CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman is truly a town that embraces the arts, and the music scene here is vast, consisting of a well-connected group of artists and assisting music venues that need support from the community to continue to create spaces for creative and real expressions of local musical talent.
Shane Quick, president of touring company Premier Productions promotes concerts and “events that move the soul.” In Cullman, Quick says Premier will “traditionally do a couple Christian events a year whether it be over at Daystar or Desperation or Northbrook. We’ve been bringing Christian concerts through here for 20 years.” Shane says the company will have some concerts at the churches this year, but the date has not been set.
Shane Quick is also the co-creator of Rock the South, one of the largest country music festivals in the Southeast, which will be returning in August 5-6, 2022. Premier typically books nationally known artists to do countrywide tours, but Shane says he would love to see an increase in live local music.
Some of the places in Cullman that are open to hosting local bands are Berkeley Bob’s coffee house, Valley Tavern and Grille, Dreher’s, The Stash House, Moe’s BBQ and Goat Island Brewing.
Valley Tavern and Grille recently hosted Don’t Think Twice, Jesse Priest and Brittany Wilson. Andrew Cofield of Valley Tavern said that the members of the band Don’t Think Twice first met at their establishment. The grill hosts a wide variety of live music including country and classic rock. Cofield says, “Those two are probably our most common, but we definitely have a variety.” He adds, the venue has music that is “poppy, very contemporary, dancing music, a lot of mashups.”
Goat Island Brewing offers a variety of live music as well. Ashley Burgess of Goat Island says they have “country, pop-rock, a little bit of everything.” They recently hosted 70’s inspired band Round 2, multi-generational music group Rally Stripe, the Valley Groove Band and new bands, Generation and Justin and Tab. For bands new to the venue Ashley says, “Typically if there are new bands or duos that want to come play at the brewery, we ask them to come to an open mic night kind of like an audition just so we can hear what they sound like and if they are unable to do that, then we ask them to send us videos.” The brewery has live music every Friday and Saturday.
In the past month, Berkeley Bob’s hosted bluegrass band Another Town and the Allen Watkins duo, an acoustic band with influences from bluegrass, folk, country, Celtic and classical music.
Dreher’s recently hosted soul singer Brez, and blues musician Stephen McCullough.
Justin and Tabitha Veal of band Justin and Tab recently performed at Goat Island Brewing. Justin said, “I go to Goat Island with Jesse Priest a lot on the open mic evenings and its great. Really good folks. I just have a good experience every time I go out there. Saturday night went over fantastically well. We had a lot of local support which is what Jesse, Daniel, Tabitha and myself, and some of the other guys around town are trying to do is really try to build a local affinity for the music scene around here.” Justin and Tab have been doing live shows for about a year and are working on their first album which will be released at the end of June.
The best way to support these local artists is to simply stop by one of these great venues and join the audience. Most local restaurants around Cullman post on their social media about upcoming events featuring live music. Moe’s BBQ regularly holds live music on Friday nights. The Stash House holds open mic nights on Thursdays and booked performances on Fridays and Saturdays.
To continue supporting the local music scene, follow these venues on social media to stay in the know of times and dates of when these artists will be holding their next show.
Goat Island Brewery – https://www.facebook.com/goatislandbrewing
Berkeley Bob’s Coffee House – https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybobs
Valley Tavern and Grille – https://www.facebook.com/ValleyTavernandGrille
The Stash House – https://www.facebook.com/TheStashHouseAl
Dreher’s – https://www.facebook.com/dreherscullman
Moe’s Original BBQ – https://www.facebook.com/MoesOriginalBBQCullman
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