Woodyfest 2018: Randy Crouch, Johnny Irion, & John Fullbright

Randy Crouch

Randy Crouch, known as the World’s Best Rock ’n’ Roll Fiddler, [Sidenote: Wright, Leif M., “Greatness wears a big beard: World’s best rock fid­dle player also inspires,” (OK Weekend​.com 20 July 2007). Archived at the Internet Wayback Machine.] had an unbro­ken streak play­ing Woodyfest until 2014, when ill­ness pre­vented him attend­ing. The Oklahoma Music Awards Red Dirt Hall of Fame inductee lives in Tahlequah where he holds court over reg­u­lar jam sess­sions fea­tur­ing some of Oklahoma’s best folk, coun­try, and rock musi­cians and songwriters.

Crouch is a vir­tu­oso multi-instru­men­tal­ists. I once saw him play where he’s over a steel gui­tar and a piano while he’s play­ing fid­dle. In the mid­dle of the song, he wants to tune up the fid­dle, so he hits the A note on the piano with his fid­dle bow and tunes the string and keeps on playing. [Sidenote: Jim Blair, quoted in Ibid.]

Johnny Irion

Sometimes com­pared to Harry Nilsson because of his vocal tim­bre, folk-rocker Johnny Irion made his Woodyfest début in 2003. He’s been back five time since, often join­ing forces with Sarah Lee Guthrie, to whom he is also mar­ried. His songs evoke both California rock and Guthrie-esqe folk, prompt­ing Bernie Sanders to invite Irion to sing at a polit­i­cal rally in 2016. Irion released his most recent album, Driving Friend, two months before Woodyfest 2018.

John Fullbright

John Fullbright released his 2012 album, From the Ground Up, to crit­i­cal acclaim — gar­ner­ing praise from National Public Radio, American Songwriter, Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal. The album received a Grammy nom­i­na­tion for Best Americana Album, which went to Bonnie Raitt for her album Slipstream.

His star keeps ris­ing: in 2014 he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Stage as musi­cal guest for The Late Show with David Letterman. That same year Fullbright released a third crit­i­cally acclaimed album.

If you were lucky enough to hear the Okemah high-schooler try out his songs around the Woodyfest camp song-cir­cles a dozen-or-so years ago, you prob­a­bly knew Fullbright was some­thing spe­cial. But even he didn’t forsee his rapid ascent. I never came into this with a whole lot of expec­ta­tions. I just wanted to write really good songs, and with that out­look, every­thing else is a perk. The fact that we went to LA and played “Gawd Above” in front of a star-stud­ded audi­ence […], never in my life would I have imag­ined that. [Sidenote: “Who Is John Fullbright?” Press kit biog­ra­phy from john​full​bright​.com. Author and date unknown.]

We imag­ine greater things to come.