downtown that afternoon to see the match. As soon as I got the the metro station, I distinctly remember an eerie feeling. Despite all of the excited energy from the likeminded crowd on the metro, I kept hearing murmurs of terrorist attacks abroad and something about Paris.
The day was 11/13/15. That was the day of the infamous ISIS Paris attacks. There were 3 simultaneous attacks throughout the city by Islamic extremists - the Paris soccer stadium (Stade de France) suicide bombing, a mass shooting in a shopping district including victims at multiple restauraunts, and finally a mass shooting at a concert taking place at the world-famous Bataclan theatre.
416 people were injured in the shootings. 137 people died. 90 people were killed at the concert happening at the Bataclan theatre alone.
Who was playing that night at the Bataclan? The Eagles of Death Metal.
Without being fully aware of the situation, I learned quickly that things were incredibly serious when the announcer at the soccer game requested a shared moment of silence at Busch Stadium after the National Anthems for the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks.
The Eagles of Death Metal obviously went on indefinite hiatus after that show. The fact that they are still around playing music and making records is an incredible story of resilience. Bands end for numerous reasons, but when compared to what The Eagles of Death Metal went through, their act of perseverance always acts as a personal reminder to me to keep going.
If interested in hearing the full story about that tragic night and the incredible acts of support, kindness, and recovery in the aftermath, there’s a documentary that’s worth watching. It’s called Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis. It covers the wacky beginnings of the band all of the way to the night at the Bataclan. Warning - they do describe the shooting in vivid detail, and it goes into intense descriptions about survivor’s guilt. No punches are pulled in this documentary. It gets extremely emotional. However, there is an incredibly happy ending that reminded me of the power of community and support. Again - music can unite us all. I may have gone through a whole box of kleenex watching the whole thing.
After wrapping the phone conversation with Milton, I was on cloud nine. I told my girlfriend, Casey, first.
“Have you told the band yet?” She asked.
“Nope.”
“When are you going to tell them?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m still processing it.”
After that I went into my home office/music room and started screaming into a pillow in sheer giddiness. I then had to go outside and pace back and forth in my driveway for 15 minutes to attempt to come down from the adrenaline high.
Once my heartrate had been reduced to non cardiac arrest levels, I pulled out my phone to text the members of the band the news.
…nevermind, I have a better idea.
…
As I mentioned previously, Titans was asked to play Muddy Roots the day before our show at MTAC (Middle Tennessee Anime Convention). The convention hosts “Punk Rock Power Hour” to kick off the festivities on the first day. Our bass player Vincent, our singer and guitarist Riley, and their better halves, Meg and Abi, enjoy cosplay (Google “cosplay” if you don’t know the meaning). They attend MTAC every year and rave about the event. We threw our names in the hat to play MTAC, and were one of the four bands selected!
You can get a glimpse of our set and costumes in a now-viral video of Vincent jumping off of the stage:
^ This video has more than 5 million views on Insatgram and more than 1 million on Youtube as of November 1st, 2025.
…
Our set got a lot of people into the banquet hall when we were playing, and we were complimented by LOTS random folks throughout the weekend about our show. It was pretty surreal.
On a shameless personal plug, I dressed up as Joker from the video game Persona 5 (not Batman) and was asked by numerous people to get a picture. It was one of my more proud recent memories because that was the first time I had done anything close to “cosplaying” at a convention. Obviously, I’ve worn Halloween costumes, but there’s a certain sanctity that has been built in the cosplaying community, so I was honored to be recognized for my efforts.
From left to right: Kirk (Joker - Persona 5) Riley (Riley - Pokemon Diamond) Julian (Nigel - The Wild Thornberrys) Vincent (Spiderbro - Spiderman: Across The Spiderverse)
Anyway, after our set at MTAC on that Friday afternoon, I got the chance to look at my phone. Sure enough, Titans of Siren had been tagged in an Instagram post. I opened our page to see the following photo:
Official lineup announcement for Muddy Roots 2025 ^
…
Everyone was still gathered in a circle in the banquet hall sharing funny anecdotes and crowd reactions from our set.
I clutched my phone in my palm face down and spoke up:
“HEY GUYS…on a serious note, something came up that I need to tell everyone about.”
Silence. Concerned looks.
I turned the phone around to show everyone the Instagram post.
“WE ARE PLAYING MUDDY ROOTS!!!”
Roars. Screaming. Laughter. Cheers. Jumping. Minor celebratory profanity.
…
A week and a half before playing Muddy Roots. We played a show at The Roxglass in Cave City with a band called The Murder Junkies. If you know of The Murder Junkies or G.G. Alin, then you don’t need a description of the infamy. There will be a separate blog post about that show.
At the end of that show, I was at the bar working on a beer and pulled out my phone.
Muddy Roots Set List:
-Dopamine
-Pretty Girls
-Nothing Wrong
-Satisfaction
-Martyr
-Confession
-Dunk
-Leech
-Wayne
After approval from all of the band members, we got to work in discussing how we are going to make this show as memorable as possible.
…
Muddy Roots takes place every year on Labor Day weekend. It’s great timing because the festival always runs from Thursday night through Sunday night. The incentive for staying until the very end would be that Monday (Labor Day) is a federal holiday that the majority of folks have off.
