July 19th and 20th, 2024 Elko County Fairgrounds

Friday July 19th

Yelawolf, born Michael Wayne Atha in Gadsden, AL, made his major label debut with Eminem’s Shady Records (Interscope) in 2011 after building a rabid fanbase that caught the attention of critics and label execs alike. The rapper, songwriter, performer and entrepreneur has released new music relentlessly and travelled around the world performing sold out shows across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. His first five full-length albums and various side projects have featured collaborations with a wide variety of top artists including Eminem, Ed Sheeran, Travis Barker, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gucci Mane, Kendrick Lamar, Diplo, A$AP Rocky, 3.6 Mafia, Big Boi, Wynonna Judd, among others. With his faithful and ever-expanding following, Yelawolf has cultivated a global community with his lifestyle brand Slumerican. His sixth studio album Ghetto Cowboy was released via his own imprint, Slumerican Records and has included extensive touring in both the US and internationally in its support. Yelawolf released 4 projects in April, 2021 leading up to his full-length studio album titled "MudMouth" on April 30th, 2021, followed by a rock n roll album titled "Sometimes Y" which was released March 11th, 2022. Yelawolf is set to release a double album titled War Story in March 2024.

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A crown is earned, not given, and with two Gold Certified singles, twelve albums, and countless tours around the nation, Rittz has claimed his right to “put a crown on it”. Traversing the ever-changing landscape of independent hip hop, Rittz’s career boasts a legacy that includes a spot amongst Tech N9ne’s Strange Music alumni. The endeavor produced four Billboard-charting albums and a touring regiment that he carries to this day. In that period of time, Rittz broke through to the worldwide spotlight with an appearance in the highly-coveted BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher. Following his departure from the label, the Gwinnett County native embraced the undertaking of a fully independent career with the creation of his own imprint, CNT Records. The long-awaited solo venture gave way to seven releases under the CNT banner, and saw Rittz return to the Billboard charts in 2019 with the full-length album, Put A Crown On It. Influenced by his admiration for down-south production and laid-back melodies, 2023’s MellowLOvationMusic found Rittz adding to the essence that has enveloped his music for years. The album was supported by its lead single, “Who” featuring Project Pat, and a 46-city national tour. In a testament to Rittz’s ability to elevate himself among the best in hip hop, he soon found himself with two RIAA Gold Certified singles: “Switch Lanes” featuring Mike Posner, and “In My Zone” featuring Mike Posner and B.o.B. “Since I was a kid, having a gold plaque on the wall has been a goal of mine. Now I have one. The fans, who have supported me and my music, made my dreams come true!”, exclaims Rittz. The accomplishment that eludes so many artists validates a career built on perseverance and a dedication to the craft of lyricism. Without a breath to waste, Rittz’s aptly named Back For More Tour looks to keep the emcee in the conversation of an ever-evolving industry. For most, it’s enough to put an exclamation point on things - for Rittz, it’s only right to put a crown on it.

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Saturday July 20th

“Fueled by ripping riffs, heavy beats, and Jonny Hawkins’ powerful pipes.” – Loudwire

Passionate audiences count NOTHING MORE among the most cherished acts, the kind of band who straddle the line between populism and intimacy with every performance. The San Antonio, Texas-born quartet builds unapologetically massive anthems from catchy hooks. Crowd-pleasers clear a path for heady, confessional, thought-provoking emotionalism. Fresh rewards reveal themselves with repeat listens, welcoming like-minded seekers with rich melodicism, like Tool, Deftones, or Thrice.

Those who saw the band on tour with hard rock heavyweights like Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch, Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach, and Disturbed will attest to what The Guardian observed: “There’s a sophistication to NOTHING MORE’s angst that raises them above the tumult-tossed pit.”

Kerrang! named NOTHING MORE one of 22 Artists Shaping the Future of Rock, alongside Nine Inch Nails, Twenty One Pilots, and Bring Me The Horizon. And frontman Jonny Hawkins, who met guitarist Mark Vollelunga before they were old enough to drive, appeared with Billie Joe Armstrong, Dave Grohl, and Hayley Williams in the English tastemaker’s Top 50 Greatest Rockstars in the World.

“A real rock star should be someone who is a leader of culture through music,” Hawkins thoughtfully demurred when bestowed with the honor. “They steer the world in some direction. They can shift people to think in a different way. For a long while now, there has been a void of bands of substance. Now people are coming out of hibernation. They want something philosophically minded.”

The band’s blend of explosive bombast and nuanced storytelling resulted in a half dozen Top 10 singles at Mainstream Rock Radio, including the No. 1 hit “Go to War” and the Active Rock chart-topper “This is the Time (Ballast).” 2017’s The Stories We Tell Ourselves resulted in a head-turning three Grammy Award nominations, generated by a groundswell of support from authentic fandom.

