Greetings. We’re very proud and thankful that the great people at Maximum Ames have asked us again this year to host two showcases during their festival. We did this last year, and they were both a lot of fun and we got to have a lot of eyeballs on our artists, which of course makes us very happy indeed. We’ve got some great musicians huddling here under our little umbrella.
Not only do we get to have the showcases, they let us host one of the headliners, Dressy Bessy, who’ve toured the world by themselves and with a bunch of the Elephant 6 bands and are fantastic at making power pop. We could not be more thrilled, and Dressy Bessy is a great fit for what we do, even though what we do is all over the place…
Seriously, our second showcase has melodic folk rising superstar Jess DeWitt & Co. along with the brutality of Twin Peaks themed and super heavy Black Lodge/White Lodge. Among other things.
One of things that’s important to us at Nova Labs is the idea of inclusion. We do this musically, of course – you can take a look at our catalog and that’s very clear, but we also think it’s important on a personal level.
Maximum Ames feels this way, too, which is why the main headliner of the fest this year is Lavender Country, the first known openly gay country band. They also have Baby Dee, a transgender performance artist, and have, from their very inception, focused on the idea of inclusion, and that all are welcome at their shows, and that their shows are safe places.
That’s important.
In this day and age, there is a sentiment of “us vs. them” and exclusion that is burbling around out there, and, to put it flatly, that sucks. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re male or female, black or white, gay or straight, or what your beliefs are. We can disagree all we want on anything, and we should still be human beings capable of love and empathy that can still get along and have discourse about these things. We should be able to make and enjoy music together, and not worry about being stereotyped and pigeonholed and treated differently as a result. The laws are in place for this to exist already, so the least we can do is enjoy it.
And treating people fairly is a lot more rewarding than trying to make others feel bad for how they are. We should celebrate each other for how we are. And, honestly, if something seems weird to you, doesn’t that mean it’s at least interesting? The world should be more interesting.
We’re looking forward to celebrating this music fest, and making music, and making many more albums, for and with EVERYONE. We hope you’ll join us.