16 bands will be featured in two-day AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival

Editor's note: Due to a work visa delay, The Hypochondriacs will not perform at the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival Saturday at Peoples Natural Gas Park in downtown Johnstown. Cool Cool Cool will perform in place of The Hypochondriacs.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A rocking good time awaits people who attend the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival.

The festival, which will be held Friday and Saturday at Peoples Natural Gas Park, 90 Johns St., downtown Johnstown, will feature 16 bands, including headliners Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew: Remain in Light and Andy Frasco & The U.N.

“This is a pretty diverse lineup, and it speaks to a lot of music festival fans,” said Ron Carnevali, festival co-chairman.

“A lot of these bands are very popular on the festival circuit, and it’s a lineup that has a lot of appeal to the regional music audience. I think the proof is in the pudding because our advance ticket sales are at the highest level they’ve ever been.”

? Andy Frasco & The U.N. will headline the Friday lineup.

The band has long been DIY renegades of the touring scene, known and loved for its kaleidoscopic musical fusion and one-of-a-kind onstage audacity. The band performed at the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival in 2018.

“Andy Frasco is a spectacle and an unbelievable performer,” Carnevali said. “There are typically some antics involved in his shows, and oftentimes you’ll see him crowd-surfing all the way to the back of a packed festival venue. He’s also very collaborative, and I’m sure we’re going to see some of the other Friday performers making appearances during Andy’s set.”

? On Saturday, Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew: Remain in Light will be the headliner.

Harrison is the keyboardist and guitar player for Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame and the 2021 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Grammy. He has multiple critically acclaimed solo albums, including “Casual Gods.”

Belew was the longtime lead singer and guitarist for progressive rock giants King Crimson. He has also recorded with, performed alongside and toured with David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, Paul Simon and Cyndi Lauper.

Harrison and Belew, with their all-star backing band, bring powerhouse renditions of Talking Heads classics such as “Once In A Lifetime,” “Psycho Killer” and “Take Me To The River” and selections from their solo careers.

“It’s a Talking Heads tribute show in some ways, but what’s really cool to us is the backup band is Cool Cool Cool, and the musicians have played at our festival a couple times before when they were in the group Turkuaz, so we’re excited about having them back,” Carnevali said.

“This is a big show and a big band with lots of horns. It’s going to be a real sight to see. People are going to love it with these two legends, and I think it’s a can’t-miss.”

An additional 14 acts will perform during the two-day festival.

? Melvin Seals & JGB with special guest Ron Holloway are returning to the park after a show last summer for Highlands Health clinic. A pioneer in jam-band music, Seals has been a powerful presence in the music industry for more than 30 years with a long-established reputation as a performer, recording artist and producer. Seals is most revered for his powerful, high-spirited Hammond B-3 organ, and keyboards in the Jerry Garcia Band. The band will be joined by Holloway on saxophone.

“Melvin Seals is best-known for being in the Jerry Garcia Band, and there’s a lot of Grateful Dead influence in what he does,” Carnevali said. “He’s a tremendous keyboard player. We had his band here last summer for the Highland Health benefit show, and it was off the hook, so we’re excited to have them on the bill this year.”

? Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country is incubated in the sounds of the Grateful Dead, educated by some of Nashville’s finest players. Donato has more than 2,000 shows under his belt and a social media presence. Donato is a millennial whirligig of creative fire. He played the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival 2023 with the supergroup Trouble No More.

“This guy is on the rise and taking the world by storm,” Carnevali said. “He’s a magnificent guitar player and great singer, and what he’s done is taken a country influence and put into a context where it’s almost like jam country. I think he’ll be one of those guys we’ll be bragging about the fact that we had him at our festival.”

? Boston-based band Couch infuses pop with funk, rock and rhythm and blues/soul.

The band’s vibrant sound is further defined by the members’ backgrounds in jazz, a cappella and musical theater. The band injects each project with their signature flavor of expressive horns, warm vocals and bubbling synths – crafting an oasis of joy for musicians and nonmusicians.

“They have jazz influences with pop, funk and rock all blended together,” Carnevali said. “These are really well-trained musicians, and they’re a very popular band on the festival market right now.”

? Maggie Rose has been hailed for her passionate individualism, proudly infusing her music with influences spanning rock, soul, Americana, folk and funk. She has shared the stage with an array of artists, including Kelly Clarkson, The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Heart, Joan Jett, Eric Church, Gov’t Mule, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, The Mavericks, Fitz & The Tantrums and The Revivalists.

“She might be the best thing about this year’s festival,” Carnevali said. “Not only is she going to play her own set, but will be our artist-at-large on Friday and sit in with Daniel Donato, Andy Frasco and likely Organ Fairchild. Maggie is riding the crest of an incredible wave that came from the release of her last album, and she’s been playing some national TV gigs.”

? Runaway Gin: A Tribute to Phish is the world’s most notable Phish tribute project. The band never plays the same show or jam the same way twice, making every show a unique experience and every moment pure artistic creation. The band made numerous festival appearances, and has headlined top national venues such as the Norva, the National, Jannus Live and the Georgia Theater.

