Eminem, left, and Dr. Dre perform at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A reunited Buffalo Springfield will play its only festival date this year at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, joining Eminem, Arcade Fire, Widespread Panic, Lil Wayne, The Black Keys and Robert Plant in celebrating 10 years down on the farm.
Bonnaroo will be held June 9-12 in Manchester, Tenn., on the 700-acre farm it has called home since its debut in 2002, featuring four dozen jam band-leaning acts.
To celebrate the anniversary, Dr. John and The Original Meters will make a rare joint appearance to recreate their 1974 album "Desitively Bonnaroo," the source of the festival's name. Bonnaroo shed the jam band label early on and has become one of the most eclectic summertime gatherings of its kind, drawing tens of thousands of revelers each year to rural central Tennessee.
This year's lineup is no different, veering wildly across genres. Eminem and Lil Wayne are two of today's top rap acts, Arcade Fire and The Black Keys led an alternative rock surge at Sunday's Grammy Awards, and Widespread Panic's Sunday headlining slot is a nod to that first lineup 10 years ago.
Throw in Loretta Lynn, The Strokes, Big Boi, Gregg Allman, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Florence + The Machine, String Cheese Incident and Mavis Staples, and the festival becomes a grab bag of styles.
Original Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay played in public for the first time since 1968 last October at Young's annual Bridge School charity concert. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were a short-lived act, but were among a handful of pioneers in the country- and folk-rock movements of the late 1960s.
They remain highly influential and there are several acts signed on to play the festival that are definitely under the influence of Buffalo Springfield, including Ray Lamontagne, My Morning Jacket, Mumford & Sons, The Decemberists and Ryan Bingham, among many others.