SPIRITS, the fourth NOTHING MORE album since their 2014 self-titled breakthrough and seventh overall, is both a mission statement and journal entry. Spirits documents a tumultuous time with an empowering contextualization and the band’s most focused, adventurous, and intense music thus far.

“The natural path for most bands in our genre is to go from heavy to a little less heavy to a little poppy, to start aiming for the mainstream,” Hawkins notes. “We went the other direction. We definitely have tracks that are a little more accessible, but the bulk of Spirits is heavier and darker.”

Songs like “Best Times,” “One Way Street,” “Tired of Winning,” “Turn It Up Like,” and the title track capture the desperation and isolation of lockdown; the spiral of substance abuse; the pain of broken relationships; and survival in self-reliance. Alternately philosophical and primal Spirits is a triumph.

“This album gives our fans a lot to chew on,” Hawkins promises. “It’s what they like, times ten.”

In a glowing 2019 profile, Forbesnoted that NOTHING MORE’s “deeper, more introspective lyrics” were part of the band’s “unconventional path to rock stardom.” Hawkins and Vollelunga started the band in 2003, eventually joined by bassist Daniel Oliver and later drummer Ben Anderson.

Self-financed releases, dues-paying club shows, and a battle of the bands victory that lead to a few dates on the 2007 Vans Warped Tour allowed them the space to forge a unique identity, onstage and in the studio. Originally the band’s drummer, Hawkins switched to singing before 2009’s The Few Not Fleeting. (That album’s raucous “Salem (Burn The Witch)” remained a live staple.) Buzzed about performances at significant festivals helped earn the attention of Better Noise Music, who reissued 2013’s self-titled Nothing More in 2014.

Before long, the band who fought so hard for a place at the table heard themselves on the radio with songs like “Mr. MTV,” “Jenny,” and “Here’s to Heartache”; and toured arenas with huge rock acts. Eventually, Nothing More’s first-ever radio single, “This Is The Time (Ballast)” would go on to be the #1 song of the decade on Sirius XM Octane.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves blew down the doors. Grammy Award nominations for Best Rock Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Song (for “Go to War”) followed. Fans played “Go to War” 60 million times across streaming platforms. Loudwire put The Stories We Tell Ourselves at No. 2 on their Best Hard Rock Albums of 2017. NOTHING MORE performed at Loudwire’s inaugural award show, paying tribute to the late Chris Cornell and reshaped the Skrillex song “First of the Year” with their self-made, 14 foot tall Scorpion Tail Midi controller.

Spirits benefitted from NOTHING MORE’s instrumental experimentation, as well. Vollelunga taught himself to play the ukulele during the pandemic shutdown. There are also eight-string guitars.

“It’s so easy to be stressed out from everything in the world and freak out wondering about the future,” Vollelunga says. “I was definitely depressed and sad from the isolation during the shutdown. It’s important to realize that we are not our problems. I am not my pain. I can get through this.”

In “One Way Street,” Hawkins sings, “I hope you see only you can make you better.” It works as both an admonishment of loved ones who can’t seem to get out of their own way and encouragement always to do better, to own our mistakes, and never to stop evolving. In a way, it’s an excellent summary of the overall story and mission, of NOTHING MORE. Reflect, Provoke, Inspire.

NOTHING MORE appeals to fans of Linkin Park, Incubus, Rage Against The Machine, and any crucial act that wrings relatable passion with authenticity and integrity. Memorize the arena-ready hooks. Get mesmerized by the intimate, communal live show. Dig deeper down the rabbit hole into the work of philosophers and artists like Eckhart Tolle, Carl Jung, and Alan Watts, who inspire the band. There’s a place for every type of rock fan with NOTHING MORE. Built to last, here to stay.

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Growth transpires over a lifetime. The process never stops. Rather, it ramps up as time passes. 10 Years accelerate this cycle on their ninth full-length album, Violent Allies [Mascot Records / Mascot Label Group]. The gold-certified Knoxville, TN alternative hard rock trio — Jesse Hasek [vocals], Brian Vodinh [guitar (live) /drums, bass, backing vocals (recording), and Matt Wantland [guitar / synth programming] — progress as a unit once more. Embracing heightened vulnerability, elevated songcraft, and sonic adventurousness, they convert the push-and-pull of their collective creativity into a cohesive, clear, and cathartic body of work.

"We don't ever try to recreate what we've done in the past," explains Jesse. "We knew we had to challenge ourselves to see what we had in us. If it's not stressful, you're not challenging yourself to grow. From the beginning, music has always been therapy and an outlet. We let ourselves enjoy the process, be vulnerable, and talk about those emotions. We got back to why we love music with the maturity of where we're at in our lives. We were able to harness that love of creating from a wiser and more developed perspective."

