Pickathon Preview

Since I live so close to the Seattle Center, nothing will ever replace pre-AEG Bumbershoot as my ultimate family-friendly summer music festival. But since that festival doesn’t exist anymore, Pickathon is a close second.

The logistics are obviously a lot more complicated for a Seattle family, but there is a payoff in the resulting experience. And the lineup? While obviously not as huge, and with a genre bias skewed toward bluegrass and Americana, the lineup still comes close to Bumbershoot for its breadth and eclectic variety. Last night Pickathon announced their lineup for 2019.

Pickathon Past

Last summer was my first time at Pickathon. I went as a girls’ weekend with my daughters. That had its challenges, and we definitely came away from it with some lessons learned. But both my teenager and my third grader loved it as much as I did. We all came away with stories to tell and new favorite bands that have stayed on rotation in our house ever since. Whether we make it back this year has a lot to do with what our finances look like as summer approaches. (I’m doing a Very Expensive Thing this spring – more on that to come.) We already know the lineup will be great.

2019 Pickathon Lineup

• Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
• Khruangbin
• Mandolin Orange
• Nathaniel Rateliff
• Tyler Childers
• Lucius
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band
• Fruit Bats
• Mountain Man
• Caamp
• YOB
• Damien Jurado
• Lambchop
• Laura Veirs
• Julia Jacklin
• The Marías
• Miya Folick
• Sudan Archives
• Bonny Light Horseman
• Mdou Moctar
• Courtney Marie Andrews
• Lido Pimienta
• Cedric Burnside
• Town Mountain
• Jupiter & Okwess
• The Beths
• B Boys
• Our Girl
• JJUUJJUU
• Sneaks
• Young Jesus
• Sam Evian
• Black Belt Eagle Scout
• Flasher
• Mike and The Moonpies
• Nap Eyes
• Soft Kill
• H.C. McEntire
• Helena Deland
• The Cordovas
• Lauren Morrow
• Bodega
• David Nance Group
• The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
• Virginia Wing
• Garrett T Capps
• Martha Scanlan
• Gold Star
• Colton Turner
• Chill Moody & Donn T
• David Bragger & Susan Platz

First Impressions

I am stoked to see YOB, Damien Jurado, Fruit Bats, and Black Belt Eagle Scout on there. There is one name on the list that you literally couldn’t pay me to watch. But you can’t celebrate a festival for its variety without expecting them to include some things that aren’t to your taste.

I’ll be honest. I don’t recognize most of the rest of the names on that list. Usually I choose festivals based on the percentage of the lineup that I would go to the trouble of seeing if they came through town on tour during the rest of the year. But that approach discounts the value of festivals for music discovery. Last year, I think my festival highlights only included one band whose entire album I had heard before the festival (it was Phosphorescent).

It takes a little trust to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets when you don’t know all the music. But when you’ve had good experiences with a festival in the past, it’s not hard to trust their choices. I really hope I can make it to Pickathon this year. But I already know that I’m going to spend some time studying this line up. I have no doubt that among this list of unfamiliar artists, I will find some gems.

If you’re the research type like I am, there’s a Pickathon playlist over on Spotify to get you started.