- All Ages Show - Led by multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Cruz Contreras, The Black Lillies' award-winning blend of country, alt-rock, neo-folk and mountain music is a rollicking good time that has earned them critical acclaim and deep devotion from fans nationwide. Hip enough for Bonnaroo and South by Southwest audiences but with enough authentic Appalachian soul to be repeat performers on the stage of the legendary Grand Ole Opry, the Black Lillies' eclectic style offers a boatload of talent with a reputation on the rise. Join us on Tuesday, April 9th for the continuation of our popular Terrapin Tuesday series! James Justin & Co. know about life on the road. On Places, their 2012 follow-up to the Virginia-based trio’s groundbreaking Dark Country, they weave the tales of a year spent spreading their hopeful bluegrass-tinged sounds from Colorado to New York and across the South. “Places was already written on the first day we left for tour,” says songwriter James Justin Burke. “It took the last day of tour to finish the album, and realize that it was there all along.” A recent father, the geographically-based stories within Places continue JJ&Co’s tradition of hopeful optimism layered with stark reality. With a career highlighted by collaborations with Ben Bridwell and Sam Bush, as well as marquee performances at FloydFest and opening for Taj Mahal, JJ&Co always inspire audiences to smile and sing-along, from back-road juke joints to big city stages. more >>> After co-founding Robinella and the CCstringband with his wife, he spent nearly a decade traveling the road and making music from coast to coast. When his marriage – and the band – dissolved in 2007, he returned to the road … this time, as the driver of a truck for a stone company. It was here, over a year spent rolling down the highways of East Tennessee, that the songs and sounds that would form the nexus of The Black Lillies were conceived. And “Runaway Freeway Blues,” the band’s third studio album, was realized exactly there … on the road. When the Lillies weren’t playing their 200-odd gigs during 2012, they were in Wild Chorus Studio in their hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., working with Scott Minor of Sparklehorse to craft a beautiful ode to restless spirits and rambling hearts. Rooted in the mud-rutted switchbacks of Appalachia, “Runaway Freeway Blues” is the sound of a band that’s becoming something of a phenomenon across the country. Contreras and his bandmates – harmony vocalist Trisha Gene Brady, multi-instrumentalist Tom Pryor, bass player Robert Richards and drummer Jamie Cook – have grown from a few friends sitting around campfires and living rooms to a band that shows up in far-flung cities where folks to whom they’ve never played before already know the words to the songs. Eschewing record labels, they still managed to put a track from the last record (“Same Mistakes,” off of “100 Miles of Wreckage”) in Country Music Television’s top 12 requested videos for four months. (Its predecessor, “Two Hearts Down,” was a top-requested video on CMT for three months.) They’ve been featured on numerous television specials and conquered festivals as widespread as Bonnaroo, Pickathon, and CMA Fan Fair. Despite trafficking in a richer, more authentic brand of country and Americana than what gets played on mainstream country radio, they’ve still been invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry more than a dozen times – a record for an independent act. more >>>