This weekend, the streets of Athens will come alive with music for AthFest, a three-day celebration of music and art. And just days before the festival starts, the sounds are being slowly pieced together everywhere from studios to bedrooms across the city.
Amandagrace Schiano is an AthFest performer who goes by the artist name Clover County. Originally from Birmingham and a first time AthFest performer, the singer-songwriter has quickly established herself in Athens, even pulling from a storied neighborhood in her song “Glass and Gold”.
“I think it’s cool so I love when people perk up when they hear Normaltown— like what? Did you just name drop my city?”
Schiano originally became involved in the production side of the Athens music scene through her internship at Tweed Recording in downtown Athens. Now she finds herself alongside with the artists she’s worked with this upcoming Saturday on the main stage.
“My hands have been on their projects and I look up to them and I’m like ‘one day I would love to be at this level.’ To be able to play just a couple of sets before them— super special”
Although Clover County is just a solo artist at this point, she’s found a rich music community that she supports and is supported by. She’s playing AthFest alongside Wim Tapley on bass and Cannon Rogers on steel guitar, who are both performing their own AthFest sets themselves.
“You're like overwhelmed by how many talented people there are in this town that are just your buds.”
The sense of community between performers is echoed in another group across town from AthFest second year performers Cam and His Dam Jam Band. The four bandmates have been playing together for years now, but they are also lending their talents to other AthFest sets.
“I’ve got 5 AthFest sets I’m playing this weekend,” says bassist Garrett Gray. Even though he has a full weekend ahead of him, his top priority seems to be this Jam Band set.
The funky, psychedelic rock group made their outdoor stage debut last year, a performance that lead vocalist and guitarist Cam Norton feels can ignite the band’s performance for this year.
“I just remember feeling like we were on fire and filling up that tent. Because we started and there were like 50 people in the tent and by the end of our set, there were like 300 deep,” says Norton. “Of course, with any band, we’ve been practicing for a year, so we’re a year better… We’re going to take the energy we had last year and the ‘let’s absolutely grab this opportunity’ feeling that we had and just run with it again.”
The band will perform on Friday night at LiveWire as a part of the AthFest Club Crawl. Although the outdoor shows throughout the weekend are still free, attendees can purchase a wristband ahead of time to attend all of the night shows across eight Athens venues and skip door covers.
“If you like Jam Band music, you’re going to be absolutely slapped in the face with it for about four hours,” says Gray.
When people think of music in Athens, it’s easy to look to the past— The B-52’s, R.E.M. Decades later, Cam and His Dam Jam Band believe that Athens still creates the perfect conditions to grow a band and nurture it.
“There’s an audience here that’s just hungry for music— they want to go, they want to dance, they want to party and they want to have a good time,” says Norton. “Athens is a great place to incubate a band— you can get really good here, you can get a following here, you can understand what it is to be a live band in a town and get people to really know who you are. Then once you are past that point, that’s when you can branch out.”
AC-DC— a band that has yet to play AthFest— once said “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll,” but for Gray and Norton, the journey to the AthFest stage is one worth making — and one being made in good company.
