W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Green River Festival (Franklin County Fairgrounds June 19-21, 2026)

In what was initially a hot air balloon festival, The Green River Festival celebrated its 40th anniversary this past weekend up in Greenfield, MA at the Franklin County Fairgrounds.  With headlining acts like Charlie Crocket (Friday night), Spoon (Saturday night) and Geese (Sunday evening), the folks who produce this incredible event certainly served their history well by providing superb entertainment from top to bottom.  With such artists as Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, Lucinda Williams, Mavis Staples, Arlo Guthrie, Steve Earle, and more recent stars like The Avett Brothers, Deer Tick, Neko Case, Calexico, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, CAKE, Molly Tuttle, Fountains Of Wayne, Old Crow Medicine Show, Fleet Foxes, Waxahatchee, Mt. Joy, NRBQ and 10,000 Maniacs having graced the stages at Green River over the years it’s easy to see why so many fans come back year after year.

To me however, it’s not so much the amazing headliners which the folks, first from Signature Sounds and more recently from DSP Shows amass each year but the undercard acts which never seem to disappoint.  2026 managed to meet this tradition head on with a collection of artists on the small Back Porch Stage and the Dean’s Beans Stage which would make other promoters blush with envy.

All total, there were some 49 acts in attendance this past weekend (not including some of the children’s programming which is held in the indoor stage at The Round House.  I personally managed to catch at least part of some 31 of these artists.  Needless to say, it was a LOOONG weekend, one which has required a few days to recover from.

FRIDAY, DAY ONE:

My weekend would start over at The Back Porch (as it generally does every day) with the early set from She Returns From War, the nom du plume of Charleston, SC artist Hunter Park who describes their music as cosmic americana.  With a self-deprecating stage presence, She Returns From War’s set was a perfect way to start the Green River festivities off with.  I will spare you all from breaking down each of the artists I got to enjoy but instead mention a few of the highlights.  

Tre Burt, while hailing from Sacramento, CA does not come off as the prototypical laid back California singer songwriter.  His set of 7 songs was clearly steeped in the music, traditions and culture of the South East.  My particular favorite from his set was his reworking of “Know Your Demons” which he originally recorded as a BIG almost Phil Spector-esque wall of sound tune but instead at Green River worked it down to a slower, much more personal and introspective story song of self salvation.

There were numerous cover versions of songs throughout the weekend which both caught me off guard, first as complete surprises but also secondly by the way they actually worked despite the initial feeling of “hmmm, how are they going to pull this one off?”  Anyway the first of these surprise covers would be from Kashus Culpepper and his slide/pedal steel guitarist, Bridger Fruth who would pull off a monster rendition of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” that would have made Duane Allman proud.

Friday must have been planned as a sort of “war” day.  We’d already heard from She Returns From War earlier in the day and we would be treated to two more “war” related artists before the day was over.  First up would be Sunny War, currently from LA but originally born and raised in Nashville.  I’d first gotten to see Sunny War a few years back at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and she was fantastic.  While clearly extremely shy on stage, her command of her guitar (she’s an incredible finger picker) and her poignant lyricism made it obvious that Sydney Lyndella Ward, Sunny’s birth name would be an artist to keep an eye on.  Fast forward to Friday at Green River and although still exuding a shy personality, it was clear that Sunny War was much more comfortable on stage, offering up quite a bit of stage banter which filled in any spaces left from her beautiful songs like the brush strokes on a Picasso canvas.  In any event, their 12 song set was such a treat.  It’s always nice to see over the course of a few years the growth not only as an artist but also as a performer, and Sunny War exemplified both of these during their wonderful set.

The third piece of Friday’s “war” trilogy would be none other than The War and Treaty over on the main stage.  I’ve been quite aware of The War and Treaty for some time now but for whatever reasons had nevr had the opportunity to catch them live.  That drought is now over and let me tell you, I can only say out loud, “what took you so long”?  The husband and wife team of Michael and Tanya Trotter is a musical match made in heaven.  Their back and forth on stage, their clear and abundant affection for one another was 100% natural on stage and holy cow can they sing!  Their set was an R&B revelation.

