12 bands take the stage for Cherry Blossom Music Festival

The Cherry Blossom Festival is trying something new with its music festival this year. The event now will be held at one venue and features mostly country bands from around the South. Crazy Bull will host 12 bands Saturday beginning at 5 p.m. and lasting until 2 a.m. Sunday.

"The line-up's great. I think it's fantastic," said festival president and CEO Jake Ferro. "Overall, the reaction has been very positive."

After 2013, the music festival transitioned from being an outdoor street party to an indoor pub-crawl-style event to avoid being at the whim of the weather.

"Invariably the weather plays a serious role," Ferro said. "If it rains, the whole venue is washed out. And there is a whole lot of money spent on an outdoor event."

Ferro said Crazy Bull is large enough to accommodate the performances, but that the venue's country-loving clientele limits the types of music performed at the music festival.

"The place is so large, it's like four or five venues in one," Ferro said. "But one of the great benefits of having more venues is that then you can bring in different genres, you can bring in different music."

Most the bands performing this year are well-known local artists.

Middle Georgia native Travis Denning will be headlining the festival. Denning is a Bragg Jam favorite, and his sets often include country and blues cover songs as well as some originals. This is Denning's second performance on his summer tour, which began in Nashville and includes six stops in Georgia. Though Denning's decade of playing and writing country music has taken him away from his home state, he remains loyal. In an interview with "Tennessee Life," the die-hard Georgia Bulldogs fan said if he could sing with anyone, it'd be local musician and rhythm and blues legend Otis Redding.

Tyler Hammond Band, a country group from Milledgeville, also will be performing. The band has been busy touring the South and parts of Missouri and Illinois after its "Bring on the Crazy" EP was released in February 2015.

Bringing more blues than country, Big Mike & the Booty Papas was founded in Macon in 1995 and has since earned international fame. Their debut, self-titled album breathed new life into the genre and garnered two Grammy nominations for Best New Blues Artist and Best Contemporary Blues Album. Since then, the band has had songs played on Food Network and the Learning Channel.

Other acts include Amanda Daughtry, Shane Bridges, 8 Second Ride, Kaleigh Courson, Molly & Me, Jared Ashley and Marty Evans.

Ferro said that music offered throughout the Cherry Blossom Festival's 10-day run is diverse to accommodate different audiences and also said that next year the music festival's format may return to include multiple venues.

"I'm hoping somebody in the community who wants to bring in a different kind of music, whatever the case may be, jazz or whatever, will come forward," Ferro said. "We'll advertise a lot better this coming year to find folks who might be interested in the music fest so we can have more like four or five different venues verses the one with one genre. Right now, it's too late to do anything. We've got to move forward with what we have."

Cherry Blossom Music Festival

When: 5 p.m. April 2 until 2 a.m. April 3

Where: Crazy Bull, 473 2nd St.

Cost: $15, ages 18 and older

Information: www.cherryblossom.com

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 5:14 PM with the headline "12 bands take the stage for Cherry Blossom Music Festival ."