{"id":2628,"date":"2024-06-18T13:51:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T17:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/?p=2628"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:24:26","slug":"appalachian-masterclass-whizzbangers-ball-offered-everything-great-about-american-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/2024\/06\/18\/appalachian-masterclass-whizzbangers-ball-offered-everything-great-about-american-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Appalachian Masterclass: Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball Offered Everything Great About American Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Johnathan Edwards<\/a>
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Arrival and Setup<\/h3>\n

If there was ever a festival that could bring together so many heavy hitters in the current discourse of Appalachian music, better yet on the inaugural gathering, it would be Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball. Taking place on June 14th and 15th, 2024, the Summit Bechtel Reserve was home to 15 musical performances, 16 if you count Charlie Brown Superstar spinning two separate sets on Saturday, paired with lengthy lineups of both vendors and high-adventure outdoor recreational activities. Die-hard campers arrived on Thursday, a day before the festival officially began, to explore the Reserve’s natural beauty.<\/p>\n

As for us covering Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball on behalf of WMUL-FM, Emma Gallus and I arrived around noon on Friday, immediately met by oppressive humidity and blazing sun the second we stepped out of the car and set up camp. The camping grounds were plentiful, which was not surprising, considering that Summit Bechtel Reserve is primarily a Boy Scout camp. We took time after setting up our tents to talk to fellow festival attendees, asking who they were most excited to see perform and what other activities they were looking forward to participating in throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

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Joslyn & the Sweet Compression performing on day 1 of the Whizzbanger’s Ball | Photo credit WhizzbangBAM!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Friday Performances<\/h3>\n

After making the mile-long hike from Base Camp D all the way over to the stage area, the sunscreen was flowing and the performances began shortly after. From 4 P.M. until well past 11:30 P.M., five artists and their supporting bands graced the stage, each given approximately 60-minute timeslots to showcase their talents. Friday night headliner Arlo McKinley, a WhizzBang Records success story, commanded the stage with his biggest hits and fan requests against the beautiful Summit backdrop. McKinley was clearly an exception to the time slots. Talent-abundant performances from the likes of Joslyn & The Sweet Compression, Abby Hamilton, Tommy Prine, and Of The Dell rounded out Friday\u2019s musical lineup. A thirty-minute intermission broke up each performance, and the crews followed this schedule rather religiously, which was another great testament to the work being poured into making Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball the success that it was.<\/p>\n

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El Dorodo performing on day 2 of the Whizzbanger’s Ball | Photo credit WhizzbangBAM!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Saturday Showcase<\/h3>\n

The format changed a bit on Saturday, with double the number of artists compared to Friday. This meant that the music started at 2 P.M. and went until midnight. Shorter set times were in effect until the late evening, but the intermissions remained. Local talent was prominent on Saturday, even more so than Friday, best exemplified by the three sets featuring Rod Elkins, Craig Burletic, and James Barker. This trio started the afternoon by backing up Brad Goodall, made up three-fourths of El Dorodo\u2019s lineup, and headlined the weekend by being three of the key members in Tyler Childers\u2019 feverish backing band, better known as The Food Stamps. With Elkins being a Huntington native that currently resides in Ashland, Kentucky, Burletic hailing from Milton, West Virginia, and Barker also being a resident of Cabell County, these guys sure are making the region proud.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Tyler Childers performing on day 2 of the Whizzbanger’s Ball | Photo credit WhizzbangBAM!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

The Main Event<\/h3>\n

The crowd grew immensely on Saturday, thanks mainly in part to the drawing power of hometown hero and modern country phenom, Tyler Childers. Childers and The Food Stamps blew the roof off of the place, which is not a surprise. However, it is worth noting that with a lineup like Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball had, you have to be a special breed to finish the weekend in such a manner\u2026 successfully. For 90 minutes, Tyler Childers and the boys took the rampant crowd on a journey through just a portion of his mammoth catalog, pulling off an 18-song setlist that left attendees floored and begging for more. Highlights from the set included a fiddle battle and full-band jam in the form of \u201cCluck Old Hen\u201d, an extended offering of \u201cHouse Fire\u201d, and a closing solo set that featured the pair of \u201cFollow You to Virgie\u201d and \u201cLady May\u201d, two of Childers\u2019 most heartfelt songs.<\/p>\n

Overall Impressions<\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t let this outpouring of appreciation for the closing set take away from how incredible the rest of Saturday\u2019s festivities were, with smashing sets from John R. Miller, Jeremy Short, the aforementioned El Dorodo, and honestly, every single artist that took the stage. There was not a dull moment, musically, across the entire weekend. I don\u2019t say this lightly, but the Appalachian region, heavily to the credit of WhizzBang Booking and Management, is in good hands when it comes to music. All that being said, we returned to Huntington on Sunday with a wonderful collection of memories, new interview content for WMUL-FM, and sun burns that Lucifer himself would probably gasp at the site of. A successful weekend, indeed. Stay tuned for more content from Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball on the station website!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can listen to the audio version of this post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Johnathan Edwards   Arrival and Setup If there was ever a festival that could bring together so many heavy hitters in the current discourse of Appalachian music, better yet on the inaugural gathering, it would be Whizzbanger\u2019s Ball. Taking place on June 14th and 15th, 2024, the Summit Bechtel Reserve was home to 15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":2649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[81,83,86,99,91,85,84,90,98,95,69,89,92,97,82,70,66,80,93,87,79,94,88,51,96],"class_list":["post-2628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-posts","tag-abby-hamilton","tag-arlo-mckinley","tag-brad-goodall","tag-brett-fuller","tag-buffalo-wabs-the-price-hill-hustle","tag-charlie-brown-superstar","tag-darrin-hacquard","tag-el-dorodo","tag-emma-gallus","tag-glen-jean","tag-huntington-wv","tag-jeremy-short","tag-john-r-miller","tag-johnathan-edwards","tag-joslyn-the-sweet-compression","tag-local-music","tag-of-the-dell","tag-tommy-prine","tag-tyler-childers","tag-wayne-graham","tag-whizzbangers","tag-whizzbangers-ball","tag-william-matheny","tag-wmul","tag-wv"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/files\/DSCN7173-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4732,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions\/4732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}