"We were hard on ourselves," admits Brian. "It was more intense than during records past, but it was worth it. The outcome was exactly what we wanted it to be."

For nearly two decades, 10 Years have quietly pushed themselves and modern rock towards evolution. Building a formidable catalog, the group's gold-selling 2005 breakthrough The Autumn Effect yielded the hit "Wasteland," which went gold, infiltrated the Billboard Hot 100, and clinched #1 at Active Rock Radio and #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart. They landed three Top 30 entries on the Billboard Top 200 with Division [2008], Feeding the Wolves [2010], and Minus the Machine [2012]. Most recently, 2017's (How to Live) As Ghosts marked a reunion between Jesse, Brian, and Matt and achieved marked success. Not only did the album bow in the Top 5 of the US Top Hard Rock Albums Chart, but it also yielded the hit "Novacaine." The single ascended to the Top 5 of the Billboard US Mainstream Rock Songs Chart and tallied 16 million Spotify streams, alongside 29 million streams across all dsp's. The cumulative total for all track streams from repertoire on How To Live (As Ghosts) exceeds 51 million plays. Along the way, they sold out countless headline shows and toured with everyone from Korn, Deftones, and Stone Sour to Chris Cornell and Linkin Park. During 2019, these three musicians headed to Los Angeles, rented an Airbnb in Woodland Hills, and spent five weeks recording with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer and Feeding the Wolves collaborator Howard Benson [My Chemical Romance, Halestorm, Papa Roach, Three Days Grace].

When talking to the band members they share, "Time spent in the studio or simply collaborating on our vision was a catalyst in reaching creative clarity like we've never had before. It reminded all three of us that this bond created over the last two decades is best served when individual voices becomes collective vision. It was fun, because we were back to being brothers. No matter how frustrated we might get, once we looked out at it, the energy was unexplainable. Our mission was to really connect with the songs, break them down, and build them back up." Brian adds, "The younger versions of us would've been going to Hollywood every night and partying. It was different. We actually came up with a lot of ideas, melody tweaks, and had really good brainstorming sessions in the car on the PCH. The whole vibe contributed to what the record is.

All we cared about was writing and recording the best songs we possibly could. We felt like we had something to prove, especially to our A&R guy and the President of North America for Mascot Ron Burman."

They prove it on cuts like the first single "The Shift." Melodic guitars slide across a caustic beat before a rush of distortion ignites the refrain, "We are a violent virus, without a remedy." "Lyrically, it's about the polarization of society and the human impact on the earth itself," states Brian. "We were thinking about how humans can be a virus to the Earth."

"While in the studio last fall, we were looking at the state of the world as we wrote 'The Shift,'" Jesse reveals. "As a society, we're so distracted that we're not united. When the pandemic happened, it became so important to finally see the positivity of humanity. We've realized we're all in this together. You can pick a side, but we're sitting in the same realm." Airy keys echo through "The Unknown." It builds towards a sweeping celestial chorus. "We're in a wide-open world we've created, but we have to step back and look at where we are and adapt," continues Jesse. "We're all in the unknown right now."

A clean riff snakes past the verses of "Without You" before a hypnotic hook unfurls. The instrumental "Planets" interludes thread the album together with soft piano and acoustic as a counterpoint to the explosive energy of "Cut The Cord" and "Start Again." There is a broad, dynamic range of repertoire on the new album as exhibited by the lead single "The Unknown"' and its opening with ominous yet hopeful piano notes alongside Jesse's lamenting uncertain times in the vocals, to the heavy drums and distorted guitars on "Déjà vu." Everything culminates on "Say Goodbye." The conclusion's cinematic soundscape and poignant lyrics bid farewell to Jesse's late grandfather and emphasize "the band at our most vulnerable," according to the frontman.

Meanwhile, the title speaks to an overarching theme. "We came back to this quote, 'There's a strange power in the joining of unlike things,'" remembers Brian. "There is something incredibly special about how we create. Violent Allies is the perfect way to summarize it. We go through hell facing all challenges head-on, but the final product is worth it. Simultaneously, it reflects the state of divisiveness in The World. Everything is so political. Everyone is angry at each other. We're better when we come together though."

In the end, 10 Years keep growing as Violent Allies. "This record wasn't just another record," Brian leaves off. "It's the result of working hard to improve on all levels. There's a lot to dig into. It's a graduated state for the band."

"After all of this time, 10 Years is a brotherhood," Jesse concludes. "I've spent the better half of my life accomplishing what I never thought was possible with these guys. It's been an unexplainable, crazy, and awesome journey since Brian first asked me to join the band on his 19th birthday. We've beat the odds and continue to live life. It bothers me when people don't try to push themselves to enjoy what life has to offer. Life is beautiful, if you really go for it and try. It can show you beauty — and that's what this band has shown me."

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