Friday, Day One Complete Photo Slideshow:

SATURDAY, DAY TWO:

Going into Saturday, I knew that this was going to be a monster day.  There were just so many “must see” artists on tap that I had to wonder how and when I was going to make room (timewise) to enjoy some of the copious food and beverage options which were available.  I mean, with a 10 hour day of music you need to make time for nourishment at some point or you just flat out aren’t going to make it.  For what it’s worth I did make the time at some point to slog down a delicious bowl of sticky rice from Ting Ting Dumplings and a Green River NE IPA from nearby Amherst Brewing.

As far as music would be concerned, with such bands as The Beths (if you know me, you know that they are easily my favorite band of the last 5 or so years), Kurt Vile (unbeknownst to me prior to showtime, but with a special guest appearance from local guitar hero J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.) and Spoon playing at various times over on the main stage, the day would ultimately be all about the opening and closing sandwich over at the Back Porch which would make my day.  First up would be Lily Seabird a new-ish artist out of the burgeoning Burlington, VT music scene.  I’d heard great things about Seabird and her set was right at the top of my “can’t miss” list.  Despite my high expectations, I was in no way prepared for what was in store for me and the very solid crowd that managed to make it to her 12:15 opening slot.  Truth be told, those opening sets at many festivals are often played to a sparse crowd to say the least.    Much to the credit of Green River Festival and its fans, this was not at all the case for Seabird’s set.  With a voice that has been described to me as a bit squeaky,  Seabird comes across on stage like Courtney Love circa Live Through This if Love had been spawned as the love child of Syd Straw and Neil Young.  I kid you not, Lily’s music is tagged on her bandcamp as Rock, grunge, soft-grunge, folk rock, indie rock but after seeing her live, the idea of Grungicana suits her and her ferocious attack on song just perfectly.

Speaking of ferocious, this is exactly what the overflow crowd got for the closing set at The Back Porch Stage when Chicago’s Ratboys took the stage.  Sandwiched between The Beths and Spoon over on the main stage, I had initially feared that Ratboys’ set might be overlooked by many of the day’s fans.  Oh my, how wrong was I?   Julia Steiner and crew hit the stage promptly at 7:45 and immediately commenced at level 10 with a scorching version of “Open Up” the lead track to what just probably will be my #1 LP of 2026, Singin’ To An Empty Chair.  Of course starting a set off at such a high energy level runs the risk of a band not being able to sustain said level.  On Saturday night this wasn’t even close to being an issue for Ratboys, who with each additional song took things up an incremental notch.  This would be the 3rd time I’ve seen the band on this tour and I have to say that as good as they were the first two times, this go around was otherworldly in comparison.  I came away from their 14 song set saying out loud that Ratboys had just performed the set of the weekend and in hindsight I stand by that statement.  I’m sure that the vociferous fans of Geese and Wednesday the following day would probably argue differently but I’m going to stick by my guns and call Ratboys the clear winners of the weekend.

Saturday, Day Two Complete Photo Slideshow:

Sunday, Day Three:

After what we experienced on Saturday, it was obvious that Sunday’s performers had their work cut out for them.  Going into the day, Sunday was going to be fundamentally for me, a day at the main stage.  Sure, as things would turn out I would certainly get my fill of performers at both the Back Porch (Deloy Elze, Angela Autumn, Ken Pomeroy and J. Mascis) as well as the Dean’s Beans Stage (Nour Harkati, Thao and Big Freedia) but for all intents and purposes the Main Stage was going to be where things truly happened.  This was no better exemplified than when I walked up to the rail area of the main stage at 12:30 for Tyler Ballgame and the rail was already packed with fans adorning t-shirts emblazoned with a single word…Geese.  These fans would have a long wait before their beloved birds would take the stage but in the meantime they would be treated to some really really good tunes.

Alynda Segarra and Hurray For The Riff Raff would take to the stage at 1:45 PM and they would offer up a stellar show.  Segarra would be bold enough to start things off with an unknown new song which sounded great to these ears.  Six of the next 11 songs performed would be from the masterful 2024 LP The Past Is Still Alive but as fantastic as these songs were, it would be a cover which really brought the crowd alive.  This would be surprise cover number two for the weekend as Alynda pronounced to the crowd that they would probably recognize the next one and to feel free to scream along if we felt so inclined.  Well scream along we did as HFTR dove into Eric Bazilian’s classic by way of Joan Osborn’s 90’s hit single “One Of Us”.

