Mountain Jam Music Festival is celebrating its tenth year on June 5-8, 2014 at New York’s Hunter Mountain. Among the 40 artists playing across three stages are The Allman Brothers Band, Bob Weir and Ratdog, Pretty Lights, and Jeff Tweedy’s new group – with his son Spencer on drums, Jim Elkington on guitar, Darin Gray on bass, and Liam Cunningham on keyboards. This will be the first major appearance by Tweedy, and many fans’ first exposure to material from forthcoming album Sukierae. Expect to hear at least some of the 14 songs Tweedy live debuted at his tour kick-off in Detroit on June 5th: “Down From Above,” “Flowering,” “Summer Noon,” “World Away,” “New Moon,” “Where My Love,” “Slow Love,” “Nobody Dies,” “Honey Combed,” “Desert Bell,” “High As Hello,” “Wait For Love,” “Low Key” and “Diamond Light.” If that show is any indication of his Mountain Jam set, also expect Jeff to play solo acoustic versions of songs from across his repertoire (such as Uncle Tupelo’s “Acuff-Rose,” Loose Fur’s “The Ruling Class,” Mavis Staples’ “You Are Not Alone” and Wilco’s “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” or “Jesus, Etc.”).
Headliners The Allman Brothers Band on the other hand will bring a close to Mountain Jam on Sunday with one of the final performances of their legendary career. Scheduled to play their entire first two LPs – eponymous 1969 debut and 1970’s Idlewild South – this will no doubt be a memorable finale to the 10th anniversary of the fest, which is named after one of their songs after all. The Allman’s only remaining dates after this weekend are Scranton’s Peach Fest in August, Arrington’s Lockn’ Music Fest in September and a final run at Beacon Theatre in October.
Other performances to look-out for include Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl’s Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (touring behind their excellent new album Midnight Sun), acoustic/electro twin-fronted indie pop rising stars Lucius, and the who’s who of jam veterans currently on the road (Umphrey’s McGee, Robert Randolph, Bob Weir, Tedeschi Trucks Band).
As with every year, Mountain Jam is most of all the premier festival for Gov’t Mule to shine. The fest was founded in 2005 by WDST/Radio Woodstock and Mule frontman Warren Haynes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the station. As its line-ups grew in both size and variety in the decade since, Gov’t Mule has been the only band to play all ten festivals. This year’s schedule is its most diverse yet and even includes hula hoop workshops, a songwriting master class and a lecture arguing the Allman Brothers are the greatest American rock band.
Can’t make it? No worries. Two separate webcasts will be capturing the jams: Tourpedo and TourGigs. Here’s the schedule for sets webcasting on both:
Thursday, June 5th
- 8:00pm – Dark Star Orchestra – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 10:30pm – Umphrey’s McGee – Tourpedo and TourGigs
Friday, June 6th
- 12:45pm – Antibalas – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 2:30pm – Robert Randolph & The Family Band – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 4:15pm – Trampled By Turtles – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 6:15pm- The Avett Brothers – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 9:00pm – Bob Weir & RatDog – Tourpedo and TourGigs
Saturday, June 7th
- 12:45pm – Blitzen Trapper – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 2:30pm – Jeff Tweedy – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 4:30pm – Damian Marley – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 6:45pm – Tedeschi Trucks Band – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 8:45pm – Gov’t Mule – Tourpedo and TourGigs
Sunday, June 8th
- 12:45pm – Anders Osborne – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 2:30pm – Chris Robinson Brotherhood – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 4:30pm – Michael Franti & Spearhead – Tourpedo and TourGigs
- 7:00pm- The Allman Brothers – Tourpedo and TourGigs
Additionally Tourpedo will be webcasting these sets (that are not scheduled by TourGigs):
Friday, June 6th
- 12:00pm Elijah and the Moon – Tourpedo
- 1:45pm The Dough Rollers – Tourpedo
- 3:30pm Weeks – Tourpedo
- 5:30pm Reignwolf – Tourpedo
- 7:45pm Moon Taxi – Tourpedo
Saturday, June 7th
- 12:00pm Conor Kennedy – Tourpedo
- 1:45pm Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds – Tourpedo
- 3:45pm Jonathan Wilson – Tourpedo
- 6:00pm Valerie June – Tourpedo
Sunday, June 8th
- 12:00pm Sean Rowe – Tourpedo
- 1:45pm Treetop Flyers – Tourpedo
- 3:45pm Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger – Tourpedo
- 6:00pm Lucius – Tourpedo
*all times EST
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UPDATE – TourGigs also webcasting X Games Music Fest
This weekend is a busy one for music fest fans. While the 10th annual Mountain Jam is taking over Hunter Mountain in upstate New York, Governors Ball returns to New York City and freaks are gathering in Arkansas mud for Wakarusa. Then there’s Austin’s X Games – an extreme sports competition held annually since 1995 that also hosts a companion music fest. This year Pretty Lights headline X Games on Friday, Kanye West tops the bill Saturday and The Flaming Lips close the festival on Sunday. TourGigs will live stream the following X Games performances:
Saturday, June 7th
- 3:00pm – Wavves
- 6:00pm- Bad Religion
- 11:00pm – Mac Miller
Sunday, June 8th
- 3:30pm – Mayor Hawthorne
- 7:00pm – Gary Clark Jr.
- 8:45pm – The Flaming Lips
All of the above TourGigs webcasts will also be streamed on myspace.com/xgames. Additionally catch these sets on Friday at MySpace: Slightly Stoopid (6:30pm), Dillon Francis (11:00pm) and Pretty Lights (12:15 am).
*all times EST
The Future Heart 
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