Get Off the Couch: LaFayette, East Ridge set 4th festivals

BARRY COURTER: Lisa, you might think that Riverbend ending would signal a slowdown in events, but really it's more like the beginning. There are still plenty of things coming up this summer, and then we head into the fall festival season.

Not that you would doubt my word, but as proof I offer LibertyFest at Camp Jordan on Saturday. The one-day event offers everything from dance troupes to barbecue to a musical lineup featuring some of our best local players and singers.

LISA DENTON: Doubt your word? Pshaw. Your word is as reliable as mine. Oh, wait ...

LibertyFest, which is brand new, should be a fun time. I know that Cody McCarver is headlining. Did I tell you about the time I saw him in the audience at an Exile show at The Lower Level? Even though he wasn't onstage, you could tell he was somebody. I think part of his star power comes from the fact that his blond hair glistens even in the dark.

A lot has been happening career-wise for him, so this will be a good opportunity for the local folks to hear what he's been working on.

BARRY: I wonder if he'd share some product tips. You and I both know one of the fun parts of this job is following guys like Cody. In addition to being follicly blessed, he's talented and a nice guy, and his star continues to soar. In just the next several weeks, he will release a new album, and the movie "Cole Younger and the Black Train," in which he plays the lead, will be released on DVD. He also has a song or two in a movie about dirt-track racing in the works, and he will appear in it as well.

He also does a lot of charity work, and usually he's the one making the initial phone call to see how he can help. He's the pride of Dunlap, Tenn.

LISA: One of his former Confederate Railroad cohorts, Chris McDaniel, is also performing, along with Roger Alan Wade, Davey Smith, Nathan Farrow, The Stratoblasters and JoyScout. So that's a full day of music, capped off by fireworks.

BARRY: Strong as new rope -- and for only 10 bucks a carload.

LISA: If you want to start your Independence Day celebrations even earlier, you can head to LaFayette, Ga., on Friday for the Freedom Festival at Municipal Park. The headliner there is Johnny Cash Now, a Georgia band that re-creates the vintage feel of Cash and the Tennessee Three as if they were part of the old "Johnny Cash Show" when it was filmed for television at the Ryman Auditorium. I'd love to hear "Luther Played the Boogie" from a guy actually playing like Luther Perkins.

BARRY: Luther did indeed play the boogie-woogie. Dang, thanks for bringing that up. I'm going to have to track it down on the computer and listen to it, so if you see my cubicle a rockin', don't come a knockin'.

LISA: Like Luther's boogie-woogie, I've seen that cubicle rockin' in the strangest kind of ways, so nothing happening over the wall surprises me much anymore. Unless you try to dance. That I might get up to watch.

Get event details every Friday in Current or at current.timesfreepress.com.

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