Beach and R&B favorites The Tams will headline top off acts for the 52nd Annual Grifton Shad Festival.
The group known for its platinum single “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” will perform starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, at the Grifton Depot leading up to the a 9 p.m. fireworks show.
The Tams toured with the late singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett during his 1999 “Beach House on the Moon Tour” and they recorded the song “Flesh and Bone” with Buffett. The festival’s theme this year, “Bubbles Up,” is in honor of Buffet, who died last year. “Bubbles Up” is a Buffet favorite.
The festival will be bubbles up with music all weekend, starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 19, with MOCO (Morgan and Company) followed by The Main Event Band from 8-11 p.m. at the Depot.
Morgan Hudson is originally from Grifton, and she her group formed the four-piece rock, rhythm and grooves band just a little over a year ago.
“We play covers and originals, we definitely like to make songs our own, and we are excited to perform at the upcoming Shad Festival in my hometown,” said Hudson. “I’m the lead vocalist and I play rhythm guitar, Ryan Griffin is lead guitarist, Kurt Hauser is our drummer, Brian Burke plays bass, but for this performance at the Shad Festival, we are using a special guest bassist named Josh Clark.”
Hudson said that because of their love of music that she, Griffin, Hauser and Burke are co-owners of a recording studio they started in downtown Greenville called Nash Studios. They are very immersed in the music community and grateful to be playing at the Shad festival this year, she said.
The Main Event Band’s performances include musical styles from the 80s and 90s and favorites of today from beach music, classic rock, soul, country, disco, funk and everything in-between.
Lead vocalist and lead guitarist Al Woodruff is the founder of the band, which began back in 1989. Jeremiah Miller plays saxophone, Scott Pagona plays trumpet, Ken Hardee plays keyboards, Dr. Willie Lockett plays bass guitar, Brian Luckey plays drums and Sharon Hyler is the newest to band on vocals.
Woodruff said that The Main Event Band performs 100 dates a year in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
“We enjoy what we do being a seven-piece band with horns, and male and female lead vocals,” said Woodruff. “We simply play a very wide variety of music that appeals to all ages, we enjoy making music for the masses, we’ve worked in eastern North Carolina quite a bit at almost all the festivals through the years, and we look forward to our performance in Grifton.”
Prior to the Tams show on April 20, Anthony Gonzales will perform a gospel show at Mattie’s Mini Park from from 2-6 p.m.; Lizzie and Friends will be performing from 2-4 p.m. at the Train Depot, and The Donald Thompson Band will open for the Tams from 6-7:30 p.m.
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