“They’re a Phish tribute band and very popular in the festival circuit,” Carnevali said. “They’ll do a great service to jam music fans because they’re very accomplished and talented.”

? The Hypochondriacs are a six-piece band hailing from New Brunswick, Canada, known for their genre-defying fusion of country, rockabilly and unadulterated rock ’n’ roll. The band is making waves throughout North America with its electrifying live performances, leaving an indelible imprint on audiences, including at last summer’s Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Free Concert Series at Peoples Natural Gas Park.

“We had them here last summer and they put on a great show for us, so we’re really happy to have them come back,” Carnevali said. “They’re a combination of different genres. One woman in the band plays trombone and another plays saxophone, and they both do vocals, and it makes for a really cool sound.”

? Jam scene mainstays Joe Bellanti, Corey Kertzie and Dave Ruch met in 1983 and now tour as instrumental organ trio/funky jam band Organ Fairchild. The veteran musicians have played music with Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, Robbie Krieger, Nels Cline, Tony Rice, moe., Oteil Burbridge, Steve Kimock and Keller Williams.

“They’re our late-night show on Friday, and they promised us it’s going to be a rager,” Carnevali said. “They’re a keyboard-based band, and I think they’re really going to rock it out for us.”

? Hailing from West Virginia, The Hillbilly Biscuits have been making and performing their own brand of old-time bluegrass and original mountain music for more than two decades.

Formed in 2001 from a chance meeting at an old-time jam in Morgantown, West Virginia, The Hillbilly Biscuits have been pickin’ and grinnin’ and entertaining loyal fans ever since.

“They play a modern version of bluegrass that some people call jamgrass,” Carnevali said. “It’s something over the years that we found to be very popular with our audiences, and these guys are great purveyors of that sound. They’ll bring some banjo, fiddle and standup bass to our festival.”

? Billy the Kid and the Regulators are a high-powered, guitar-driven rhythm and blues band based in Pittsburgh. Lead singer Billy Evanochko is known for his lyrics, seductive vocals and stinging guitar riffs. Together with his band, the musicians deliver a well-balanced dose of funky rhythm and blues, with heart and soul being the main ingredient, playing countless clubs and festivals throughout the country.

“They’re a guitar blues band, and it’s funky with a lot of heart and soul,” Carnevali said. “There’s a core group of folks who come to our festival every year who are blues fans, and we booked the band on their strong recommendation. They were blown away from them and wanted to see them on our bill.”

? Endless Mike and the Beagle Club is best described as a “singer-songwriter with a very loud punk rock band.”

First formed in Johnstown around 2004, the Beagle Club has been writing, recording and touring off-and-on ever since. The band played at the festival in 2009.

“Their sound is very progressive and interesting,” Carnevali said. “They have a pretty good following locally, even though they sporadically play together. It’s great to have them come back together to play our show, and they’re one of the best local bands to come out of Johnstown in a longtime.”

? Stevee Wellons and Cheryl Rinovato, the two principals in the blues duo known as Soulful Femme, are more than a dynamic singing duo. They are seasoned performers in their own right, each possessing vast experience in the music business who happened to join forces and find an ideal chemistry. The duo will play a full-band set at the festival.

“Stevee is a really accomplished blues and soul singer in Pittsburgh, and Cheryl is a guitar player who went to the Berklee School of Music,” Carnevali said.

“They’re going to present a show that’s going to be guitar-and-vocal forward.

“It’ll be soulful and bluesy with some rock elements to it.”

? Hailing from Johnstown, Smooth Sound Band was formed in 2009 to perform fundraising events for Flood City Youth Fitness Academy. The band plays jazz, rhythm and blues and classic rock, and has built a large fan base of all ages.

“They’re going to bring their own brand of soul, jazz and rhythm and blues to the festival,” Carnevali said.

“We’re happy to have them represent Johnstown, and they’re some great musicians.”

? Although some carefully chosen covers are included in the Whiskey River Panhandlers’ sets, most of them are original songs whose taproots run deep, evoking a simpler time when pretty much all music was acoustic and live. Founded in 2008, the Panhandlers are comprised of some of Johnstown’s most seasoned musicians. The band last played the festival in 2016.

“They are comprised of some guys who are really well-known in the area for not only Whiskey River Panhandlers, but other projects they’re involved in,” Carnevali said.

“They have a nice, rootsy Americana sound, and we know we’re going to get a quality show from these guys because we always do.”

? Hailing from the New Jersey shore, The Salt Brothers are multi-instrumentalists, entertaining at all the major venues there.

“They do a lot of covers, so a lot of the stuff they play will be familiar to our audience,” Carnevali said. “We’re looking forward to hearing these guys, and they’ll bring some variety to the bill with what they play.”

General admission tickets for the festival are $45 for Friday and $55 for July 27. A two-day pass is available for $65. A two-day VIP pass is available for $90 and includes access to the VIP Lounge and the site’s full bar and indoor restrooms, as well as a special viewing area at the main stage.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.floodcitymusic.com. Passes are also available at the Heritage Discovery Center.