It was after HFTR that I had some time to kill prior to Lucius’s set so it was as good a time as any to nail down the meal of the day.  I would go for The Big Sexy bowl from the Broccoli Bar.  A plethora of dumplings, sticky rice, broccoli tempura, pickled veggies and yum yum sauce, this bowl was off the charts delicious.  My one complaint was my eyes were WAYYY bigger than my stomach and I went for the large where as the small would have been plenty.  It’s all good though as my nephew polished off my leftovers. 

And before I knew it it was time for Lucius and their unannounced backup band Dawes.  I will admit that I’m more familiar with these ladies singing as accompaniment to other artists so I was quite curious how they would do as the main thing.  Foolish me, as Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig have the voices of angels and of course nailed it with their set.  That being said, they with the help of Taylor Goldschmidt of Dawes would provide the weekend’s third and final bingo card cover song.  Who would have thought that Lucius and Dawes would not only attempt but absolutely CRUSH Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”?  W.O.W.!!!

Wednesday would be next up on the main stage and Karly Hartzman and crew brought it.  I will be the first to admit that I’ve always found Karly’s Wednesday version of this band to be not quite as interesting as MJ Lenderman’s The Wind version.  (For those who are thinking WTF is he talking about?  Xandy Chelmis, Alan Miller, and Ethan Baechtold are all members of both bands and prior to their personal breakup both MJ and Karley also played with the other’s band as well).  But, in any event it’s truly wild what a different direction a band’s front person can take a group.  The Wind is quintessential stoner/slacker rock while Wednesday took the stage by storm, taking no prisoners with an onslaught of noise, distortion and rocket fueled angst.  Their set had the Geese people up front jumping and screaming like crazy people.  From start to finish, from the opening of “Reality TV Argument Bleeds” to the closing fragments of “Wasp”, Hartzman and the rest of Wednesday ripped like it was 1987 at a Sunday CBGB’s hardcore matinee.

Which brings me to the closing act for the weekend, Geese.  As I said earlier, the Geese fans were lining up at the rail right from the get go and by the time Geese took the stage at 7:30, the crowd was more than ready to unleash a torrent of aggression.  Cameron Winter and the rest of Geese in their understated yet forceful style took their fans exactly where they wanted to go. From the first under stated drum beats of opener, “Husbands” off of the blockbuster Getting Killed and once Winter commenced with his drone like recitation of the lines “when your husbands all die” over and over and every fan in the endless sea of people werenhanging on and singing along to every word from the enigmatic vocalist.  Full disclosure, I came into this set with extremely jaded eyes.  For the past year, since Getting Killed was released and with all of the astronomical buzz over the band circulating like Covid in March of

2020, I have tried to hear what all the fuss was about and I just didn’t get it.  Winter’s vocals were annoying to my ears and musically the band seemed rather mundane.  But seeing and hearing them take the stage, seeing Cameron take over the sea of emotions in the jam packed crowd, seeing the crowd itself hang on every durgie word uttered by WInter had me reconsider all of my preconceived notions of the band.  I immediately began to see that I might have been wrong all along.  Their 17 song set proved to be a monster roller coaster of energy, angst and emotion that was a masterclass in hitting all the right nerves of all of the Gen Z fans in the crowd.  I still don’t pretend to get “IT” but after seeing Geese control the Green River crowd with such aplomb I certainly have found a respect for the band.  As to the controversy over their being a “manufactured’ phenomenon, I personally don’t care.  They have taken the tools which are available to them and mastered the process of modern day music marketing.  While this process is light years different from what I grew up with in the 70’s and 80’s, and it may seem less organic than what was the norm in the 90’s and 00’s but regardless Geese has captured the eyes, ears and minds of this current generation and that speaks volumes as to what they are and what they have accomplished thus far as artists.

Sunday, Day Three Complete Photo Slideshow:

And so my 2026 Green River Festival came to an end.  I managed to experience over 30 bands over the course of 3 days and still I’m sure I still managed to miss some incredible artists.  One thing for certain I can not speak to, which is certainly a high point of GRF is the family and child entertainment available throughout the weekend.  As one can see from many of my crowd shots from the weekend, Green River is a very kid and family friendly festival and the programming offered is a driving force in that.

In closing, thank you to all organizers, promoters, vendors, food truck operators, volunteers and musicians who made Green River Fest 2026 such a resounding success.  See you all once again in 2027.