Concert review: Drive-By Truckers, Shovels & Rope bring twang to Candler Park Music and Food Festival

Cary Ann Hearst, one half of Charleston, S.C. alt-country duo Shovels & Rope, fondly remembered playing the bar with J. Roddy Walston & The Business, the Richmond, Va. group who also played the Candler Park Fest, when they were just starting out years ago.

Hood shared his mournful song "The Living Bubba," about songwriter Gregory Dean Smalley, who helped start the annual Star Bar Americana music festival Bubbapalooza and who passed away in 1996.

And Star Bar stalwarts North Carolina's Southern Culture on the Skids gave a nod to the bar when they performed "8 Piece Box," their signature song during which they throw pieces of fried chicken into the audience.

Indeed, the Southern-fried rock bands that graced the one stage during the second day of Candler Park Fest (a welcome change of pace from the multiple stages at recent music festivals including Shaky Knees, Shaky Boots and CounterPoint) clearly had a soft spot in their hearts for Atlanta, and they delivered blistering sets to drive the point home, providing a festive soundtrack for the fest's party atmosphere that lasted through the sticky hot day and into the breezy, cooler evening.

Some highlights:

Southern Culture on the Skids: Is there a better time to be had during a live performance than with SCOTS, as they're affectionately known? The band -- consisting of singers Rick Miller and a beehive-haired Mary Huff, as well as drummer Dave Hartman -- has been delivering their surf rock-rockabilly hybrid since the early 1980s, but they still sound as fresh they did two decades ago. Their cheeky tunes on the subjects of barbecued pork, banana puddin', the size of the male anatomy and the aforementioned fried chicken were such fun that they nearly distracted from the punishing heat in the 3 p.m. hour.

J. Roddy Walston and the Business: Walston is one talented, genre-hopping guy. He -- along with the members of the Business, providing full-bodied accompaniment -- tore a page out of the Bob Marley songbook with the reggae-tinged "Take It As It Comes" and channeled Robert Plant on several tunes. He got philosophical at one point, telling the crowd they were all "particles of the universe who won the lottery" and encouraged everyone to "do something together" before launching into a singalong. It was a rollicking, soulful set that fit in perfectly with the roots-rock vibe of the afternoon.

Credit: Yvonne Zusel

Credit: Yvonne Zusel

Shovels & Rope: The husband-wife duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent returned to Atlanta for the fifth time in four years, and they've clearly developed quite a following. The pair always seem to create an intimacy around them, even in large festival settings. They shared percussion, guitar and singing duties on songs from their three albums including "Gasoline," on which Trent played a mean harmonica, and the foot-stomping "Stono River Blues." Seeing them in a smaller venue is always a treat, but watching them play to thousands underlines how big their sound is, even with just two people.

Drive-By Truckers: The Athens-based Truckers have experienced some lineup changes in the past few years, most notably with guitarist/songwriter Jason Isbell leaving the group in 2007, but founders Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley seem to have settled into a nice, comfortable groove. The pair switched off on vocals on songs including the rocker "Gravity's Gone", and some serious guitar mastery was on full display on the moody "Lookout Mountain." The group is a well-oiled machine, but they purposely leave some of their edges ragged, which is just the way the crowd likes them.