TheBlueIndian.com will be heading down to Florida again very soon to cover Bear Creek 2011. Bear Creek is a four day festival taking place at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park (Wannee, MagFest, SpringFest) featuring some of the best jazz, blues, indie, jam and electronic music in the country. This all goes down November 9th – 13th. Make it happen!

Earlier this year our site covered AthFest, Athens, Georgia’s annual showcase, held every year in June. The event draws bands from around the city, along with select touring acts, together for 3 days of music, art, film and more. Each year has been better than the last  as the promoters have made it a point to select the best up-and-coming acts, reunited incantations of past Athens alum and the bands that are putting the city on the map year after year.

The two other writers and I decided that we should probably split up and comb the city’s venues and stages and then report to each other what bands would spark each others interests. I decided to go to the 40 Watt for local prog-faves Man Ray & Cinemechanic, while Ben went to Little Kings. Nearly half way through Man Ray’s set he texted me “You need to come over to Little Kings right now for this band.. Hurry up”. When I made it out of the venue and to Little Kings, the venue was full but they had opened all the windows so people on the street could stick their heads in.

Watching Besty Franck & The Bareknuckle Band quickly became something almost spiritual. Their set was a warm reminder that somewhere in between the hustle and bustle of this festival, it was possible to have an entire venue attentive to  the artists on stage and maintain the intimate feel of a club show.

She and her band had the audience captured long before I made my way there. The audience, a mix of long time fans and obvious first timers, were treated to 45 minutes of blues-folk-americana mixed with “that Athens sound”. I was completely impressed with the environment they were able to create in the amount of time they had. As their set wound down and some of the crowd filed out, the entire band was found mingling around talking and drinking with the crowd and then hung out for Hope For aGoldenSummer’s set. When i met back up with Ben, we were both under the same conclusion; these guys are doing exactly what they want to be doing and it’s going to pay off.

BETSY FRANCK & THE BAREKNUCKLE BAND will be performing at Bear Creek 2011 on Friday, November 11th at the Campground Stage from 2:00pm – 3:30pm. There’s bound to be plenty of late night action at Bear Creek but make sure you take the time to stop by and see these guys.