The band traveled separately to Muddy Roots due to work schedules on that Thursday, so we all arrived separately. When my girlfriend and I arrived, we were greeted at the registration tent in my Honda CRV.
I personally got filled with pride telling the volunteers that I was playing the festival. It was surprisingly emotional receiving my Muddy Roots “Artist” wristband due to the memories I had fromgoing to Lollapalooza in 2011. My brother, his friend Scott, and I got backstage “crew” wristbands through one of Scott’s work colleagues. From that moment, I always dreamed of having an “artist” wristband at a bigger festival one day. I still have my Muddy Roots “artist” wristband sitting here on my desk. I don’t think I’ll get rid of it anytime soon.
The official artist wristband of Muddy Roots 2025 ^
…
The sun was about to go down when we arrived at Muddy Roots, so we had to hustle to set up our tents and camp before having to rely on flashlights.
Vincent, Riley and their better halves, Meg and Abi, were already there. They had picked a secluded area at the top of a hill, which was perfect for being able to see the entire festival from above including the festival’s 3 stages - The L’il Tent, The Wood Stage, and The Big Tent.
Even being at our campsite off the beaten path, you could feel the energy radiating around the festival for the opening night. It’s the same adrenaline boost I remember getting when going to Lollapalooza the two years I’ve been there or going to any pro sporting event. You get a crowd that’s big enough, and the noise that it carries feels like a tidal wave. There’s an excitement and tangible energy that could be felt due to the anticipation of the crowd getting ready to see some of the most underrated live bands in the business. Audible roars, chants, screaming, and applause. It was incredible. My FOMO (fear of missing out) was hitting pretty hard when we arrived and had to set up camp, but we luckily didn’t miss much that first night.
We waited for our drummer, Julian, to arrive shortly after and helped him get his things in order.
Once camp was good to go, we had the privilege of going to see some bands play.
It’s important to note here that while Muddy Roots has 2 bars on site, it is encouraged to BYOB. Using the homemade military vests we brought to wear during our set, we could all successfully carry 3-4 drinks each before having to replenish our mobile stock of alcohol and THC seltzers.
Our first stop was The Wood Stage. My girlfriend, Casey, Julian, and I had arrived just in time to catch the majority of The Pentagram String Band’s set with the rest of our group.
As mentioned before, we are good friends with a member of the band, Tommy. Tommy has become famous around Muddy Roots for playing the character of Satan when he joins the Pentagram String Band on stage at the Cookeville festival. He literally dresses up like Satan, and he tears bibles on stage and throws them into the crowd for folks to continue to deface. He will also burn some on stage to much of the delight of the crowd.
Ok, before we go down the rabbithole of claiming that we are satanists, or we are surrounded by satanists, or the festival is supporting satan - that’s not the case. It’s performance art. Similar to KISS, Ghost, or any performer pretty much ever.
“I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” - Johnny Cash (didn’t actually murder anyone).
If you ever see Tommy perform live as a solo act, he puts a lot of emphasis on why he does what he does.
It basically has to do with religious trauma. His entended family has a haunting history of suicide. They are from a very Christian part of middle Tennessee, so the idea of faith freeing anyone from their demons isn’t one that he puts much weight in.
Pretty much every folk/blues artist has a dark side when discussing the weight of being a troubadour in a world increasingly void of compassion and empathy.
Anyway, The Pentagram String band was INCREDIBLE! I personally have never been much of a folk/bluegrass fan, so I didn’t expect to scream “that woman is SHEDDING on the washboard!!!” It was incredible seeing a bluegrass band match the intensity of an extremely heavy metal or punk band. The crowd was loving every second of it, and the night 1 crowd of Muddy Roots was absolutely electric. At one point, there was an open fire in the middle of the crowd composed of Bibles that I assume a crowdmember had started. Before you know it, there was a circle pit of 50 people or so dancing and circling the fire.
“Be careful dancing around the fire!” said the washboard player, Nicole, between songs. “Remember what happened last year!”
I immediately started laughing and looked at my Casey, “What the hell could have happened last year??”
^ video courtesy of Lydia Violet. You can see Vincent in the circle pit shirtless with a bandana on his head.
…
Between sets, we got to head backstage and say hi to Tommy. With the staggered lineup at Muddy Roots, we then grabbed pizza for dinner and migrated to the L’il Tent to see the band Pat and the Pissers.
They were a stark contrast to The Pentagram String Band, but they were just as good. It was a heavy metal/hardcore punk show, and the crowd absolutely loved it.
Tired from the workday, travel, and anticipation of the next day, we decided to call it a night about half way through the Pat and The Pissers set and head back to the tent.
We did make a point of stopping by The Big Tent before heading back to camp. The production crew was busy setting up the backline instruments and lighting rigs. It was crazy to think that we were going to be the first band getting to play it at the festival.
The rest of the night was composed of the entire group hanging out at our camp, having drinks and coming down from the adrenaline high of night 1 from Muddy Roots. The next day, we were going to play one of the biggest shows of our lives, and we needed to get some sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED…
